Então e se alguém morrer a caminho de Marte?

Felizmente temos mais de 30 anos para pensar nisto...

Já perdi há muito a esperança de algum dia ver astronautas a caminhar em Marte. Daqui a 30 anos terei, se fôr vivo, 70 anos... Com a história de atrasos que o programa espacial norte-americano tem tido nas últimas décadas, acho que terei muita sorte se voltar a ver homens na Lua, quanto mais em Marte...

Por acaso os primeiros homens na Lua são uma das minhas primeiras recordações! Serão uma das últimas?

A NASA fez agora um estudo em que levanta questões muito pertinentes sobre eventuais ocorrências em missões de muito longa duração, como uma missão a Marte, que poderá chegar a durar 3 anos. Questões como doenças graves, terminais ou mesmo mortes.

Incrivelmente não fazem menção de uma questão a meu ver muito mais melindrosa e até potencialmente perigosa - a questão do sexo no espaço. Missões de 3 anos com homens e mulheres à mistura, acham mesmo que não vai acontecer nada? Há que prevenir até eventuais problemas decorrentes de conflitos relativos a estas questões! Já pensaram num assassinato no espaço? Pois não é assim tão incrível, se pensarmos nos acontecimentos recentes com a infeliz astronauta Lisa Nowak.

Links:

• Associated Press
• Estudo da NASA (PDF)
• Dvorak Uncensored
  

On Trip to Mars, NASA Must Rethink Death
By MIKE SCHNEIDER
Associated Press Writer


CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- How do you get rid of the body of a dead astronaut on a three-year mission to Mars and back?

When should the plug be pulled on a critically ill astronaut who is using up precious oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew? Should NASA employ DNA testing to weed out astronauts who might get a disease on a long flight?

With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most "Earth-like" planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration.

Some of these who-gets-thrown-from-the-lifeboat questions are outlined in a NASA document on crew health obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.

NASA doctors and scientists, with help from outside bioethicists and medical experts, hope to answer many of these questions over the next several years.

"As you can imagine, it's a thing that people aren't really comfortable talking about," said Dr. Richard Williams, NASA's chief health and medical officer. "We're trying to develop the ethical framework to equip commanders and mission managers to make some of those difficult decisions should they arrive in the future."

One topic that is evidently too hot to handle: How do you cope with sexual desire among healthy young men and women during a mission years long?

Sex is not mentioned in the document and has long been almost a taboo topic at NASA. Williams said the question of sex in space is not a matter of crew health but a behavioral issue that will have to be taken up by others at NASA.

The agency will have to address the matter sooner or later, said Paul Root Wolpe, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania who has advised NASA since 2001.

"There is a decision that is going to have to be made about mixed-sex crews, and there is going to be a lot of debate about it," he said.

The document does spell out some health policies in detail, such as how much radiation astronauts can be exposed to from space travel (No more radiation than the amount that would increase the risk of cancer by 3 percent over the astronaut's career) and the number of hours crew members should work each week (No more than 48 hours).

But on other topics - such as steps for disposing of the dead and cutting off an astronaut's medical care if he or she cannot survive - the document merely says these are issues for which NASA needs a policy.

"There may come a time in which a significant risk of death has to be weighed against mission success," Wolpe said. "The idea that we will always choose a person's well-being over mission success, it sounds good, but it doesn't really turn out to be necessarily the way decisions always will be made."

For now, astronauts and cosmonauts who become critically sick or injured at the international space station - something that has never happened - can leave the orbiting outpost 220 miles above Earth and return home within hours aboard a Russian Soyuz space vehicle.

That wouldn't be possible if a life-and-death situation were to arise on a voyage to Mars, where the nearest hospital is millions of mile away.

Moreover, Mars-bound astronauts will not always be able to rely on instructions from Mission Control, since it would take nearly a half-hour for a question to be asked and an answer to come back via radio.

Astronauts going to the moon and Mars for long periods of time must contend with the basic health risks from space travel, multiplied many times over: radiation, the loss of muscle and bone, and the psychological challenges of isolation.

