Space Life Science Researches Aboard International Space Station / 航天医学与医学工程

ABSTRACT

The launch of Expedition 1 to the International Space Station (ISS) opened a new era in the history of human space flight, so far fourteen Expeditions had been achieved. But the astronauts were exposed to abnormal environment such as microgravity, radiation, isolation, confinement, and misalignment of circadian rhythm during space flight. In order to reduce health risks incurred by living in space, the 59 projects have been or will be studied aboard ISS. Those researches has elucidated the rate of subregional bone loss and its recovery, characteristics of atrophy and reduced contraction function in antigravity skeletal muscle, decrease in spinal cord excitability, and relationship between reduced immune function and reactivation of some viruses. The psychological and behavior changes in a prolonged isolation and confinement condition, as well as the fast circadian rhythm inducing sleep disruption has been observed. It has been found exposure to radiation not only causing cataracts and cancers, but also damaging the reproductive organs and nervous system, and inducing genetic damage. The efficacy of countermeasures of medicine, nutrition and vibration have been validated aboard the ISS. The effective countermeasures on different systems were checked further. All of those studies and observations have made a solid foundation for developing novel countermeasures which will be more effective.