Space Biomedicine: Who Can Travel to the Final Frontier?

摘要

In this issue of New Space, we are addressing one of the most frequently cited obstacles to space travel by human beings-the biomedical effects of launching into space and returning safely. So-called "g" forces experienced during launch and reentry can be many times what we experience here on Earth (1 g-the pull of gravity), and the effects of weightlessness can be highly varied. Some trained astronauts have had their careers in space shortened by "space sickness." One of the important areas of New Space research is to determine whether there are biomedical conditions that would disqualify prospective spaceflight participants-the current term of art for what others colloquially call "space tourists." Historically the astronaut corps has been a small subset of applicants-those humans successfully passing through extensive and rigorous physical and mental testing and training. The book and movie The Right Stuff documents the extremes that the original Mercury Seven astronauts endured to be America's first astronauts.