Space Flight

Advances over the past decades in space flight technology have allowed U.S., Russian, and other space programs to not only increase the frequency of manned space flights but also to increase the duration of these flights. As such, a large body of knowledge has been developed regarding the ways in which space flight affects the health of the personnel involved. Now, for the first time, this body of clinical knowledge on how to diagnose and treat conditions that either develop during a mission or because of a mission has been compiled by Drs. Michael R. Barratt and Sam L. Pool of the NASA/Johnson Space Center. This text is a must have for all those associated with aerospace medicine.

Modern aerospace vehicles, such as the space shuttle, other launch vehicles, and long-range ballistic missiles, do not discriminate between atmospheric and space flight. Most texts on flight dynamics, however, make this artificial distinction and therefore do not simultaneously cover aircraft and spacecraft. Bridging this gap in the literature, Atmospheric and Space Flight Dynamics is a unified presentation, demonstrating that the two disciplines have actually evolved from the same set of physical principles.

Many readers will doubtless be astonished to learn that animals were being fired aloft in U.S. and Soviet research rockets in the late 1940s. In fact most people not only believe that the Russian space dog Laika was the first canine to be launched into space, but also that the high-profile, precursory Mercury flights of chimps Ham and Enos were the only primate flights conducted by the United States. In fact, both countries had sent literally dozens of animals aloft for many years prior to these events and continued to do so for many years after. Other latter-day space nations, such as France and China, would also begin to use animals in their own space research.

“Space Pharmacology” is a review of the current knowledge regarding the use of pharmaceuticals during spaceflights. It is a comprehensive review of the literature, addressing each area of pharmacokinetics and each major physiological system in turn. Every section begins with a topic overview, and is followed by a discussion of published data from spaceflight, and from ground experiments meant to model the spaceflight situation. Includes a discussion looking forward to the new medical challenges we are likely to face on longer duration exploration missions. This book is a snapshot of our current knowledge that also highlights areas of unknown.

TO A NATION enthralled by the heroic exploits of the Mercury astronauts, the launch of Lt. Cmdr. Scott Carpenter on NASA’s second orbital space flight was a renewed cause for pride, jubilation and celebration. Within hours, that excitement had given way to stunned disbelief and anxiety as shaken broadcasters began preparing the American public for the very real possibility that an American astronaut and his spacecraft may have been lost at sea.

The mechanic sof space ?ightisan old discipline.Its topic originally was the motion of planets, moons and other celestial bodies in gravitational ?elds. Kepler’s (1571 - 1630) observations and measurements have led to probably the ?rst mathematical description of planet’s motion. Newton (1642 - 1727) gave then, with the devel- ment of his principles of mechanics, the physical explanation of these motions. Since then man has started in the second half of the 20th centuryto capture ph- ically the Space in the sense that he did develop arti?cial celestial bodies, which he brought into Earth’s orbits, like satellites or space stations, or which he did send to planets or moons of our planetary system, like probes, or by which p- ple were brought to the moon and back, like capsules. Further he developed an advanced space transportation system, the U.S. Space Shuttle Orbiter, which is the only winged space vehicle ever in operation. In the last two and a half decades there were several activities in the world in order to succeed the U.S. Orbiter, like the HERMES project in Europe, the HOPE project in Japan, the X-33, X-34 and X-37 studies and demonstrators in the United States and the joint U.S. - European project X-38. However, all these projects were cancelled. The motion of these vehicles can be described by Newton’s equation of motion.