Howard.Gayle@CMU-CS-G@sri-unix (12/08/82)
The 10 December 1982 issue of Science contains a short but disturbing article on spacesickness among shuttle crews. Half of all crew members suffer from it. It begins a few hours after launch and lasts about 2 days. There are no known objective predictors of who will suffer (e.g., motion sickness on Earth), although NASA doctors can guess correctly more often than not. Current drugs (scopolamine + Dexedrine) are not always effective, but biofeedback looks promising. Even though this is a serious problem, astronauts are understandably embarrassed and reluctant to discuss it. Comment: if this problem is not solved, it could be a powerful argument for a space station, since everyone seems to recover after a couple of days.
faunt (12/09/82)
The new AW+ST has an article that says that DOD is worried about astronauts ability to perform tasks shortly after launch, and that NASA is saying that it has been blown up out of proportion. The astronauts are feeling defensive about the issue, and it has affected morale. There are also Privacy Act implictions in releasing medical information.
garry (12/09/82)
What about the USSR's astronauts. Are they pursuing any studies in this or do they just demand their "boys" (please no flames) put up with spacesickness The Baer
gutfreund.umass-coins@UDel-Relay@sri-unix (12/12/82)
From: Steven (Roi de Soleil)Gutfreund <gutfreund.umass-coins@UDel-Relay> According to the information I have recieved, space sickness after launches is fairly new. It really only started with the Shuttle. The theory is that one is more likely to get motion sickness in the large and expansive shuttle environment, than those cramped Mercury capsules. Thus, the fix seems easier than a permenant space station (did you really think they would put up a space station just because the astronauts get sick?) - steve