NASA will consider whether astronauts must undergo preventive surgery, such as an appendectomy, to head off medical emergencies during a mission, and whether astronauts should be required to sign living wills with end-of-life instructions.

The space agency also must decide whether to set age restrictions on the crew, and whether astronauts of reproductive age should be required to bank sperm or eggs because of the risk of genetic mutations from radiation exposure during long trips.

Already, NASA is considering genetic screening in choosing crews on the long-duration missions. That is now prohibited.

"Genetic screening must be approached with caution ... because of limiting employment and career opportunities based on use of genetic information," Williams said.

NASA's three major tragedies resulting in 17 deaths - Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia - were caused by technical rather than medical problems. NASA never has had to abort a mission because of health problems, though the Soviet Union had three such episodes.

Some believe the U.S. space agency has not adequately prepared for the possibility of death during a mission.

"I don't think they've been great at dealing with this type of thing in the past," said former astronaut Story Musgrave, a six-time space shuttle flier who has a medical degree. "But it's very nice that they're considering it now."

A música de Mike Oldfield e a Conquista do Espaço

Bom, está visto que passei a manhã (de férias) agarrado ao YouTube! Agora encontrei uma coisa espetacular - parte de um documentário de 1980, com música do álbum 'Incantations', de Mike Oldfield. Na realidade é a 3ª parte do álbum, e eu passei anos e anos da minha adolescência a imaginar o que seria ver o lançamento de um Space Shuttle acompanhado por esta música. Pelos vistos não sou só eu que tenho boas idéias! :) A única coisa que faria de diferente seria não pôr imagens das explosões, e quando a música passa à 'segunda fase' mais calma, poria imagens em órbita. Talvez em me lance num mini-projecto desses, um dia!

Era uma vez... o Espaço

Ainda alguém se lembra disto?

Foi uma série de animação francesa que passou na televisão nos já longínquos anos 80 - aí 83 ou 84. Era ficção, mas este genérico ficou na memória de todos nós, eu incluído.

Grande Internet, que nos permite ver de novo coisas que julgávamos perdidas...

Fotos e vídeo do vôo de Stephen Hawking

Espetacular!

O homem não consegue mexer quase nenhum músculo, mas vejam como sorria!

Neste primeiro vídeo, Hawking narra a sua experiência, com o seu típico humor:

O segundo vídeo apresenta os primeiros comentários de Hawking após o vôo.

Fonte - MSNBC

Hawking goes zero-G: ‘Space, here I come’
World-famous physicist takes eight turns on weightless roller-coaster jet
By Alan Boyle
Science editor
Updated: 9:01 p.m. ET April 26, 2007

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — World-famous physicist Stephen Hawking experienced eight rounds of weightlessness on Thursday during a better-than-expected airplane flight that he saw as the first step toward a trip in space.

"It was amazing," Hawking told reporters afterward, using his well-known computerized voice. "The zero-G part was wonderful, and the high-G part was no problem. I could have gone on and on.

"Space, here I come," he said.

Hawking's host, Zero Gravity Corp. co-founder and chief executive officer Peter Diamandis, said before the flight that he'd claim success if Hawking had just a single half-minute float in weightlessness aboard the company's specially modified Boeing 727 jet. It turned out that Hawking took eight turns with ease.

"He would have flown more if we let him," said Noah McMahon, one of Hawking's coaches as well as Zero Gravity's chief marketing officer. "He was all smiles all the time."

Zero Gravity had originally planned to bring Hawking back to NASA's Shuttle Landing Facility here after six ups-and-downs. "We negotiated and agreed to do two more," Diamandis told reporters jokingly. After the landing, Hawking's fellow fliers gave him a round of applause.

Hawking is one of the globe's best-known scientists — not only because of his best-selling works on the mysteries of black holes and the origins of the universe, but also because of his increasing disability due to a degenerative nerve disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He is almost completely paralyzed and can communicate only via facial gestures and a gesture-controlled computer system.

