Assessment of Human External Respiration Parameters in Simulated Lunar Gravity and Microgravity

The paper presents main results of experiments devoted to studying the influence of simulated microgravity and lunar gravity on the function of external respiration in humans. It has been shown that influence of human exposure to head-down bed rest (a model of the physiological effects of microgravity) and head-up bed rest (a model of the physiological effects of lunar gravity), similar to the influence of a horizontal position (bed rest), leads to a clinically insignificant decrease in the main respiratory parameters in the first hours of these analogue ground-based investigations. Subsequently, during hypokinesia, the marked changes are gradually levelled out. After cessation of experimental exposures, parameters of external respiration function are at the level of background values.