Outfitting of the Crew Health Care System for the space Station Freedom

Crew medical care will be one of the most essential provisions of the space station of the 1990's. Increased duration in space, reduced crew selectivity, and reduced return to earth capability all speak strongly for a complete set of medical instrumentation and supplies, countermeasures for space adaptation syndrome, and the capability to closely monitor the total environment in which the crew live and work. Foreseeing these needs, NASA has committed to the development of a Crew Health Care Element for Space Station Freedom. It consists of three systems: Health Maintenance Facility, Exercise Countermeasures Facility, and Environmental Health System. For the majority of the equipment to outfit these systems, space flight ready instruments do not exist. Therefore, commercial off the shelf items will have to be converted to flight certification levels and some will even have to be modified to accommodate the microgravity conditions of Space Station Freedom. Still other capabilities will have to be developed from the ground up. The development of the CHeC element will provide many challenges to the project engineers and scientists.