Folder 28, "Flight Surgeon's Guide," Department of the Air Force, December 1968

In: https://hdl.handle.net/10605/351560

Open Access

Abstract

Dr. Sherman P. Vinograd fulfilled the roles of Chief of Medical Science and Technology and Director of Biomedical Research at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) from the fall of 1961 until the spring of 1979. In this role he shaped, organized, and directed NASA's program of medical research as a funded program of studies, which was carried out in not only NASA Center laboratories, but also in university, industry, and other government laboratories and hospitals all over the country. It produced a large substrate of information through its bed rest studies, vestibular, bone, neuromuscular, hematology, and cardiovascular researches. It also produced valuable fall-out, such as an accurate bone density measurement technique which is now in common clinical use. ; His major activities during this career were conceptualizing, establishing, and chairing the Space Medicine Advisory Group (SPAMAG) charged with defining the earth-based and space-based research and life-support requirements for a manned orbiting research laboratory. This group designed a carefully planned study utilizing highly qualified, specialized members of the scientific community. They postulated a non-existent orbiting laboratory to be designed according to the needs of future human flight crews and requirements for human spaceflight information. This would result in the creation of Skylab. ; He was also responsible for establishing the In-flight Medical Experiments Program in preparation for the Apollo series of manned space flights. This program was a series of carefully designed flight crew studies derived from proposals by qualified scientists both from within and outside NASA to evaluate human responses to spaceflight. ; In addition, Dr. Vinograd developed a supportive Research and Development Program necessary to provide pertinent ground-based data and to advance state-of-the-art medical measurement technology, a major development of which was the Integrated Medical and Behavioral Laboratory Measurement System (IMBLMS). This consisted of medical experiments and accompanying equipment necessary to perform them that was used from the Gemini through the Skylab manned space flight programs. Carried aboard virtually any post-Apollo space vehicle by virtue of its rack and module design, these designs were used well into the future. He also fostered the continuing ground-based medical research program sponsored and/or conducted by NASA. ; The Dr. Sherman P. Vinograd Aerospace Exploration collection consists of artifacts, books, correspondence, financial materials, newspapers, photographs, plaques, printed materials, and reports relating to Dr. Vinograd's early life, his career as an M. D. prior to joining NASA, his years as a physician and researcher at NASA, and the other professional organizations and projects in which he was involved both during and after these periods. ; Box 3, Folder 28