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Grappling with Gravity

How Will Life Adapt to Living in Space?

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

  • Most books that cover the physiological effects of living in space on humans and other life forms were written for fellow scientists and researchers or students
  • Discusses reproductive problems that will be faced while living in a space colony or on to offworld body
  • Offers supplementary material on the"Springer Extras" website, including12 different videos from space that clearly demonstrate changes that will occur in the human body

Part of the book series: Astronomers' Universe (ASTRONOM)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Space Here We Come

  2. SPACE, HERE WE COME

  3. Life in Space

  4. LIFE IN SPACE

  5. Preparing for the Future

  6. PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

Keywords

About this book

Grappling with Gravity explores the physiological changes that will occur in humans and the plants and animals that accompany humans as we move to new worlds, be it to colony in the emptiness of space or settlements on the Moon, Mars, or other moons or planets. This book focuses on the biomedical aspects, while not ignoring other life-changing influences of space living. For example, what happens to people physiologically in the microgravity of space, where weight and the direction "up" become meaningless? Adapting to microgravity represents the greatest environmental challenge that life will have encountered since our ancestors moved from the seas to solid Earth. Away from Earth the human body will begin almost immediately to adapt and change, to be able to function in these strange environments. As a person adapts in space he or she will become less fit to live on Earth.

Reviews

From the reviews:

“In Robert W. Phillips’ book, Grappling with Gravity, one can read mostly about some of the biggest problems that astronauts face in micro-gravity … . an ideal book for those interested in the changes that the human body will experience away from the familiar Earth’s environment. … it is written in a simple way, so it might even be suitable for younger readers who have a little bit of knowledge about how the human body works.” (Kadri Tinn, AstroMadness.com, May, 2014)

“Written for the layman … this is an informative survey of the problems and the effects associated with microgravity space flight. … The book is an excellent guide to the general conditions experienced in microgravity and provides a potted history of flight through the atmosphere and early missions into space from the physiological perspective. … With 271 pages and 113 illustrations, this is a worthy little book and one that is an easy and satisfying read … .” (Spaceflight, Vol. 54 (7), July, 2012)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Fort Collins, USA

    Robert W. Phillips

About the author

Robert Phillips is a veterinarian and has also a doctorate in Physiology/Nutrition. He taught and conducted research at Colorado State University until 1984, when he was selected by NASA to fly on the"Spacelab Life Sciences 1," the first shuttle mission devoted to biomedical research. Ten months prior to launch Phillips had to remove himself from flight status due to a medical condition. He supported the mission from the payload operations control center. Following the mission, Phillips served for three years at NASA HQ as the Space Station Chief Scientist during the station's design phase. He then joined the NASA Life Sciences Education and Outreach program for 10 years, presenting seminars and workshops to teachers, students, and the public about the effects of spaceflight on life.

Bibliographic Information

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