Man in space

Movement of fluids Experiment

Purpose:

Studying the mechanisms of regulation of the distribution of fluids in the body and their impact on the changes of intracranial pressure and function of the visual analyzer under conditions of a long-duration spaceflight and LBNP exposure.

Objectives:

• Collecting flight data describing the individual reactions of the organism in distribution of body fluids (venous, arterial and liquor components) and their impact on the intracranial pressure and function of the visual analyzer under conditions of a long-duration space flight and LBNP exposure.
• Defining the in-flight relationship between changes in the eye structure, state of its blood vessels and sense of vision and movement of fluids to the head, sizes of the blood vessels and blood flow types.

Used flight hardware:

When performing the experiment on the ISS USOS (from the 1st to 6th day of the experiment session) on the RS from the 7th to 10th day of the experiment NASA equipment is used.

When performing the experiment on the ISS RS (the 8th and 9th days of the experiment session) the following Russian flight medical monitoring means are used:

• complex "Gamma-1M" designed for ECG in twelve leads;
• pneumatic vacuum suit (PVS) "Chibis-M" designed to generate a negative pressure in the lower part of the body;
• Camcorder HVR-Z7E to image a general view of the module.

Expected Results:

As a result of the experiment, materials will be obtained, which will help characterize objectively the changes in distribution of fluids, including intra- - and extracellular and intra-/extravascular fluid redistributions using advanced noninvasive evaluation technologies during, before and after long-duration space missions. This study for the first time will determine whether the well-known movement of fluids and cardiovascular adaptation under microgravity are the main factors contributing to the development of visual impairment and anticipated growth of intracranial pressure, and whether it is possible to temporarily counteract these effects by reversing the direction of the fluid movement. This information will help to determine the area of development of preventive measures and/or treatment regimens.

Experiment Results:

Experiment results are provided real time on the LOCT MST WS as medical TM-parameters coming from hardware "Gamma-1M" and pneumatic vacuum suit (PVS) "Chibis" in the system TMI flow.

The results of processing of medical TMI are stored on the LOCT MST specialist WS PC hard disk for transfer to NASA and detailed post-session analysis of the data obtained.