Characterizing dehydration in short-term spaceflight using evidence from Project Mercury

Short-term spaceflight is commonly perceived as posing minimal risk to human health and performance. However, despite their duration, short-term flights potentially induce acute physiological changes that create risk to crews. One such change is dehydration (primarily body water loss) due to a heat-stressed environment. Such loss, if severe and prolonged, can lead to decrements in performance as well as increase the risk of more serious medical conditions. Though the general mechanisms of dehydration are broadly understood, the rate and extent of dehydration in short-term spaceflight has not been characterized. Combining data from the six spaceflights of the US Mercury program with a causal diagram illustrating the mechanisms of dehydration, we fit a path model to estimate the causal effects for all pathways in the causal model. Results demonstrate that Mercury astronauts experienced some degree of dehydration across the range of suited time and that the relationship between suited time and dehydration appears to be logarithmic. We discuss causal interpretations of the results and how the results from this and similar analyses can inform countermeasure development for short-term spaceflight.