Thursday's flight served an initial test run to see if Hawking had the "Right Stuff" for an even more ambitious journey: a rocket-powered rise to the edge of outer space, perhaps aboard the spaceship now being developed for Virgin Galactic. That craft is due to enter service in 2009 or so, and taking such a flight would check off what Hawking has said is his "next goal."

"I have long wanted to go into space, and the zero-gravity flight is the first step toward space travel," he said before the flight.

Hawking's performance boded well for more ambitious tests, and that's not just according to the professor. Diamandis said Hawking weathered the flight better than his physicians had expected. He noted that the four minutes Hawking spent in weightlessness was about as much time as he would spend in zero-G during a suborbital spaceflight.

Hawking did gymnastic flips that would have been a "gold-medalist" performance on Earth, Diamandis said.

In preflight interviews, Hawking said Thursday's trip was also meant to show "that everyone can participate in this type of weightless experience" — even people with disabilities as serious as his. Diamandis said that Hawking was the first person with his kind of disability to take a weightless flight, and the successful outcome demonstrated that "others can follow in Dr. Hawking's footsteps."

The zero-G airplane flights conducted by Zero Gravity, as well as government space programs, duplicate the sense of weightlessness that astronauts feel in orbit for about a half-minute at a time. The plane follows a parabolic, roller-coaster course through the sky. During the top half of each parabola, airplane passengers feel as if they're in free-fall — but when the plane pulls out of its descent, they feel more than the normal pull of gravity.

Thursday's flight was tweaked to make it easier on the frail physicist:
# The doses of weightlessness didn't last quite as long as usual, and the pullout was slightly gentler.
# Four physicians and two nurses monitored Hawking's blood pressure, cardiac readings and blood oxygen levels throughout the flight to make sure that the up-and-down effect wasn't too taxing.
# Hawking could stop the roller coaster and return to the base at any time, merely by gesturing with a grimace.
# Hawking's personal physician, Edwin Chilvers, said there was enough equipment aboard the plane to set up a "mini-intensive care unit" if needed.

Hawking and the members of his support team weren't the only ones on the plane: Investors in Zero Gravity were invited to go along on the ride, and some of the seats were given to charity in a fund-raising move.

Diamandis said about $150,000 was raised for the X Prize Foundation, which promotes private spaceflight, as well as for three charities serving people with disabilities. Diamandis serves as chairman of the X Prize Foundation as well as chairman and chief executive officer of Zero Gravity Corp.

Additional support for the event was provided by Space Florida, a state agency that promotes Florida's commercial space industry and space-related educational activities; and by the retailer Sharper Image, which recently started marketing Zero Gravity's regular $3,500-a-seat weightless flights.

Boost for commercial spaceflight
Hawking said he hoped his flight would provide a boost for commercial spaceflight, in line with his oft-expressed belief that humanity's future depended on moving beyond Earth. He said he believed "life on earth is at an ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other danger."

As long as humanity is confined to one planet, the existence of our species will be in question, he told NBC News during a preflight interview.

"I think that getting a portion of the human race permanently off the planet is imperative for our future as a species. It will be difficult to do this with the slow, expensive and risk-averse nature of government space programs," Hawking said, working in a veiled reference to NASA. "We need to engage the entrepreneurial engine that has reduced the cost of everything from airline tickets to personal computers."

He said tourism could represent a future mass market for space-oriented services, "and zero-gravity flights are the first, most affordable step in that direction."

"I am hopeful that if we can engage this mass market, the cost of spaceflight will drop," Hawking said, "and we will be able to gain access to the resources of space, and also spread humanity beyond just the earth."

Stephen Hawking voa em gravidade zero!

O grande físico da actualidade, totalmente paralisado pela doença de que sofre há décadas, vai voar por vários segundos em gravidade zero num avião especial, usado para o treino de astronautas. Naturalmente serão tomadas precauções extraordinárias para este võo, dada a condição físicamente muito frágil de Hawking. Este, no entanto, não esconde o seu entusiasmo pelo vôo, uma vez que lhe seria práticamente impossível sonhar com esta possibilidade, dada a sua condição. E espera que este seja apenas um primeiro passo para um vôo no espaço.

