Aerospace Biomedical and Life Support Engineering
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this quantitative look at how the human body adapts to microgravity and partial gravity environments. The curriculum opens with an introduction covering the physiological challenges of spaceflight and key engineering terminology, then moves through modules on bone mechanics, muscle mechanics, musculoskeletal dynamics and control, and the cardiovascular system. Each module starts with the underlying biology before working toward engineering analysis of specific problems and countermeasures, such as bone loss or muscle atrophy in orbit. Later material extends into interdisciplinary topics like extravehicular activity and life support systems. The course closes with a term project in which students apply these engineering methods to a self-directed problem. Materials come from MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and include lecture notes and project guidelines, free to access through MIT OpenCourseWare.