A substantial amount of life-sciences research has been performed in space since the beginning of human spaceflight. Investigations into bone loss, for example, are well known; other areas, such as neurovestibular function, were expected to be problematic even before humans ventured into space. Much of this research has been applied research, with a primary goal of maintaining the health and performance of astronauts in space, as opposed to research to obtain fundamental understanding or to translate to medical care on Earth. Some people-scientists and concerned citizens-have questioned the broader scientific value of this research, with the claim that the only reason to perform human research in space is to keep humans healthy in space. Here, we present examples that demonstrate that, although this research was focused on applied goals for spaceflight participants, the results of these studies are of fundamental scientific and biomedical importance. We will focus on results from bone physiology, cardiovascular and pulmonary systems, and neurovestibular studies. In these cases, findings from spaceflight research have provided a foundation for enhancing healthcare terrestrially and have increased our knowledge of basic physiological processes.

中文翻译：

---

人类在太空中进行的与地球人类健康相关的研究发现。

自人类太空飞行开始以来，已经在太空中进行了大量的生命科学研究。例如，对骨质流失的研究是众所周知的。甚至在人类冒险进入太空之前，其他区域，例如神经前庭功能也有望出现问题。这项研究大部分是应用研究，其主要目标是维持太空宇航员的健康和表现，而不是为了获得基本了解或转化为地球上的医疗保健而进行的研究。一些人科学家和关注的市民对这项研究的更广泛的科学价值提出了质疑，他们声称在太空中进行人类研究的唯一原因是保持人类在太空中的健康。在这里，我们提供一些示例来证明这一点，尽管这项研究的重点是航天飞行参与者的应用目标，但这些研究的结果具有根本的科学和生物医学意义。我们将重点研究骨骼生理学，心血管和肺系统以及神经前庭研究的结果。在这些情况下，航天研究的发现为增强地面医疗保健提供了基础，并增加了我们对基本生理过程的了解。