Embora, pessoalmente, não creia que alguma vez vá à Estação Espacial Internacional.

Não que não merecesse...

Fonte: MSNBC

One giant leap for Stephen Hawking

Physicist set for weightless flight; sees it as ‘first step’ to space

By Alan Boyle

Science editor

Updated: 10:26 a.m. ET April 26, 2007

ORLANDO, Fla. - Quadriplegic physicist Stephen Hawking is ready to go where no person with his kind of disability has gone before: into weightlessness, aboard a specially outfitted airplane flying from the runway where space shuttles land.

On the eve of Thursday's scheduled flight, Hawking told NBC News that he saw such adventures as "a first step toward space travel" — not only for him personally, but also for the public at large.

"I think the human race doesn't have a future if it doesn't go into space. I therefore want to encourage public interest in space," he said in his computer-generated voice, responding to questions submitted in advance.

Hawking has become renowned for his theories on black holes, the workings of gravity, the origins of the universe and other mysteries explained in his best-selling book "A Brief History of Time." The 65-year-old Cambridge cosmologist also has coped for decades with a degenerative nerve disease called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. He has lost virtually all voluntary movement, except for his facial muscles, and can communicate only through a gesture-controlled computer system.

Significant step toward space
Hawking hopes a successful zero-gravity encounter on Thursday will represent a significant step toward his dream of flying in outer space as early as 2009, aboard a suborbital rocket plane now being built for British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic venture. Virgin Galactic's spaceship is a scaled-up version of SpaceShipOne, which won the $10 million Ansari X Prize in 2004 as the first privately developed craft to take humans to outer space.

"I have wanted to fly into space for many years but never imagined it would really be feasible," Hawking explained. "After the X Prize was won, and private spaceflight became possible, I started thinking about it more seriously."

During the past year, Hawking has been more vocal about his outer-space dream, telling one interviewer that it was his "next goal." In response, Florida-based Zero Gravity Corp. invited him to take a flight on "G-Force One," a Boeing 727 jet that simulates the weightless feeling of space travel by flying a series of roller-coaster parabolas at an altitude of roughly30,000 feet.

Every one of the five millionaires who have flown to the international space station has been on such flights — as have celebrities ranging from moonwalker Buzz Aldrin to lifestyle guru Martha Stewart. The going rate for Zero Gravity's commercial service is $3,500 per person, but the company waived the cost for Hawking and his team.

"When Zero Gravity Corp. offered me this flight, I accepted immediately," Hawking told NBC.

Pioneer for people with disabilities
Hawking will be Zero Gravity's first wheelchair-using passenger, according to the company's chief executive officer, Peter Diamandis. The Federal Aviation Administration only recently approved procedures for providing weightless flights to customers with such disabilities, he explained.

"You're our first pioneer in so many ways," Diamandis told Hawking during a preflight briefing at an Orlando hotel on Wednesday.

Takeoff is scheduled for Thursday afternoon from the Shuttle Landing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which has been used for previous Zero Gravity flights as well as shuttle landings.

Hawking told NBC that he expected weightlessness to be a "wonderful" experience. "It has been many years since I've been free of my wheelchair," he said.

However, Thursday's adventure carries medical risks for someone as frail as Hawking.

The risks and the resolutions
The main medical concern has to do with how Hawking's breathing will be affected by the periods of heavier-than-normal gravity that must follow every zero-gravity float, Diamandis told reporters.

There could be an effect on Hawking's heart, and he may experience the motion sickness sometimes associated with weightless flights. Because no person in his condition has flown on a weightless flight before, Hawking's caregivers are not completely sure how serious the effects could get. But those uncertainties will have to be resolved if Hawking ever hopes to take a suborbital spaceflight, which involves greater stresses than weightless airplane flights.

To ensure Hawking's safety, several extraordinary measures are being taken:

The doses of zero-gravity on Thursday won't last as long as they usually do — about 15 to 20 seconds as opposed to 25 to 30 seconds. That means the pullout from weightlessness will be milder as well — 1.5 times as strong as normal gravity rather than 1.8.

