Space Medicine and Psychology

Hazards of Space Travel:

Space travel involves specific hazards. There are opportunities for scholars to solve forseeable problems. A major problem is space radiation. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/publications/hopkins_medicine_magazine/hopkins_medicine_magazine_spring_summer_2011/cosmic_mission

The World Health Organization is just one example of national and international organizations which are partnering with the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs http://www.uncosa.unvienna.org/uncosa/en/directory/who/index.html. Flash review this website for links about other organizations and institutions. Also do a search on "hospitials and outer space" or "doctors and outer space", or "nurses and outer space" etc.

Brief overview. Space Medicine is a fairly well established area of study. To get ideas, flash review these as initial links. http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0oGkwuRi8ZLQQEA9K1XNyoA?p=washington+university+and+%22space+medicine%22&fr2=sb-top&fr=yfp-t-701&sao=1

http://www.washington.edu/newsroom/news/2001archive/02-01archive/k022201a.html

http://www.med.upenn.edu/uep/user_documents/DFDCV.pdf

http://www.nss.org/community/med/home.html

Also visit a medical school library near you and ask a reference librarian to help you locate books on "space medicine" and journal articles on "space medicine". Start collecting information that interests you. Learn what the experts are writiing about regarding space medicine. Understand the key issues - what is being discussed and what is not being discussed.

Go to Barnes and Nobel's website and search for "space medicine" or "space biology" or other terms. For example, there are many textbooks on space medicine:

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=%22space+medicine%22&box=%22space%20medicine%22&pos=-1

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Fundamentals-of-Space-Medicine/Gilles-Clement/e/9781402032462/?itm=9&USRI=%22space+medicine%22

Locate dissertations on the topic of space medicine, space physiology, space biology etc. Go online the search "dissertations on space medicine" and other key words. Go into a medical school library and ask a reference librian to point you to several dissertations and/or theses on "space medicine" and related topics. Go to Proquest and search for disserations on the topic at http://www.proquest.com/en-US/ and see what you find.

Citing medical references:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshelf/br.fcgi?book=citmed&part=A39190

There are several obstacles which will need to be worked out for a smooth transition into permanent human settlements. Various physical (machine and human) and psychological hurdles will need to be overcome. There are many people with various types of knowledge (there always have been) who can translate their knowledge over onto the task of humankind's assent into the final frontier. Here are just a few brainstorming ideas.

Search itunesU (itunes university) for lectures on space medicine and related topics.