Although each NSBRI Science and Technology Team has a different area of focus, they all have the same mission: protect astronaut health. The Cardiovascular Alterations Team's Executive Summary gives a detailed look at the Team's activities and goals.
The Executive Summary covers the following topics:- Background/Scope
- Goals
- Support of NASA Needs
- Deliverables for Spaceflight
- Cross-links (Collaborations within the team, with other NSBRI teams, and with NASA.)
- Enabling Capabilities
- Research Gaps
- Earth-Based Benefits
Team Goals:
- Determine whether long-duration spaceflight leads to clinically and physiologically significant changes in cardiac and vascular structure and function;
- Determine whether long-duration spaceflight causes a real risk for developing cardiac arrhythmias;
- Establish effective countermeasures to "cardiovascular deconditioning" that will maintain cardiac structure and function, and allow preservation of work thermoregulatory capacity sufficient to meet mission demands;
- Determine, using animal models, whether the radiation exposure during long-duration spaceflight will injure coronary endothelium and accelerate atherosclerosis; and
- Determine the optimal strategy of cardiovascular screening to reduce the risk of flying astronauts with pre-existing but subclinical cardiovascular diseases that could become manifest during a prolonged exploration-class mission.
Download the complete Team Executive Summary (PDF)
|
Print