Human Health and Performance Risks of Space Exploration Missions: Evidence Reviewed by the NASA Human Research Program

摘要

The Human Research Program (HRP), which is within the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, is a directed and applied research program that addresses agency needs for human health and performance risk mitigation strategies in support of space exploration as described in the Vision for Space Exploration, the U.S. National Space Policy, and the NASA Strategic Plan. These exploration undertakings include missions to the moon and Mars. Although all of them will involve some of the same human health and performance challenges, each mission also will include specific challenges that depend on the nature of the exact undertaking and the development schedule. Accordingly, HRP research and technology development are focused on the highest-priority risks to crew health and safety, with the goal of ensuring mission success and maintaining long-term crew health. Three core documents describe the HRP. The first is the Program Requirements Document (PRD), which defines, documents, and allocates high-level requirements to different organizational arms of the program; these requirements include responsibility for specific human system risks listed in the PRD. Previously, the Bioastronautics Roadmap documented the health and performance risks and areas of concerns of a wide cross-section of the professional space life sciences community, but it did not have the level of detail that is necessary to prioritize risks across physiological disciplines or to compare strategies for how to manage a given risk across mission operational architectures. The HRP 2009 PRD risk list thus identifies a narrowed and more operationally-focused series of risks.