Item Details

title

Spinal Muscle Changes and Occupant Injury Risk Prediction in Spaceflight

author

McNamara, Kyle Patrick

abstract

Significant skeletal muscle atrophy occurs in crewmembers of long-duration spaceflights. Exposure to long-duration microgravity reduces muscle mass, particularly in the legs and back. Research on muscle atrophy during long-duration spaceflight has primarily focused on the lower extremities, so limited data are available to characterize loss in the supporting spinal musculature. Atrophied and weakened spinal musculature paired with vertebral bone loss could reduce an astronaut’s performance on a mission and affect their quality of life upon return to Earth, since lost muscle and bone mass is not immediately restored. In particular, the combination of spaceflight-induced muscular strength decrement, sensorimotor impairment, reduced postural stability, and bone deterioration may predispose astronauts to vertebral fracture due to falls and/or dynamic loading encountered in spacecraft launches and landings.

subject

Astronaut

Finite Element Modeling

Microgravity

Muscle Atrophy

Sled Testing

contributor

Weaver, Ashely A (committee chair)

Gayzik, Francis S (committee member)

Beavers, Kristen M (committee member)

Lenchik, Leon (committee member)

date

2019-05-24T08:35:52Z (accessioned)

2021-05-23T08:30:11Z (available)

2019 (issued)

degree

Biomedical Engineering (discipline)

embargo

2021-05-23 (terms)

identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/93995 (uri)

language

en (iso)

publisher

Wake Forest University

type

Dissertation