While the primary goal of the Apollo Program was to land men on the moon and return them safely to Earth, there were other very important medical objectives. The earlier Mercury and Gemini programs bad raised some concerns about the health and safety of future crews. For example, the high metabolic energy expenditure of extravehicular activity during the Gemini missions was unexpected. Before Apollo astronauts could safely explore the lunar surface, reliable predictors of energy cost and real-time monitoring techniques had to be developed. Physiological changes were noted in individual crewmen, some more consistently than others. The most important of these changes was in cardiopulmonary status demonstrated by decreased exercise capacity, loss of red blood cell mass, and cardiovascular deconditioning demonstrated by a decrease in the effectiveness of antigravity cardiovascular responses during postflight stress testing.
Clinical aspects of crew health
Biomedical Results of Apollo ; NASA-SP-368
1975-01-01
Article/Chapter (Book)
No indication
English
NTIS | 1988
|Hermes-Crew Integration Aspects
SAE Technical Papers | 1990
|NTRS | 1992
|Skylab crew health: Crew surgeon's report
NTRS | 1977
|Crew Station Aspects of Manned Spacecraft
NTIS | 2006
|