Kundrot, Craig E.

Pellis, Neal

Steil, Jennifer

NASA Technical Reports Server

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
An Evidence Base for Human Spaceflight Risks 
in Wikipedia
Aerospace Medical Association
84th Annual Meeting
Craig E. Kundrot, PhD
Neal Pellis, PhD
Jennifer Steil
15 May 2013
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20130013474 2019-08-31T01:14:18+00:00Z
Disclosure Information
I have no financial relationships to disclose.
I will not discuss off-label use and/or investigational use in my 
presentation 
15 May 2013 2
Human Research Program Goal
The goal of HRP is to provide human health and performance 
countermeasures,
knowledge, 
technologies, and 
tools 
to enable safe, reliable, and productive human space exploration.
Seat layout for contingency EVA Example of a study on the effects of center of gravity on performance
Clay Anderson centrifuges 
Nutrition blood samples 
during Increment 15
15 May 2013 3
HRP Risks 
1. Risk Factor of Inadequate Nutrition
2. Risk of Acute and Late Central Nervous System Effects from 
Radiation Exposure
3. Risk of Acute Radiation Syndromes Due to Solar Particle 
Events (SPEs)
4. Risk of Adverse Behavioral Conditions and Psychiatric 
Disorders
5. Risk of Adverse Health Effects Due to Alterations in Host-
Microorganism Interactions
6. Risk of Adverse Health Effects of Exposure to Dust and 
Volatiles During Exploration of Celestial Bodies
7. Risk of an Incompatible Vehicle/Habitat Design
17. Risk of Impaired Performance Due to Reduced Muscle Mass, 
Strength and Endurance
18. Risk of Inadequate Critical Task Design
19. Risk of Inadequate Design of Human and 
Automation/Robotic Integration
20. Risk of Inadequate Human-Computer Interaction
21. Risk of Injury from Dynamic Loads
22. Risk of Intervertebral Disk Damage
23. Risk of Orthostatic Intolerance During Re-Exposure to 
Gravity
24. Risk of Performance Decrement and Crew Illness Due to an 
Inadequate Food System
8. Risk of Bone Fracture
9. Risk of Cardiac Rhythm Problems
10. Risk of Clinically Relevant Unpredicted Effects of Medication
11. Risk of Compromised EVA Performance and Crew Health 
Due to Inadequate EVA Suit Systems
12. Risk of Crew Adverse Health Event Due to Altered Immune 
Response
13. Risk of Decompression Sickness
14. Risk Of Degenerative Tissue Or Other Health Effects From 
Radiation Exposure
15. Risk Of Early Onset Osteoporosis Due To Spaceflight
16. Risk of Impaired Control of Spacecraft, Associated Systems 
and Immediate Vehicle Egress Due to 
Vestibular/Sensorimotor Alterations Associated with Space 
Flight
13 March 2013 4
25. Risk of Performance Decrements Due to Inadequate 
Cooperation, Coordination, Communication, and 
Psychosocial Adaptation within a Team
26. Risk of Performance Errors Due to Fatigue Resulting from 
Sleep Loss, Circadian Desynchronization, Extended 
Wakefulness, and Work Overload
27. Risk of Performance Errors Due to Training Deficiencies
28. Risk of Radiation Carcinogenesis
29. Risk of Reduced Physical Performance Capabilities Due to 
Reduced Aerobic Capacity
30. Risk of Renal Stone Formation
31. Risk of Spaceflight-Induced Intracranial Hypertension/Vision 
Alterations
32. Risk of Unacceptable Health and Mission Outcomes Due to 
Limitations of In-flight Medical Capabilities
Program Architecture
15 May 2013 5
Evidence Risks Gaps Tasks Deliverables
First Generation Evidence Base
• 2008 Evidence Book
- One volume
- One chapter for each HRP risk
- Review paper format
• Aimed at scientifically-educated, non-specialist 
reader
• Current state of knowledge from both research 
and operations.
- Authors
• Human Research Program
• National Space Biomedical Research Institute
• Chapters linked to their risk on HRP website
- humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Evidence/
15 May 2013 6
Institute of Medicine Review
• The February 2008 versions of the Evidence-Based Risk Reports were 
reviewed by members of a committee on NASA’s Research on Human 
Health Risks, established by the Institute of Medicine. 
• The resulting thorough Review of NASA’s Human Research Program 
Evidence Books: A Letter Report (2008) provided outstanding 
guidance for both the revision of the current risk reports and for the 
development of future versions. 
• humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/reviews/IOM%20Review.pdf
7
• This review also offered excellent suggestions to 
improve public access to the information in these 
reports.
Limitations of the 1GEB
• Limited authorship
- NASA and NSBRI
- Missing ISS international partners
- Missing researchers studying 
related terrestrial issues
• Laborious update process
- Resulting in “all or none” updates
• Infrequent updates
15 May 2013 8
Note: Some Evidence Reports have been supplemented 
by a bibliography or additional report
The Second Generation Evidence Base- Wikipedia
• The Gene Wiki precedent
- Enable the creation of a collaboratively 
written, continuously updated, high quality 
review article for all (~25,000) human genes.
- Wikipedia
• “Stub” articles for each gene in standardized 
format
• Users add and refine content
A review article for every gene is powerful 
13 
Hyperlinks to related concepts 
References to the literature 
68 editors, 543 edits (as of July 2010) 
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Wiki
• The HRP implementation
- Portal page in Wikipedia
- Main article for each Risk
• Subarticles as needed
• Links to related Wikipedia content
• Summary of HRP-approved Evidence Report
15 May 2013 9
The HRP Portal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Human_Health_and_Performance_in_Space
15 May 2013 10
A Wikipedia entry
15 May 2013 11
Strengths of the Wikipedia approach
• Extremely accessible
- Reading
- Contributing
• Many “hits”
15 May 2013 12
Weaknesses of the Wikipedia approach
• Wikipedia rules for content
- Cannot copy Evidence Reports
- Must summarize Evidence Reports
• The result article is a summary of a review
• Few contributions
- Net loss of content
- Workload to maintain thriving articles is unknown
15 May 2013 13
Type of Contribution Number of Contributions
Citation 15 (placeholder)
Sentence added or modified 4 (placeholder
Paragraph 2 (placeholder)
The Third Generation Evidence Base
• Wiki based
• Editorially controlled
- Editorial Board for each Evidence Report
• Initial content = HRP-approved Evidence 
Reports
- Verbatim
• Contributions
- Default: pre-screened by editorial board
- Pre-approved contributors: screen post 
facto by editorial board
• Coming Fall 2013
humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Evidence
15 May 2013 14
Conclusion
• NASA’s Human Research Program seeks to understand and mitigate risks to 
crew health and performance in exploration missions
• HRP’s evidence base consists of an Evidence Report for each HRP risk
• Three generations of Evidence Reports
1) Review articles
+ Good content
- Limited authorship, infrequent updates
2) Wikipedia articles
+ Viewed often, very open to contributions
- Summary of reviews, very few contributions
3) HRP-controlled wiki articles
+ Incremental additions to review articles with editorial control
- ?
humanresearchroadmap.nasa.gov/Evidence
15 May 2013 15


An Evidence Base for Human Spaceflight Risks in Wikipedia

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