Astronauts' Ailments

Spotlight Archive

February 5, 1999
Brooklyn College Professor Teams Up with Harvard
and Other Schools to Study Astronauts' Ailments

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Richard Coniglione/Alice Newcomb-Doyle (718) 951-5882

Brooklyn, NY - Walking on the moon is easy. Walking on Earth afterward, however, is another story. Astronauts returning from space flights consistently experience difficulties with such normally mundane activities as turning corners, walking, and simply standing. These problems might quickly turn hazardous in the event of an emergency escape from a space shuttle on landing.

How and why the absence of gravity during space travel affects human balance is a mystery under investigation by Theodore Raphan, distinguished professor of computer and information science at Brooklyn College, and a team of his undergraduate and graduate students. A $119,000 grant from the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and support from the New York State Higher Education Applied Technology (HEAT) program is enabling Dr. Raphan to participate in a project of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in cooperation with scientists from Baylor College of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morehouse School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Rice University, and Texas A & M University. A large portion of Dr. Raphan's research will use circular and linear treadmills to document and quantify locomotion problems associated with space flight.

"The goal of the project is to develop quantitative, parametric approaches for assessing gaze stability and spatial orientation during normal walking and when walking is unsteady," said Dr. Raphan. "By measuring head, eye, and limb movements, it will be easier to understand natural human locomotion."

According to Dr. Raphan, the results could be enormously beneficial for space travelers and earthbound humans as well. "If we can devise a computer model of human locomotion and use it as a basis for diagnosis at a neuronal level, then perhaps we can use the same methodologies to study such illnesses as Parkinson's disease, where locomotion is a problem."

Brooklyn College, founded in 1930, is one of the eleven senior colleges of the City University of New York. The school is known nationally for its core curriculum, which has been hailed by educators as one of the "bright spots" in American higher education. Located on a 26-acre tree-lined campus in Flatbush, Brooklyn College has a diverse student body representing more than 70 of the borough's 100 ethnic groups.