Human Response to Hypoxia-Motion Sickness Stress as a Predictor of the Space Sickness Syndrome
Abstract
The change observed during the hypoxia runs supports the hypothesis that hypoxic states lower human tolerance to vestibular stimuli. The frequency of occurrence of symptoms in this study is encouraging since little change in presentation was found between the normoxia and hypoxia runs. Large variations in the symptom presentations would have indicated that hypoxia symptoms were being misread as motion sickness symptoms, thereby skewing the results. From these results it is obvious that a significant research effort is needed to futher delineate and verify the various aspects of this theory. Additional human investigations in one-g and zero-g are needed to verify that the proposed hemodynamic changes and oxygenation parameters potentiates or causes space sickness. Animal studies will be needed to quantify the type and amount of circulatory disruption and hypoxia caused by zero-g exposure. If hypoxia proves to be implicated in the space sickness syndrome, it may be possible to use this hypoxia-motion sickness stress response as an indicator (in earth gravity) of a person's susceptibility to zero-g space sickness.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA080306
Entities
People
- Aaron V. Barson Jr.
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory