Man is not made for space. But with the help of biologists and medical doctors, he can be prepared and accommodated.
You can say that this is just what aerospace medicine is all about - to save the lives of the men who climb to the high reaches above the Earth and beyond this planet.
Space is an environment of emptiness. It offers no possibility for natural adaptation to any living organism - and particularly not to the highly sophisticated creature, man. Yet man has the ability to resolve this paradox through his intellectual power and creative faculties.
The conquest of the outskirts of the atmosphere, and eventually space, is a revolutionary event, comparable only to the transition of the aquatic animals to the land in geologic times.
If someday rockets should open the gates to space, then we must be oriented as to its environmental conditions and their possible biological effects. To study this, and to find means of protection, is one of the tasks of space medicine.
I believe that the time has arrived for medical investigation of the problems of manned rocket flight, for it will not be the engineering problems but rather the limits of the human frame that will make the final decision as to whether manned space flight will eventually become a reality.
It is not too farfetched that soon it will be possible for a physician to send the electrocardiogram and the heart sound via communication satellite to a distant heart specialist for diagnosis and consultation.
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