Part I: Prelude: A personal view from above.-A view from the ESA Topical Team Stress and Immunity. Part II: "Stress and Immunity"-research: a tight link between space and earth: What is Stress? The impact of everyday stressors on the immune system and health. Part III: Stress & Immune Allostasis in Space, from brain to immune responses: Neurobiological mechanisms of stress and glucocorticoid effects on learning and memory: implications for stress disorders on earth and in space -- The autonomous nervous system -- Circadian rhythm and stress -- Endocannabinoids, “new-old” mediators of stress homeostasis -- Immune System, definitions and stress-sensitive functions -- Innate Immunity under conditions of space flight.-NK Cells assessments: a thirty year old History of Immune stress interaction in Space -- Adaptive Immunity and Spaceflight.-Stress, Hypoxia, and Immune Response -- Gravitational force – triggered stress in cells of the immune system.-Microbial Stress: Spaceflight-induced alterations in microbial virulence and infectious disease risks for the crew -- Stress, Spaceflight, and Latent Herpes Viruses Reactivation -- Stress and Radiation-responsiveness. Part IV: Preventive and Diagnostic Tool & Strategies: Consideration on minimal or non-invasive monitoring applications -- Psychological Monitoring -- Breath gas analyses -- Microbiological environment, complementary procedures -- Thermoregulation -- Flow Cytometry.-  Radiation Sensitivity. Part V: Therapeutic Strategies: Intro.- Psychological -- Physical -- Nutrition -- Pharmacological.

Stress of either a psychological or a physical nature can activate and/or paralyse humans’ innate or adaptive immunity. However, adequate immunity is crucial to the maintenance of health on earth and in space. During space flight, human physiology and health are challenged by complex environmental stressors (confinement, gravitation, oxygen tension, radiation) which might be at their most pronounced during lunar or interplanetary missions. This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach in seeking to identify the impact of living conditions in space on the adaptation of the immune system. While other publications have addressed the physiological changes that occur during space flight, to the authors’ knowledge this is the first book specifically to analyze the complex interaction of living conditions in space, the immune system, and astronauts’ health. It is explained how such analysis of the consequences of stress for the immune system may help in preventing, diagnosing, and counteracting immune-related alterations in health on earth as well as in space.