Earth benefits from NASA research and technology. Life sciences applications

This document provides a representative sampling of examples of Earth benefits in life-sciences-related applications, primarily in the area of medicine and health care, but also in agricultural productivity, environmental monitoring and safety, and the environment. This brochure is not intended as an exhaustive listing, but as an overview to acquaint the reader with the breadth of areas in which the space life sciences have, in one way or another, contributed a unique perspective to the solution of problems on Earth. Most of the examples cited were derived directly from space life sciences research and technology. Some examples resulted from other space technologies, but have found important life sciences applications on Earth. And, finally, we have included several areas in which Earth benefits are anticipated from biomedical and biological research conducted in support of future human exploration missions

Distant Operational Care Centre: Design Project Report

The goal of this project is to outline the design of the Distant Operational Care Centre (DOCC), a modular medical facility to maintain human health and performance in space, that is adaptable to a range of remote human habitats. The purpose of this project is to outline a design, not to go into a complete technical specification of a medical facility for space. This project involves a process to produce a concise set of requirements, addressing the fundamental problems and issues regarding all aspects of a space medical facility for the future. The ideas presented here are at a high level, based on existing, researched, and hypothetical technologies. Given the long development times for space exploration, the outlined concepts from this project embodies a collection of identified problems, and corresponding proposed solutions and ideas, ready to contribute to future space exploration efforts. In order to provide a solid extrapolation and speculation in the context of the future of space medicine, the extent of this project's vision is roughly within the next two decades. The Distant Operational Care Centre (DOCC) is a modular medical facility for space. That is, its function is to maintain human health and performance in space environments, through prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Furthermore, the DOCC must be adaptable to meet the environmental requirements of different remote human habitats, and support a high quality of human performance. To meet a diverse range of remote human habitats, the DOCC concentrates on a core medical capability that can then be adapted. Adaptation would make use of the DOCC's functional modularity, providing the ability to replace, add, and modify core functions of the DOCC by updating hardware, operations, and procedures. Some of the challenges to be addressed by this project include what constitutes the core medical capability in terms of hardware, operations, and procedures, and how DOCC can be adapted to different remote habitats

International Telemedicine/Disaster Medicine Conference: Papers and Presentations

The first International Telemedicine/Disaster Medicine Conference was held in Dec. 1991. The overall purpose was to convene an international, multidisciplinary gathering of experts to discuss the emerging field of telemedicine and assess its future directions; principally the application of space technology to disaster response and management, but also to clinical medicine, remote health care, public health, and other needs. This collection is intended to acquaint the reader with recent landmark efforts in telemedicine as applied to disaster management and remote health care, the technical requirements of telemedicine systems, the application of telemedicine and telehealth in the U.S. space program, and the social and humanitarian dimensions of this area of medicine

Decentralized Telemedicine Framework for a Smart Healthcare Ecosystem

The healthcare sector is one of the most rapidly growing sectors globally. With the ever-growing technology, patient care, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation, there is an increased need for healthcare sectors to collaborate with all stakeholders – both within the healthcare ecosystem and in concurring industries. In recent times, telemedicine has proven to provide high quality, affordable, and predominantly adapted healthcare services. However, telemedicine suffers from several risks in implementation, such as data breach, restricted access across medical fraternity, incorrect diagnosis and prescription, fraud, and abuse. In this work, introduce blockchain-based framework that would unlock the future of the healthcare sector and improved services. Our proposed solution utilizing Ethereum smart contracts to develop a transparent, tamper-proof telemedicine healthcare framework, and ensure the integrity of sensitive patient data eliminating a central administrator. Moreover, the smart contract regulates the interaction between all the parties involved in the network and keeps the patient meticulously informed about the transactions in the network

Automating Real-Time Fault Detection for the University of Tennessee Space Institute, Aviation Systems’ Flight Testing and Airborne Science Applications

The UTSI Aviation Systems program has conducted many successful airborne science campaigns in collaboration with premier research organizations including NASA and NOAA. Each airborne science mission requires dedicated FTEs to monitor the various instruments onboard the aircraft. A typical mission requires aircraft to be instrumented with a wide range of sensors (with approximately 145 data parameters). Monitoring the instruments requires highly skilled personnel who have a thorough understanding of the system. With the advent of UTSI Aviation Systems program increasing capabilities to conduct multiple missions, using multiple airborne platforms, the requirement of a skilled FTE for each mission could effectively impede mission readiness. Conversely, the customers have also expressed interest in increased involvement in the airborne science missions and hence have to be accommodated within the limited confines of the aircraft. As a result of these requirements, a real-time expert system has been developed (using LabVIEW) to monitor mission-critical instrumentation. The program will provide the user with a tool to monitor the performance of the airborne sensors without requiring extensive knowledge of the system and rigorous training. The overall effect would be an increase in flexibility while simultaneously enhancing quality of operation wherein a mission would not be flown with a defective sensor onboard. The following work describes the algorithms, system architecture and coding techniques used to develop the “go no-go” program. As the program is under constant refinement, the descriptions presented reflect the current state of the software

Space life sciences: A status report

The scientific research and supporting technology development conducted in the Space Life Sciences Program is described. Accomplishments of the past year are highlighted. Plans for future activities are outlined. Some specific areas of study include the following: Crew health and safety; What happens to humans in space; Gravity, life, and space; Sustenance in space; Life and planet Earth; Life in the Universe; Promoting good science and good will; Building a future for the space life sciences; and Benefits of space life sciences research

Report of the 90-day study on human exploration of the Moon and Mars

The basic mission sequence to achieve the President's goal is clear: begin with Space Station Freedom in the 1990's, return to the Moon to stay early in the Next century, and then journey to Mars. Five reference approaches are modeled building on past programs and recent studies to reflect wide-ranging strategies that incorporate varied program objectives, schedules, technologies, and resource availabilities. The reference approaches are (1) balance and speed; (2) the earliest possible landing on Mars; (3) reduce logistics from Earth; (4) schedule adapted to Space Station Freedom; and (5) reduced scales. The study and programmatic assessment have shown that the Human Exploration Initiative is indeed a feasible approach to achieving the President's goals. Several reasonable alternatives exist, but a long-range commitment and significant resources will be required. However, the value of the program and the benefits to the Nation are immeasurable

Management: A bibliography for NASA managers

This bibliography lists 653 reports, articles and other documents introduced into the NASA scientific and technical information system in 1987. Items are selected and grouped according to their usefulness to the manager as manager. Citiations are grouped into ten subject categories; human factors and personnel issues; management theory and techniques; industrial management and manufacturing; robotics and expert systems; computers and information management; research and development; economics, costs and markets; logistics and operations management, reliability and quality control; and legality, legislation, and policy

Space benefits: The secondary application of aerospace technology in other sectors of the economy

Benefit cases of aerospace technology utilization are presented for manufacturing, transportation, utilities, and health. General, organization, geographic, and field center indexes are included