Risk of Injury from Dynamic Loads
What are the top risks?
Throughout their missions, astronauts face risks that increase their chances of injury when their vehicles land back on Earth. These risks include gravitational transitions, possible disorientation, and bone loss. Such injuries could significantly affect crew health and mission success. Astronauts moving between different gravitational fields—say, the microgravity of a spacecraft, to the low gravity of the Moon, back to the spacecraft, and then back to Earth—may also have weakened bones and muscles that heighten injury risk.
What can be done about it?
NASA scientists are building human body models to help characterize how the body is affected in various spaceflight environments. These models help scientists develop the best standards for vehicle designs to reduce injury risks (for instance, standards on seat configurations and the restraints crews use to “strap in” during landing). Researchers are also working to improve the design of spacesuits to better protect astronauts from the forces of spaceflight.
Did you know?
When crews land on Earth, teams are on standby to help them exit their vehicle and perform other postflight activities as they adapt to the return to gravity. But on the Moon and Mars, where there will be varying levels of gravity, crews will need to self-egress and function autonomously shortly after landing – challenges that researchers are working to solve.
Formal risk description: Risk of in-mission injury and performance decrements and long-term health effects from dynamic loads
Research in support of this risk: Latest evidence