Hawking will be carried from his seat on the plane to an area marked off especially for him, where he will be laid down on a soft head cushion. Two coaches and a nurse will raise Hawking up at the start of each period of weightlessness, and gently bring him down at the end.

After each float, medical team will check Hawking's blood pressure, cardiac rate and blood oxygen level. Hawking will raise his eyebrows if he feels up to another parabolic rise to weightlessness. If he grimaces, that means he's had enough.

Diamandis has said that he would count the flight as a success if Hawking flies just one parabola — even though Hawking himself has indicated he'd like to do more. Once Hawking is finished, the plane would return to the landing strip.

To rehearse the procedures for Thursday's flight, Zero Gravity conducted a practice run on Wednesday, with 14-year-old student Ted Straight standing in for Hawking. Diamandis said the "full-up dress rehearsal" was a success.

Hawking and his team won't be the only ones on the flight: More than two dozen people are on the passenger list, including video game designer Richard Garriott, the son of Skylab astronaut Owen Garriott.

Some of the passengers are on board as the result of a money-raising campaign for the X Prize Foundation, which Diamandis heads, and for several charities serving people with disabilities. Diamandis said about $150,000 had been raised for the charities by selling seats on Wednesday's practice run as well as Thursday's flight.

Additional support was provided by Space Florida, a state agency that promotes Florida's commercial space industry and space-related educational activities; and by the retailer Sharper Image.

Boost for commercial spaceflight
Hawking said he hoped his flight would provide a boost for commercial spaceflight, in line with his oft-expressed belief that humanity's future depended on moving beyond Earth.

"I think that getting a portion of the human race permanently off the planet is imperative for our future as a species. It will be difficult to do this with the slow, expensive and risk-averse nature of government space programs," Hawking told NBC, working in a veiled reference to NASA. "We need to engage the entrepreneurial engine that has reduced the cost of everything from airline tickets to personal computers."

He said tourism could represent a future mass market for space-oriented services, "and zero-gravity flights are the first, most affordable step in that direction."

"I am hopeful that if we can engage this mass market, the cost of spaceflight will drop," Hawking said, "and we will be able to gain access to the resources of space, and also spread humanity beyond just the earth."

MSNBC.com science editor Alan Boyle is in Florida with a team from NBC News to cover Hawking's flight on Thursday. Look for updates throughout the day on Cosmic Log as well as full reports in MSNBC.com's Space News section, on NBC's "Nightly News" and the TODAY show.

Descoberto o primeiro planeta parecido com a Terra

Chamaram-lhe Gliese 581C

Não, esta ainda é a nossa...

Na realidade é algo optimista, ainda, dizer que o planeta é parecido com a Terra. É um planeta com uma massa que é 1,5 vezes a da Terra, em órbita de uma estrela gigante vermelha - Gliese 581, na constelação da Balança, a 21 anos-luz da Terra - a uma distância que lhe permite beneficiar de temperaturas parecidas com as da Terra, ou seja, em que pode existir água no estado líquido, logo, vida.

Evidentemente que daí a dizer que o planeta é parecido com a Terra vai uma grande distância. Ainda não se pode analisar a atmosfera do planeta, não se sabe se há água ou oxigénio ou o que quer se seja acerca daquele planeta.

No entanto é uma descoberta histórica, porque é o primeiro planeta que é descoberto com o tipo de condições que lhe permitirão ser um candidato a 'irmão da Terra'.

Fonte: Adelaide Now

Link: Universe Today


New earth find suggests we are not alone
MICHAEL HANLON, LONDON DAILY MAIL, CLARE PEDDIE
April 26, 2007 02:15am

ASTRONOMERS have found a "new Earth" - the first planet outside our solar system with the potential for life as we know it.

The Earth-like planet is 20.5 light years away, orbiting the "red dwarf" star Gliese 581 in the constellation Libra.

It is one of three planets in that solar system, with the Earth-like planet named Gliese 581C.

Commenting on the discovery by a team of European scientists, University of Adelaide Professor Roger Clay said this was the first time a planet with a mass or weight similar to the Earth's had been found.

