Bioastronautics

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Bioastronautics is a specialty area of biological and astronautical research which encompasses numerous aspects of biological, behavioral, and medical concern governing humans and other living organisms in outer space; and includes the design of space vehicle payloads, space habitats, and life-support systems. In short, it spans the study and support of life in space.

Bioastronautics includes many similarities with its sister discipline astronautical hygiene; they both study the hazards that humans may encounter during a space flight. However, astronautical hygiene differs in many respects e.g. in this discipline, once a hazard is identified, the exposure risks are then assessed and the most effective measures determined to prevent or control exposure and thereby protect the health of the astronaut. Astronautical hygiene is an applied scientific discipline that requires knowledge and experience of many fields including bioastronautics, space medicine, ergonomics etc. The skills of astronautical hygiene are already being applied for example, to characterise Moon dust and design the measures to mitigate exposure during lunar exploration, to develop accurate chemical monitoring techniques and use the results in the setting SMACs.

Of particular interest from a biological perspective are the effects of reduced gravitational force felt by inhabitants of spacecraft. Often referred to as "

From a medical perspective, long duration space flight also has physiological impacts on astronauts. Accelerated bone decalcification, similar to osteopenia and osteoporosis on Earth, is just one such condition.^[2] Another serious concern is the effects of space travel upon the kidneys. Current estimates of these effects upon the kidneys indicates that unless some kind of effective additional remedial technology against kidney damage is employed, astronauts who have been exposed to micro-gravity, reduced gravity, and Galactic radiation for 3 years or so on a Mars mission may have to return to Earth while attached to dialysis machines.^[3] The study of the potential effects of space travel is useful not only for advancing methods of the safe habitation of space, and the travel through space, but also in uncovering ways to more effectively treat closely related terrestrial ailments.

NASA's Bioastronautics library

NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas maintains a Bioastronautics Library. The one-room facility provides a collection of textbooks, reference books, conference proceedings, and academic journals related to bioastronautics topics.^[4] Because the library is located within secure government property (not part of Space Center Houston, the official visitors center of JSC), it is not generally accessible to the public.

See also

• Effect of spaceflight on the human body
• Life support system
• Space habitation
• Locomotion in space
• Reduced muscle mass, strength and performance in space
• Space food
• Astronautical hygiene
• Spaceflight radiation carcinogenesis
• Space medicine
• Sex in space
• Space tourism
• Space-based economy
• List of spaceflight-related accidents and incidents
• Writing in space
• Space art#Art in space
• Religion in space
• Organisms at high altitude
• Astrobiology
• Astrobotany
• Plants in space

References