Abstract
At TNO research is ongoing on neuro-vestibular adaptation to altered G-levels. It is well-known that during the first days in weightlessness 50-80% of all astronauts suffer from the Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS), which involves space motion sickness, spatial disorientation and motion illusions. After return on Earth the problems re-appear, but now also accompanied by postural imbalance. Standard tests for motion sickness, typically applied in astronaut selection programs, do not correlate with SAS at all. TNO developed a method which effectively simulates SAS on Earth, by exposing astronauts to a hypergravity stimulus of 3G in a human centrifuge for one hour. So far we tested the susceptibility for SIC in 12 astronauts and cosmonauts who also rated their susceptibility for SAS in actual spaceflight. The correlation is 100%, suggesting a common mechanism for any G-level transition, whether it is from 1G to 0G or from 3G to 1G. This paper describes the current status of this research.