"They believe that its distance from the star would mean the surface temperature is not that different to the surface temperature of Earth," he said.

This meant water would be in a liquid form.

"So, potentially, it is the sort of place that you'd start looking to find some sort of life form... it does seem to have the right ingredients."

The discovery, at the European Southern Observatory's telescope in La Silla, Chile, was made using spectroscopy.

The technique is based on the principle that light is shifted more towards the blue end of the spectrum when something is moving towards you and more towards red when it is moving away, Professor Clay said.

It worked in this case because the planet has a tight orbit and the star was relatively lightweight, so movement was easier to detect. The discovery appears to confirm suspicions of astronomers that the universe has many Earth-like worlds.

The new planet is about 1 1/2 times the diameter of the Earth. It is the first exoplanet (a planet orbiting a star other than our own Sun) that is like our Earth. Of the 220 or so exoplanets found to date, most have either been too big, made of gas rather than solid material, far too hot, or far too cold for life to survive. "On the treasure map of the universe, one would be tempted to mark this planet with an X," said Xavier Delfosse, one of the scientists who discovered the planet.

"Because of its temperature and relative proximity, this planet will most probably be a very important target of the future space missions dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial life."

Astronauta Mike Fossum comenta o caso de Lisa Nowak

"Somos pessoas normais, com problemas de gente normal"

Mike Fossum, que voou com Lisa Nowak na missão STS-121 em Julho do ano passado, fez alguns comentários ao actual caso da ex-astronauta Lisa Nowak.

O julgamento da ex-estronauta está marcado para Setembro.

Fonte: The Rapid City Journal


Fossum comments on Lisa Nowak case

SIOUX FALLS — An astronaut with ties to South Dakota says astronauts are normal people with normal problems.

During a visit to the McCrossan Boys Ranch this past week, Mike Fossum, a NASA mission specialist who was born in Sioux Falls, was asked about the Lisa Nowak case.

Nowak, also an astronaut, is accused of trying to kidnap a rival for a space shuttle pilot’s affections.

Fossum said he considers Nowak a colleague and a friend. He also said he “can’t really fathom what happened to cause this whole situation to unfold the way it did. I can’t understand it.”

He and Nowak flew a mission to the international space station last summer. Fossum said he has known her for three years.

“A lot goes into the process of becoming selected to be an astronaut,” he said, “but when you get down to it, we’re normal people with normal kinds of problems.”

The Nowak case “certainly doesn’t put us in a good light in the news, but I think that people understand this is not representative of the people in our office and the kind of professionalism we hold and the way we conduct our lives,” Fossum said.

Fossum was born in Sioux Falls in 1957. His family lived in Pierre for about two years during the 1960s and later moved to McAllen, Texas.

Como pensávamos que seria o Space Shuttle há 30 anos!

Ando a ler um livro acerca do desastre do Challenger, em 1986 - The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture and Deviance at NASA - e estou numa parte em que se analisa o impacto das decisões que foram tomadas no início do programa Space Shuttle no acidente que ocorreria mais tarde. E fala lá das promessas que, na altura, pareciam douradas mas realizáveis, de até 60 missões por ano! Porque não? Afinal era uma tecnologia completamente inovadora, e reutilizável.

E lembrei-me do primeiro artigo que li acerca do Space Shuttle, nas Selecções... Sim, nessas Selecções. Foi na edição de Agosto de 1977, e eu tinha uns tenrinhos 11 anos!

Fica aqui o artigo para recordar e sorrir um pouco :)

Lançamento do Space Shuttle previsto para 8 de Junho.

A NASA decidiu continuar com as reparações no Tanque Externo de combustível, que foi sériamente danificado por uma tempestade de granizo há semanas, em vez de substituír este tanque pelo que iria ser utilizado na missão seguinte.

Assim, o lançamento não será antes de 8 de Junho. Isto também fará com que o plano ambicioso de lançar 5 missões em 2007 tenha sido reduzido para 4. O que mesmo assim é ambicioso, uma vez que serão 4 missões em 6 meses. Históricamente não tem sido frequentemente alcançado este ritmo de lançamentos.

