NASA’s One-Year Mission investigators are peering into their new findings to help address astronaut vision issues. Cardiovascular and Vision Lab lead Michael Stenger, Ph.D., and principal investigator for the Fluid Shifts investigation, hypothesized Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome (SANS) to be caused by blood flow toward the head due to lack of gravity, resulting in changes to eye structure and possibly vision changes. The One-Year Mission enabled Stenger to see if vision changes occurring during six-month missions continued and worsened when the mission is extended to a year. He discovered that one subject developed SANS early in the mission and had some symptoms worsen as the mission lengthened while another did not. The subject who did not experience SANS symptoms during the first six months of flight did start to show some changes near the end of his year in space, suggesting that length of time in space may impact the eye.
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