Astronauts traveling in space are faced with both common terrestrial and unique spaceflight-induced health risks. The primary focus of NASA medical operations is to prevent the occurrence of inflight medical events, but to be prepared to provide robust clinical management when they do occur. Inflight medical systems face several challenges, including limited stowage capabilities, potential disruptions in ground communication, exposure to space radiation, and limitation of some functional capabilities in a microgravity environment.
Crew behavioral health and performance are affected by missions in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments. Future exploration missions will involve humans moving further away from low Earth orbit (LEO) with longer mission durations and will have a greater risk for behavioral health and performance decrements. These hazards could lead to (a) adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions affecting crew health and performance during the mission; (b) the development of psychiatric disorders if adverse behavioral health conditions are undetected or inadequately mitigated; and c) long-term health consequences, including late-emerging cognitive and behavioral changes. Ensuring crew behavioral health over the long term is essential. Behavioral health standards optimize crewmembers’ health, well-being, and productivity and reduce the risk of behavioral and psychiatric conditions before, during, and after missions.
Behavioral Health and Performance PDF
Bone density loss in microgravity (skeletal unloading) is a well-documented crew health concern since the Skylab mission, when it was observed that the flight crew had about 1-1.5% mineral loss per month. This was noted as being “significantly faster than …