Habitability and Environmental Factors

The target of this research area invovles the habitability of spacecraft and space-based environments and the environmental effects on humans and other organisms with specific emphasis on barophysiology, microbiology and toxicology and radiation. This focus area asks for an understanding of physical and chemical sciences, including heat and mass transfer, acoustics, radiation, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and chemical, biological, metabolic and human factors processes. NASA engineers are pursuing this research to integrate and apply this understanding to develop systems and technology to enable humans to live and work safely and effectively in space.