National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2017.

Review of NASA’s evidence

reports on human health risks: 2016 letter report. Washington, DC: The National

Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23678.

A 13 member committee assembled from the National Academies of Science which

analyzed eight different reports from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) on the Evidence Reports of Human Health Risks. The journal includes the functions and

research done by NASA and risks assessed with the specified criteria, is the evidence sufficient,

any gaps in the study, possible relevant interactions among risks, the quality of the report, and if

the cited literature is reliable. The reports are as follows, risk of cardiovascular disease and other

degenerative tissue effects from radiation exposure, risk of radiation carcinogenesis, risk of acute

radiation syndromes due to solar particle events, risk of acute and late central nervous system

effects from radiation exposure, risk of adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions and

psychiatric disorders, risk of performance and behavioral health decrements due to inadequate

cooperation, coordination, communication, and psychological adaptation within a team, risk of

performance decrements and adverse health outcomes resulting from sleep loss, circadian

desynchronization, and work overload, and the risk of impaired control of spacecraft/ associated

systems and decreased mobility due to vestibular/ sensorimotor.

This current source was written by Carol E.H. Scott-Conner, Daniel R. Masys, and

Catharyn T. Liverman, all editors and apart of the Committee to Review NASA's Evidence

Reports on Human Health Risks, as well as the Board on Health Sciences Policy; Health and

Medicine Division; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The journal

was published for peer review by the National Academies Press, a publisher for scientists to

report their scholarly research to other educators. The objective of this report is to showcase all
of the different risks spaceflight poses to the human body along with the research that has been

done to potentially reduce these dangers. For example, the committee members review different

risk factors and define all the possible outcomes and possible prevention. Coverage for this

source is considered broad because of the in depth analysis done to assess all of the risk factors.

According to “Health Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflight: Ethics

Principles, Responsibilities, and Decision Framework”, a consensus study report written by

members from the Institute of Medicine, the information stated in this report is accurate. Two

sides of the story are identified and explained, a committee is analyzing NASA reports and

includes both the studies done by the NASA scientists as well as the gaps that are present in the

research.