Human Health Countermeasures

Weightlessness alters blood circulation and how the heart and blood vessels function, potentially increasing the risk of cardiovascular events. Research focuses on minimizing these unhealthy changes.

The structure of the eyes and brain can change with spaceflight.  Research focuses on understanding the long-term health consequences of these changes and preventing them from occurring. 

Skin and gut microbiomes can change in space, potentially increasing the risk of crew members getting sick. To help keep crews healthy, researchers are exploring these microbial ecosystems and how they evolve in space.

The stresses of spaceflight can awaken inactive viruses inside the bodies of astronauts, leading to rashes and other symptoms. Ongoing work seeks to further understand changes in the immune system to better protect astronaut health.

A healthy, balanced diet is an essential element of crew health and performance. Ongoing research focuses on designing enjoyable, long-lasting, and nutritious meals for deep space missions and understanding the consequences of inadequate nutrition.

Astronauts can experience motion sickness, issues with hand-eye or gait coordination, and dizziness during gravitational changes, making it difficult to walk or operate a vehicle. Ongoing research seeks to help astronauts recover faster from these changes so they can perform tasks inside and outside spacecraft.

Working in a spacesuit is challenging. In addition to cognitive fatigue and injury, crew members must also manage risks in the EVA environment, including decompression sickness, and low oxygen and high carbon dioxide levels. Research focuses on characterizing human performance in spacesuits and balancing pressure and oxygen levels.

Without gravity, bones break down and become more brittle, boosting the chances of painful breaks. Ongoing research seeks to better understand and quantify these losses, and help preserve bone strength through diet, exercise, and medication.

All astronauts perform exercise during their mission to counteract losses in bone density, muscle strength, and heart and blood vessel performance. Researchers are studying what types of exercise will best protect their health and their ability to perform extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalks.