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and welcome to Mission Control Houston

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we're going to send the signal out to

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Marshall Space Flight Center in

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Huntsville Alabama the payload

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operations integration Center so the

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Lori Meggs is standing by there to tell

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us more about the research on the space

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station hi Lori hi Kelly we're learning

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about the human body and how it

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functions in microgravity is paramount

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to future spaceflight astronauts are

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asked to participate in studies for the

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human research program and one of those

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studies going on right now is called the

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functional task tests and I recently

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spoke with the principal investigator of

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that to find out a little bit more about

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what they're doing we're involved in an

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ISS study called a functional task test

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and the functional task test is really

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looking at how multiple physiological

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systems impact ability of astronauts do

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functional tasks over the years we've

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done a really good job with defining how

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individual physiological systems in a

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change as a result of spaceflight but

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we've never put the pieces together in

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one complete study but more importantly

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we've never linked those physiological

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changes to functional changes in

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astronauts really operational changes so

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functional test test is really an

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integrative study involving three of the

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labs at JSC the cardiovascular lab

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neuroscience lab exercise physiology lab

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are focused specifically on making that

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link between functional changes and the

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underlying physiology involved and you

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ultimately the reason for doing that is

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we're interested in developing

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countermeasures and we want to focus on

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the counter measures on countermeasures

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on systems that really make a difference

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in terms of functional change have you

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seen over the years a lot of functional

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change and things that change in in my

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sure I mean so that some of the more

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obvious changes we see are in partial

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stability and ability to walk we've done

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previous studies where crew members

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walked obstacle courses and did those

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type of functions as we see significant

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partial instability half after

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spaceflight that's my sort of area of

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interest but of course you see changes

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in well and other physiological systems

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to let the cardiovascular system there's

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orthostatic intolerance which is the

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potential for fainting when when when

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the crewmember stands up

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as muscle performance changes their

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strength changes there's muscle atrophy

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so all those systems sort of combined

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together to create the change in

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functional outcome so how are we

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studying this how is it operationally

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for you this is a pre and post flight

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study and we test them three times

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pre-flight and then we were able to test

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them on 24 hours after landing the crew

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comes from ISS lands in Russia they fly

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back to Johnson Space Center and we

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start doing the data collection they are

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about 24 hours after landing and then we

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test them six days and 30 days done the

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way we test them is we have a set of

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functional tests that we do which are

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things like obstacle course testing

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hatch opening letter climbing various

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task of object displacement so various

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hands-on functional tasks and then we

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have a set of corresponding

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physiological tasks that look at various

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physiological changes that include

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changes in muscle performance

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neurological changes and cardiovascular

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changes and putting all those pieces

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together is really what we're trying to

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do I'm going to tell you I'd hate to be

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on Space Station then come back and have

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to run an obstacle course that would not

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be yes it is challenging absolutely tell

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me how long this has been going on and

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how long it will go on well we've

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already completed seven subjects we're

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asking for 13 subjects so we're about

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halfway through our subject count even

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doing the experiment for about two two

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and a half years we expect another two

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years to collect the rest of our data we

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learn anything so far that you can share

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some of the preliminary data when we

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look at some of the functional tasks so

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the clearly the functional tasks that

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require partial stability are are

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affected the mouse or the obstacle

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course test our posture stability test

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those are the tests tests that have less

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requirement for posterous to be like

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hatch opening where you can hold on to

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the hatch those testing that are less

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impaired by by by spaceflight

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and along the lines of human research we

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want to share some news about a recently

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identified health problem with

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astronauts vision and some new research

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that that is leading to is called the

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visual impairment and intracranial

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pressure risk and it has become the

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number one human space flight risk when

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we talk about intracranial pressure

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we're talking about pressure inside the

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brain and on-orbit crew members

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experience fluid shifts to the head

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caused by microgravity and therefore

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it's hypothesized that all crew members

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have elevated intracranial pressure to

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some degree researchers have linked this

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increased pressure to changes in vision

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and long-duration astronauts and when

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the vision impairment study began all

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crew members pre-flight had normal eye

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examinations but post flight

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measurements showed a degradation and

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vision primarily increasing

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farsightedness 41 crew members have

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flown to date and of those 19 were

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identified as having visual changes on

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their return six did not have symptoms

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and 16 others could not be classified

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classified as they flew in the early

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increments which did not have the

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imaging techniques available as in the

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last six to seven years now researchers

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are looking at finding a technique to

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measure these visual changes in flight

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non-invasively and to understand what's

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contributing to it a technique like this

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is highly sought after on earth as well

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as to measure intracranial pressure and

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NASA is on the cutting edge of that

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research and identifying devices that

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could be used in flight results of these

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studies may also be relevant for

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patients suffering from I diseases here

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on earth such as glaucoma NASA's human

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research program will look at this risk

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over the next 10 years and find

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investigators to study the intracranial