[On medical screening of civilian candidates for cosmonauts by exposure to the head-to-pelvis acceleration profiles]

Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2006 Mar-Apr;40(2):9-13.
[Article in Russian]

Abstract

The subject of analysis was the data on +3 and +5 Gz tolerance of 130 civilian non-pilot applicants for cosmonauts (men and women, aged 23 to 55) gathered over the past 30 years. Length of the centrifuge arm was 7.25 meters and the total number of primary centrifuge runs was 309. For nearly every second of the applicants (46.7%) acceleration at +5 Gz was an ordeal causing distinct vascular or coronary decompensation. Thus, 29.7% exhibited various combinations of brief visual disturbances, tachycardia, tachypnea, and systolic arterial pressure in the shoulders; in 17%, visual disturbances and/or their precursors were combined with exaggerated cardio-vascular functional parameters, arrhythmia, and serious vegetative disorders. Most of those who had failed to endure the first centrifugation were unable to improve G tolerance during next runs; indeed, they showed negative G-tolerance dynamics. G intolerance grew in significance or was exacerbated by new disorders and their combinations. These results testify against exposure of non-pilot applicants for cosmonauts to +5 G, during the primary medical screening.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • English Abstract

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aerospace Medicine / methods
  • Astronauts*
  • Exercise Tolerance / physiology*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Gravity, Altered*
  • Head*
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Pelvis*
  • Space Flight*
  • Time Factors