NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
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COMMITTEE ON SPACE BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE
MARY J. OSBORN,
University of Connecticut Health Center,
Chair
NORMA M. ALLEWELL,
University of Minnesota
ROBERT E. CLELAND,
University of Washington
MARY F. DALLMAN,*
University of California, San Francisco
FRANCIS (DREW) GAFFNEY,
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
JAMES LACKNER,
Brandeis University
ANTHONY P. MAHOWALD,
University of Chicago
ELLIOT MEYEROWITZ,
California Institute of Technology
LAWRENCE A. PALINKAS,
University of California, San Diego
KENNA D. PEUSNER,
George Washington University Medical Center
STEVEN E. PFEIFFER,
University of Connecticut Health Center
DANNY A. RILEY,
Medical College of Wisconsin
GIDEON A. RODAN,
Merck Research Laboratories
RICHARD SETLOW,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
GERALD SONNENFELD,
Carolinas Medical Center
T. PETER STEIN,
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
SANDRA J. GRAHAM, Study Director
SHOBITA PARTHASARATHY, Research Assistant (until August 1996)
CATHY GRUBER, Senior Program Assistant
VICTORIA P. FRIEDENSEN, Senior Program Assistant (until April 1996)
COMMITTEE ON SPACE BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE DISCIPLINE PANELS
Task Group on the Biological Effects of Space Radiation
RICHARD SETLOW,
Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Chair
JOHN F. DICELLO,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
R.J. MICHAEL FRY,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
JOHN B. LITTLE,
Harvard University School of Public Health
R. JULIAN PRESTON,
Chemical Industry Institute of Toxicology
JAMES B. SMATHERS,
University of California, Los Angeles
ROBERT L. ULLRICH,
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Panel on Human Behavior
LAWRENCE A. PALINKAS,
University of California, San Diego,
Chair
EARL B. HUNT,
University of Washington
NICK KANAS,
University of California, San Francisco, Veterans Affairs Medical Center
PETER J. LANG,
University of Florida
PATRICIA A. SANTY,
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
PETER SUEDFELD,
University of British Columbia
SPACE STUDIES BOARD
CLAUDE R. CANIZARES,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Chair
MARK R. ABBOTT,
Oregon State University
JAMES P. BAGIAN,*
Environmental Protection Agency
DANIEL N. BAKER,
University of Colorado
LAWRENCE BOGORAD,
Harvard University
DONALD E. BROWNLEE,
University of Washington
GERARD W. ELVERUM, JR.,
TRW Space and Technology Group
ANTHONY W. ENGLAND,
University of Michigan
MARILYN L. FOGEL,
Carnegie Institution of Washington
MARTIN E. GLICKSMAN,*
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
RONALD GREELEY,
Arizona State University
WILLIAM GREEN, former member,
U.S. House of Representatives
ANDREW H. KNOLL,
Harvard University
JANET G. LUHMANN,*
University of California, Berkeley
ROBERTA BALSTAD MILLER,
CIESIN
BERRIEN MOORE III,
University of New Hampshire
KENNETH H. NEALSON,*
University of Wisconsin
MARY JANE OSBORN,
University of Connecticut Health Center
SIMON OSTRACH,
Case Western Reserve University
MORTON B. PANISH,
AT&T Bell Laboratories
(retired)
CARLÉ M. PIETERS,
Brown University
THOMAS A. PRINCE,
California Institute of Technology
MARCIA J. RIEKE,*
University of Arizona
PEDRO L. RUSTAN, JR.,
U.S. Air Force
(retired)
JOHN A. SIMPSON,
Enrico Fermi Institute
GEORGE L. SISCOE,
Boston University
EDWARD M. STOLPER,
California Institute of Technology
RAYMOND VISKANTA,
Purdue University
ROBERT E. WILLIAMS,
Space Telescope Science Institute
MARC S. ALLEN, Director (through December 12, 1997)
JOSEPH K. ALEXANDER, Director (as of February 17, 1998)
COMMISSION ON PHYSICAL SCIENCES, MATHEMATICS, AND APPLICATIONS
ROBERT J. HERMANN,
United Technologies Corporation,
Co-chair
W. CARL LINEBERGER,
University of Colorado,
Co-chair
PETER M. BANKS,
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan
WILLIAM BROWDER,
Princeton University
LAWRENCE D. BROWN,
University of Pennsylvania
RONALD G. DOUGLAS,
Texas A&M University
JOHN E. ESTES,
University of California, Santa Barbara
MARTHA P. HAYNES,
Cornell University
L. LOUIS HEGEDUS,
Elf Atochem North America, Inc.
JOHN E. HOPCROFT,
Cornell University
CAROL M. JANTZEN,
Westinghouse Savannah River Company
PAUL G. KAMINSKI,
Technovation, Inc.
KENNETH H. KELLER,
University of Minnesota
KENNETH I. KELLERMANN,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
MARGARET G. KIVELSON,
University of California, Los Angeles
DANIEL KLEPPNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JOHN KREICK,
Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company
MARSHA I. LESTER,
University of Pennsylvania
NICHOLAS P. SAMIOS,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
CHANG-LIN TIEN,
University of California, Berkeley
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
Foreword
The space life sciences occupy a unique niche in the nation's extensive biomedical research enterprise. Only in space is it possible to explore fully the role of gravity on biological systems. In the case of the most complex systems, namely humans, the possible effects of long-term exposure to zero gravity is of more than academic interest. Astronauts have been spending increasing amounts of time in low Earth orbit, extended sojourns in the International Space Station will become routine, and someday humans will likely return to the moon and venture farther. In studies of fundamental biological processes at the cellular or organismic level, the ability to fully manipulate the gravity vector enables a range of studies that cannot be performed in terrestrial laboratories.
