The International Space Station Ultrasound Imaging Capability Overview for Prospective Users

摘要

The feasibility of ultrasonic imaging in human space flight has been demonstrated on NASA and Russian spacecraft. Several ultrasound systems have been successfully operated by both physician and non-physician astronauts and cosmonauts in pre-International Space Station (ISS) space flights, yielding valuable scientific information. A multipurpose ultrasound system was adapted for space and installed aboard ISS to continue human research in microgravity environments at a new level of sophistication and fidelity. Alone or in combination with other components of the Human Research Facility (HRF), this system provides a research capability never before available in space. The system can operate in B, M, Color Doppler, Power Angiography, Flow Propagation, Pulsed Spectral Doppler, and Continuous Wave Doppler modes and their combinations. Thus, the HRF Ultrasound System allows the realization of the great scientific potential of ultrasound imaging in conditions of space flight, acquiring morphological/morphometric and physiological/functional information from virtually every area or organ system of the human body. This will now allow ultrasound to be used in space for medical risk mitigation and has driven the medical concept of operations to recognize and treat as many medical conditions as possible while on orbit, delaying or avoiding return to a definitive medical care facility.