Portable Pulmonary Function System
- Paper number
IAC-08.A1.3.12
- Author
Dr. Stefano Ferretti, European Space Agency (ESA), The Netherlands
- Year
2008
- Abstract
The European Space Agency has developed a novel biomedical instrument which allows for a variety of pulmonary function measurements particularly useful to monitor crew health during long duration missions. The Portable Pulmonary Function System, a small and portable payload, is developed by Damec Research Aps, a high technology Danish company operating in the area of advanced medical instrumentation, which supported human physiological research already in the MIR station and on the Space Shuttle. In fact the Portable Pulmonary Function System is designed to meet the operability criteria for its use under weightlessness and the functioning of the unit subsystems is automated, in the way that its functions are under the centralized control of the a Data Management System, which also allow the system to operate together with other physiological instruments, like a Bicycle Ergometer, a Dynamometer, a Lower Body Negative Pressure Device (LBNP), a Treadmill and eventually small items of instrumentation provided by the experimenters. The Portable Pulmonary Function System will be used on the International Space Station, first in conjunction with the Physical Fitness Evaluation performed by ESA and NASA on the Crew, allowing high quality VO2 uptake, Pulmonary Blood Flow, Functional Residual Capacity, Volume of pulmonary capillary blood, Total Lung Capacity, Alveolar Ventilation, Dead Space Volume, Tidal Volume, Residual Volume, Expiratory Reserve Volume, Fractional inspiratory and expiratory volumes, Respiratory exchange ratio VO2/VCO2, Forced Expired Spirometry, Vital Capacity measurements, but also cardiovascular measurements like Cardiac Output, ST measurements, ST slope, Arrhythmia’s, Systolic Blood Pressure, Diastolic Blood Pressure, Mean Blood Pressure and Oxygen saturation (SpO2). The O2, CO2, SF6, R22, N2 gases can be measured to precisely determine all the parameters mentioned above and to this purpose the Portable PFS is equipped with a Multi Gas Analyser, a Gas Supply System, Respiratory Valve, Flowmeter, Mixing Bag System, 12 lead ECG, Blood Pressure System, Pulse Oximeter and Data Management System. The combination of subsystems is determined by the needs and requirements from the Portable PFS users and the selection is based on what data wants to be retrieved. In particular three main operational setups form the basic Portable PFS operation: Breath-By-Breath Mode, Rebreathing Mode and Mixing-Bag Mode. The useful life of the equipment is a minimum of 10 years and all components of the Portable PFS have an operational life of 10,000 hours, which therefore make it a good candidate for long duration and exploration missions, ensuring crew health monitoring even in remote environments. ************************************************ The material is new and original and it has not been presented previously. The author ensure the presence of at least one of the authors at the conference, possibly with the hardware for a hands-on presentation.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.A1.3.12.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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