Response of Ambulatory Human Subjects to Artificial Gravity (Short Radius Centrifugation)

Prolonged exposure to microgravity results in significant adaptive changes, including cardiovascular deconditioning, muscle atrophy, bone loss, and sensorimotor reorganization, that place individuals at risk for performing physical activities after return to a gravitational environment. Planned missions to Mars include unprecedented hypogravity exposures that would likely result in unacceptable risks to crews. Artificial gravity (AG) paradigms may offer multisystem protection from the untoward effects of adaptation to the microgravity of space or the hypogravity of planetary surfaces. While the most effective AG designs would employ a rotating spacecraft, perceived issues may preclude their use. The questions of whether and how intermittent AG produced by a short radius centrifuge (SRC) could be employed have therefore sprung to the forefront of operational research. In preparing for a series of intermittent AG trials in subjects deconditioned by bed rest, we have examined the responses of several healthy, ambulatory subjects to SRC exposures.