Trade.Information

Company Name: Since Landing

Company Type: Nasa project

Company Profile

Welcome to the STS-90 crew's home page, a chronicle of events that will lead to the launch of the Neurolab payload. This web site is to allow family, friends, and others to follow our preparations for the 25th flight of the space shuttle Columbia, now scheduled for April 17, 1998. During our 17 day mission we'll be orbiting the earth at an altitude of 150 nautical miles. Our launch inclination of 39 degrees will take us over cities as far north as Baltimore, Maryland, and as far south as Melbourne, Australia. The Spacelab module, located in the shuttle's cargo bay, will be our workshop and home to 26 neuroscience experiments. Spacelab is a familiar friend to scientists, having flown on 15 other shuttle missions, but Neurolab will be its last flight as the construction of the International Space Station draws near.

About Company

In 1983 an historic space event took place -- the first Spacelab flight. The international Spacelab took up where Skylab left off and offered the promise of major new scientific advances. Three major life science flights: Spacelab Life Sciences-1 (SLS-1 or STS-40, flown in 1991), SLS-2 (STS-58, flown in 1993) and LMS (STS-78, flown in 1996) have contributed much to our knowledge of adaptation to spaceflight. Neurolab may well be the last of this series and the last Spacelab flight. The experiments, procedures and testing planned for Neurolab show how much progress has been made since Spacelab-1. The physiologic challenges of spaceflight remain unchanged since Spacelab-1 days. Motion sickness remains a significant, but now treatable, problem inflight. Crewmembers return with difficulties in maintaining balance. Standing upright after spaceflight can be difficult due both to labile blood pressure and unstable posture. Muscle mass and strength are reduced. Astronauts tend to sleep poorly. Many of these symptoms reflect major underlying changes in the nervous system. This has led to a series of questions that will be answered on Neurolab. For example, How has the information from gravity sensors (such as the inner ear) been reinterpreted? Has nervous control of the circulation been altered? How have circadian rhythms been affected? What neural plasticity is there and how does it work? Can the quality and quantity of sleep be improved? Does spaceflight change the way blood pressure and brain blood flow is regulated? Neurolab will study both people and experimental animals to find answers -- recording everything from the crewmember's ability to catch a ball, to changes in gene expression in the rat brain. Particularly important is a new series investigations in the area of mammalian neural development, which ask the following: Is gravity necessary for normal development? How do muscles and their neural connections develop without gravity? Will the vestibular system develop normally? Are there critical periods in development when gravity is essential? Will animals walk properly if these skills develop in space? These are basic questions about nervous system development that can only be performed without gravity, and Neurolab will provide the needed environment. The 26 Neurolab Experiments have been organized into teams, each focusing on a particular area. The eight teams are: Adult Neuronal Plasticity Team Mammalian Development Team Aquatic Team Neurobiology Team Autonomic Nervous System Team Sensory Motor and Performance Team Vestibular Team Sleep Team The experiments in each team share resources to answer the different questions addressed by each investigator. We hope that what may be the last Spacelab flight will also be the most productive!