Fonte: Damaris Sarria

NASA cria comissão para avaliar o acompanhamento psicológico dos astronautas

Na sequência dos infelizes acontecimentos que rodearam a ex-astronauta Lisa Nowak, a NASA decidiu formar um comité para avaliar as formas como está a ser feito o acompanhamento psicológico dos seus astronautas.

Até agora, todos os candidatos a astronauta eram apenas entrevistados uma vez, durante 2 horas, por um psicólogo, durante o processo de selecção. Apenas os astronautas nomeados para missões de longa duração na Estação Espacial Internacional (ISS) eram sujeitos a exames antes das missões, e entrevistas semanais com um médico via videoconferência.

Com os acontecimentos recentes, a NASA considerou serem insuficientes, e quem sabe arriscados, os procedimentos actuais, pelo que é previsível uma revisão.

Faço votos que seja uma revisão que vá beneficiar os astronautas e candidatos a astronauta, em vez de simplesmente os eliminar da 'fila de espera' para um vôo. Se isso acontecer, estão criadas as condições para os astronautas não revelarem realmente o que se possa estar a passar consigo próprios, com óbvios riscos para eles e para as missões em que possam vir a participar. Todos somos pessoas, ninguém é super-homem nem super-mulher, por isso todos podemos ter problemas, por vezes graves, mas isso não significa que não os possamos resolver e voar no espaço mais tarde.

Fonte: MSNBC

NASA picks team to review astronaut care

Committee creation prompted by arrest of now ex-astronaut Lisa Nowak

By Jeanna Bryner

Staff writer

Space.com

Updated: 6:45 p.m. ET March 26, 2007

Prompted by the arrest of now ex-astronaut Lisa Nowak, NASA has announced the committee members who will review the mental and other health services available to astronauts.

The committee, announced today, will review NASA’s current healthcare systems and medical policies, standards and certifications for astronauts. In April, committee members are scheduled to travel to the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston to review documents and interview personnel, including astronauts, involved in the agency’s spaceflight program, NASA said.

Chairing the group of external experts will be Air Force Col. Richard E. Bachmann, who studies aerospace medicine and has provided medical support to people who work in extreme environments like that in space.

Nowak, a 43-year-old mother of three, was arrested on Feb. 5 after allegedly driving 900 miles from Houston to the Orlando airport, where police say she confronted and pepper-sprayed Air Force Capt. Colleen Shipman, girlfriend of space shuttle pilot William Oefelein, whom she viewed as a romantic rival for the astronaut’s affections.

Immediately following the incident, Nowak was charged with attempted first-degree murder, attempted kidnapping and three other criminal acts. The charges were later downgraded and Florida prosecutors have entered charges for kidnapping. Nowak’s lawyers have formally entered a not guilty plea and the trial is expected to begin on July 30.

Meanwhile, the space agency removed Nowak’s flight status and in collaboration with the U.S. Navy, they ousted her from NASA’s astronaut corps. The seeming “breakdown” of an astronaut also spurred the space agency to look into how they screen astronauts for both mental and physical health as well as services available to astronauts during their careers.

The other external members of the newly-formed committee include:

Air Force Col. Timothy Sowin, a neuropsychiatrist James R. Fraser, an expert in aerospace medicine from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)

Retired Navy Capt. Sandra Yerkes, a clinical psychiatrist

Mark Bauer, a clinical psychiatrist from the Veteran's Administration

Elizabeth Holmes, a clinical psychologist from the U.S. Naval Academy

James Bagian, a former NASA astronaut physician and an expert in aerospace medicine and patient safety from the Veteran's Administration

Navy Capt. Paul M. DeLaney, an expert in medical legal matters and medical privacy legislation

Ellen Baker, a current NASA astronaut physician, will serve as a consultant to the team. Also, serving as “ex officio” members will be James M. Duncan, the NASA chief of Space Medicine at JSC, and Wayne Frazier of NASA's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.

In June, the committee is expected to report their findings to Richard S. Williams, NASA’s chief health and medical officer, who will look over the review and report the findings to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.