NASA’s vision for human space exploration includes missions of unprecedented duration and distances well beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). To protect the health, safety, and performance of crews aboard such missions, efficient, multi-system countermeasures, such as artificial gravity (AG), are likely to be required. The Bioastronautics Research Division (Code UB) has recently initiated a multi-center international project to begin systematically exploring the utility of AG as a multi-system countermeasure in ground-based venues using test subjects deconditioned by bed rest. The goal of this international project is to explore the efficacy of AG as a multi-system countermeasure to form a basis for future flight investigations that will define prescriptions for applying AG during long-duration space flight.

The present proposal (led by Dr. WIlliam Paloski at NASA JSC) is to perform a pilot study to establish a standardized protocol to be used by all centers involved in the international AG project. Subject selection criteria, medical monitoring requirements, medical care procedures, experiment control procedures, and standardized dependent measures are proposed. Specifications for a versatile, human-rated, short-radius centrifuge prototype are also proposed. The goals of the project are to:

1.   Validate the suitability of the proposed dependent measures, subjects, processes, equipment, and procedures for investigating the efficacy of intermittent AG, possibly augmented by other countermeasures, in protecting cardiovascular, bone, muscle, and neurological function in deconditioned human subjects, and

2.   Obtain data that demonstrate the potential effectiveness of short-radius, intermittent AG as a countermeasure to the  cardiovascular, bone, muscle, and possibly neurovestibular deconditioning that occur during three weeks of 6° head down tilt bed rest.

If successful, this pilot study will set the stage for full implementation of the planned multi-center international AG project. Drs. Steven Moore and Hamish MacDougall from the Human Aerospace Laboratory are members of the Neurovestibular and Cardiovascular teams.

Supported by NASA grant NNJ04HD66G (S. Moore PI, H. MacDougall Co-I).

Another schematic with subjects. Note the windshield to minimize sensations of air flow during rotation.

Side view with subjects. Note the ergometer being used by the subject on the left. Exercise will be incorporated into future experiments.

Basic structure of the two-person centrifuge to be utilized in this study. The centrifuge will be installed at the NASA bed-rest facility at UTMB in Galveston.