This readable text presents findings from the life science experiments conducted during and after space missions. It provides an insight into the space medical community and the real challenges that face the flight surgeon and life science investigator.

Now in its Fourth Edition with a new editorial team, this comprehensive text addresses all medical and public health issues involved in the care of crews, passengers, and support personnel of aircraft and space vehicles. Coverage includes human physiology under flight conditions, clinical medicine in the aerospace environment, and the impact of the aviation industry on global public health. This edition features new chapters on radiation, toxicology and microbiology, dental considerations in aerospace medicine, women's health issues, commercial human space flight, space exploration, and unique aircraft including parachuting. Other highlights include significant new information on respiratory diseases, cardiovascular medicine, infectious disease transmission, and human response to acceleration.

Investigations in space have led to fundamental discoveries of the human body to the space environment. Gilles Clément has conducted extensive research in this field. This readable text presents the findings from the life science experiments conducted during and after space missions. About 1200 human space flights have been completed to date, including more than 500 astronauts from various countries, for a combined total presence in space of about 90 years. The first edition of this title was published in 2005 (written in 2003 – 2004), and new data is now available from crewmembers participating in long-duration flights on board the International Space Station (ISS). The number of astronauts who have spent six months in orbit has doubled since 2004. On board the ISS, the astronauts use newly developed pharmaceutical countermeasure for bone loss (such as biophosphonates) and state-of-the-art exercise resistive devices against muscle atrophy and cardiovascular deterioration. The ISS life support systems now use advanced closed-loop systems for meeting the needs of a 6-person crew, including recycling urine to water. Some of these new technologies have potential spin-offs for medical (i.e., sedentary life style, obesity) and environmental issues here on Earth. And finally, there are new space research opportunities with the Orion space vehicle that will soon replace the Space Shuttle, the Moon, and Mars space exploration program that is slowly but surely taking shape, and the space tourism sector that has become a reality. The focus on this edition is the ISS, Orion and planetary exploration, and space tourism. This edition also includes more than 20% new material, along with photographs, data, and video clips for Springer Extras!

Former NASA Astronaut Harrison Schmitt advocates a private, investor-based approach to returning humans to the Moon—to extract Helium 3 for energy production, to use the Moon as a platform for science and manufacturing, and to establish permanent human colonies there in a kind of stepping stone community on the way to deeper space. With governments playing a supporting role—just as they have in the development of modern commercial aeronautics and agricultural production—Schmitt believes that a fundamentally private enterprise is the only type of organization capable of sustaining such an effort and, eventually, even making it pay off.

As space medicine evolved from the late 1950s onward, the need arose for a ready reference for students and practitioners on the basic concepts of this new specialty. Through three editions edited by leaders in the development of space medicine, this classic text has met the need. This fourth edition of Space Physiology and Medicine provides succinct, evidence-based summaries of the current knowledge base in space medicine and serves as a source of information on the space environment, responses, and practices. Additionally, there is extensive online material available for each chapter, featuring overviews and self-study questions.