Roberto Vittori speaks to the Italian military

Roberto Vittori speaks to the Italian military


19 April 2005
Can space contribute to improving life on Earth? Can space activities really
meet the needs of people on Earth? Can Italy maintain its top-level position
in research in the aeronautic sector.

These were the themes of the questions discussed on Monday 18 April at 21:12
(CEST) during an audio-video link between the Interforce Operational Centre
of the Italian Ministry of Defence and Roberto Vittori, the Italian ESA
astronaut at present living in microgravity inside Zvedza, the Russian
living quarters on board the International Space Station (ISS).

Vittori, who is now on the second day of his stay on the ISS thanks to an
ESA mission supported by the Italian Region of Lazio and the Italian
Ministry of Defence, spent nine minutes talking to Italian Defence Ministry
representatives, Admiral Giampaolo di Paola, Chief of Staff of Italian
Defence and General Leonardo Tricarico, Chief of Staff of the Italian Air
Force.

Space exploration is fundamental and not just because of its strategic
importance. It is also a source of technological innovation and development.
This is why the Italian Air Force Flight Test Centre (CSV) is collaborating
with the Medical Division of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre.
Since last January, three medical officers from the Italian Air Force have
been following a course at Star City, near Moscow to qualify as Space Flight
Surgeons.
In the future, this will enable Major Francesco Torchia, Captain Paola Verde
and Captain Angelo Landolfi to carry out a support role in all medical
aspects of a spaceflight, whether long or short. This will also enable CVS
to obtain Russian certification allowing them to carry out some of the tests
needed to select Italian astronauts, at the Italian facilities in Pratica di
Mare, just outside Rome.
This is the first time that the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre has
collaborated so closely with another nation and testifies the desire of the
Italian Air Force to maintain its strong level of know-how in the space
medicine sector.

The CSV's interest in space medicine is also shown by the presence of the
VSV experiment on board the ISS as part of the Eneide Mission. Colonel
Enrico Tomao, the head of flight and space medicine at CSV, is the Principal
Investigator for a human physiology experiment designed to analyse the
visceral receptor performance within an environment which rules out possible
bias due to visual and gravitational inputs.

Orientation is mainly due to inputs from specialised sensors located in the
eye, the inner ear, and joints and muscles. Recently new inputs have been
revealed. Some receptors in the kidneys and the thorax are also sensible to
shifts of blood mass and contribute to the sense of subjective vertical:
that is, an individual's perception of vertical orientation. As this find is
so recent, there is still little data on the effect this would have in an
environment such as the ISS.

The first phase of the experiment was carried out when Vittori was still at
the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow. On 21 April Vittori will
undergo a second trail onboard the ISS, lasting an hour, during which a
system called Lower Body Negative Pressure will be used. This results in the
movement of fluids, mainly blood, toward the feet, thus stimulating the
visceral receptors. The last phase of the experiment will be carried after
re-entry to see the effects, if any, of prolonged exposure to microgravity.

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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info