The cost and complexity of doing any experiment in space demand that careful priorities be set for research. This was done by the National Research Council for space biology and medicine over a decade ago. The present strategy is a complete reformulation of research agendas in the context of current scientific understanding and current or projected opportunities for conducting investigations in space. It is particularly timely given the nation's decision to make a large investment in an orbiting laboratory on the space station.
Biological research is a relative newcomer to NASA and still occupies a relatively modest portion of the agency's resources. But there is a growing appreciation of the importance of life sciences within NASA. Outside NASA, space research has often been seen by bench biologists as far from the mainstream of their discipline. However, successful life sciences missions on the space shuttle, joint programs with the National Institutes of Health, and effective peer review have enhanced perceptions about the program. In preparing this report, the Space Studies Board's Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, which itself includes many biologists with little or no connection to space research, convened workshops involving participants drawn widely from the relevant disciplines. The product should help to reinforce the positive trends in both the reality and perceptions about space biology and medicine by providing a science-based assessment of the most important topics to pursue for the decade to come.
Claude R. Canizares, Chair
Space Studies Board
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Preface
In 1987, the Committee on Space Biology and Medicine (CSBM) produced a research strategy, A Strategy for Space Biology and Medical Science for the 1980s and 1990s.1 In 1991, the committee's Assessment of Programs in Space Biology and Medicine 19912 examined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) progress in implementing the 1987 strategy. Since publication of these reports there have been major changes in the direction and status of NASA's life sciences program. The unprecedented amount of biological and medical data gathered from Spacelab missions since 1987 has allowed NASA investigators to move from experiments of an exploratory nature to those that address more fundamental questions. This development has been accompanied by a program shift away from human physiology, the area of major emphasis in the 1987 CSBM report, to more diverse plant and animal studies.
As a consequence of these and numerous programmatic changes at NASA, the committee believed that a new strategy, which builds on the current scientific understanding of space biology questions and issues, was needed. After a series of discussions with NASA's Life Sciences Division, the committee agreed to undertake a comprehensive review of the status of research in the various fields of space life sciences and to develop a science strategy that could guide NASA in its long-term research and mission planning. This study was carried out over a 3-year period, and its objectives remained the same as those outlined in the 1987 report: "(1) to identify and describe those areas of fundamental scientific investigation in space biology and medicine that are both exciting and important to pursue and (2) to develop
the foundation of knowledge and understanding that will make long-term manned space habitation and/or exploration feasible."3
Specifically, the committee attempted to provide the following in this report:
- A review of the disciplines of biology and medicine that can usefully be studied in the space environment, including sciences that study plant, animal, and human systems at the molecular, cellular, system, and whole-organism levels;
- Discussion of the fundamental research issues and questions within these disciplines;
- Identification of the most promising experimental challenges and opportunities within each discipline;
- Evaluation of the potential for space research to provide advances within each discipline; and
- Prioritization of research topics to the extent feasible.
In addition to numerous expert speakers from NASA and academia, who were invited to give presentations at regular committee meetings, the CSBM used a variety of approaches to gather information for its task. Three workshops were organized by the committee, each focusing on a broad life sciences discipline, and both NASA and non-NASA investigators were invited to participate. The committee also sent delegates to several international life sciences workshops organized by NASA and its international partners. Each workshop was directed at reviewing progress in a specific discipline and included participation by space life sciences investigators from around the world. Of course, the committee also reviewed both NASA source materials and the relevant literature, published and online, on flight- and ground-based research.
Separate discipline panels, each chaired by a member of the CSBM, were developed to review and discuss the areas of space radiation and human behavioral studies. These two groups were given responsibility for drafting the sections of this report representing their disciplines, although the final report is the responsibility of the committee as a whole. As originally planned, the recommendations and analysis developed by the Task Group on the Biological Effects of Space Radiation and published separately in 19964 form the basis of Chapter 11, "Radiation Hazards," in CSBM's new strategy for research.
Acknowledgment of Reviewers
This report has been reviewed by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the National Research Council's (NRC's) Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the authors and the NRC in making the published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The contents of the review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their participation in the review of this report:
S. James Adelstein, Harvard Medical School,
Robert M. Berne, University of Virginia,
Joseph V. Brady, Johns Hopkins University,
Robert R. Burris, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Robert A. Frosch, Harvard University,
Sally K. Frost-Mason, University of Kansas,
Ursula W. Goodenough, Washington University,
J. Richard Hackman, Harvard University,
Jack P. Landolt, Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine, Ontario, Canada,
Philip Osdoby, Washington University,
Robert O. Scow, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and
Frank A. Witzman, Indiana University Purdue University-Columbus.
Although the individuals listed above have provided many constructive comments and suggestions, responsibility for the final content of this report rests solely with the authoring committee and the NRC.
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A Strategy for Research in Space Biology and Medicine in the New Century |