Definition
Space medicine is a branch of medicine that deals with the biological, physiological, and psychological health effects and medical problems of flight personnel in the context of spaceflight.
Introduction
The discipline of space medicine is a relatively new focus in clinical and investigative practice arising since the first humans ventured beyond the stratosphere in the early 1960s. Historically, the area of flight medicine, with flight surgeons as its practitioners, has supported the health and wellbeing of aircraft crews and serves as a model for the principles and practice of space medicine. Over time, physicians and biomedical researchers have evolved their focus toward the care of humans that venture beyond the surface of the Earth. Occupation and preventive medicine principles have been and continue to be applied to this unique environment, with an emphasis on crewmembers selected for the challenging environment of space travel. Crewmembers must be kept healthy...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Barratt MR, Pool SL (2008) Principles of clinical medicine for space flight. Springer, New York. ISBN:9780387988429
Buckey JC (2006) Space physiology. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN:9780195137255
Buckey JC, Homick JL (2002) The neurolab spacelab mission: neuroscience research in space. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. ISBN:0972533907
Churchill SE (1997) Fundamentals of space life sciences. Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar. ISBN:0894640518
Clement G (2011) Fundamentals of space medicine. Springer, New York. ISBN:9781441999047
Davis JR, Johnson R, Stepanek J, Fogerty JA (2008) Fundamentals of aerospace medicine, 4th edn. Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia. ISBN:139780781774666
Johnston RS, Dietlein LF (1977) Biomedical results from Skylab. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC
Johnston RS, Dietlein LF, Berry CA (1975) Biomedical results of Apollo. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC
Nicogossian AE, Pool SL (2003) Space physiology and medicine, 4th edn. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia. ISBN:9780683307313
Nicogossian AE, Huntoon CL, Pool SL (1994) Space physiology and medicine, 3rd edn. Lea & Febiger, Philadelphia. ISBN:0812115953
Risin D, Stepaniak PC (2013) Biomedical results of the space shuttle program. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. ISBN:9780615866130
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Bungo, M.W. (2018). Space Medicine: An Overview. In: Young, L., Sutton, J. (eds) Encyclopedia of Bioastronautics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10152-1_130-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10152-1_130-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-10152-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-10152-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference EngineeringReference Module Computer Science and Engineering
Publish with us
Chapter history
-
Latest
Space Medicine: An Overview- Published:
- 11 November 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10152-1_130-2
-
Original
Space Medicine: An Overview- Published:
- 13 January 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10152-1_130-1