[Past and present medical and biological studies in Italy on microgravity]

Since 1957, Italian workers have been carrying out experiments on the physiological and pathological effects of the weightlessness encountered during space travel. Most of this work has been done at the Air Force Aviation Medicine Study and Research Centre, Rome, while other research has been conducted at the Department of Human Physiology, University of Milan. Various original devices (axis subgravitis tower, triaxial clinostats, etc.) have been devised and constructed to simulate partial and total weightlessness. They have been employed well ahead of actual space flights in investigations of the effects of weightlessness on vestibular function, sensory and muscle coordination, the position of the diaphragm and its adjacent viscera, locomotion, plant growth, rapid adaptation phenomena, etc. One experiment conducted during orbital flight was called Orbiting Frog Otolith. This investigated vestibular function under statis and dynamic conditions in the absence of weight. An Italian three-dimensional ballistocardiography experimental project will be conducted during the first Spacelab flight.