New non-invasive techniques for crew health monitoring in space

The present paper discusses some of the available non-invasive methods that are currently being evaluated at the University of Sheffield. Applied potential tomography (APT) has considerable potential as an imaging system (albeit of low resolution), which can be readily transferable to the space environment and provide information on fluid shifts on insertion into, and subsequently adaptation to, microgravity. Modern biochemical methods for the analysis of urine can provide information on many aspects of metabolic activity. The monitoring of bone formation and resorption is particularly relevant to space. The bodies handling of food can additionally be investigated by monitoring non-invasively the transit of contents through the gastrointestinal tract. These and other non-invasive monitoring techniques offers to move space medicine closer to clinical observation systems used on earth.