ABSTRACT
At the time the NASA doctors concluded that it was a lack of potassium in the diet that was affecting the heart muscle and some crews were forced to drink large quantities of an orange drink unappetizingly laced with potassium. The mission Young described depended on a swing-by manoeuvre at the planet Venus, and if it had to be aborted within the first 40 days the spacecraft could return to leo in from 80 to 250 days. No-one thinks it unusual, he said in a paper presented to the Manned Mars Missions working group, when an individual develops clinical cancer a few months after being passed physically fit. Before astronauts are sent into space for long periods, research must be done to understand the physiological effects of the microgravity and radiation environments, to develop measures to counteract any adverse effects, and to develop medical techniques to perform routine and emergency health care aboard spacecraft.
