Profiles & Overviews | Flight Hardware | Still Images | Links

Key Research Questions

• What are the nature, time course, and sequence of cardiovascular adjustments to space flight?
• What are the specific mechanisms underlying the orthostatic hypotension observed after space flight? What are effective counter measures?
• What is the relationship between the cardiovascular adjustments to space flight and those occurring in Earth-based models such as bedrest, immersion, and head-down tilt?
• Are there cardiovascular morphological changes associated with acute or long-term exposure to space flight?
• Are there cellular and subcellular changes in cardiac function?

Experiment/Mission Information

Experiments from the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive

Source: NASA Life Sciences Data Archive   Format: HTML

Description: The following link to the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive provides a list of relevant descriptions of flight experiments investigating cardiovascular physiology. (Posted on 10/00)

Missions from the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive

Source: NASA Life Sciences Data Archive   Format: HTML

Description: The following link to the NASA Life Sciences Data Archive provides a list of relevant descriptions of space flight missions that carried experiments investigating cardiovascular physiology. (Posted on 10/00)

Relevant Space Flight Missions

Source: Ronald D. Reed, United States Air Force Academy   Format: Microsoft Word
Download the file (48 kb)

Description: This document contains a list of selected missions and their experimental or medical highlights. Vostok, Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle, Biosatellite, and many other programs and missions are listed. (Posted on 10/00)

Profiles & Overviews

Astronauts' Fainting Spells

Source: Spaceline   Format: PDF
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Description: This article profiles research into how space travel affects blood pressure. (Posted on 11/03)

Heart and Cardiovascular System Factsheet

Source: ASGSB   Format: HTML
View the factsheet

Description: This factsheet offers a brief overview of current NASA research on the heart and cardiovascular system. It includes applications to astronauts as well as patients with heart disease and circulatory problems. (Posted on 6/01)

Orthostatic Intolerance and Discovery of a Genetic Link

Source: Spaceline   Format: PDF
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Description: This article profiles research into postflight orthostatic intolerance, which resulted in the discovery of a genetic link. (Posted on 6/01)

Flight Hardware

Cardiovascular Experiment Hardware

Source: NASA
Format: PDF
Download the file (168 kb)

Description: The Cardiovascular Experiment Hardware, a monitoring system to measure pressure and flow in primates, flew on the Soviet/Russian biosatellite mission Cosmos 1514. (Excerpt from Life into Space 1965-1990) (Posted on 12/00)

Still Images

Arterial Pressure Comparison
Source: NASA
Format: JPEG
View the image (96 kb)

Description: This image compares arterial pressure on Earth and in space.

Lower Body Negative Pressure Device
Source: NASA
Format: JPEG
View the image (64 kb)

Description: This photograph shows the lower body negative pressure device, which helps researchers simulate microgravity effects on the body.

Links

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National Space Biomedical Research Institute
This site details the NSBRI's research projects in the area of cardiovascular alterations.