Question: What data is used to determine whether lengthy human spaceflight and space colonisation can be done?
About the article "International Space Station", section "Scientific research".

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Scientific Research on the International Space Station is a collection of experiments that require one or more of the unusual conditions present in low Earth orbit.
The primary fields of research include human research, space medicine, life sciences, physical sciences, astronomy and meteorology.
The 2005 NASA Authorization Act designated the American segment of the International Space Station as a national laboratory with the goal of increasing the use of the ISS by other federal agencies and the private sector.
Research on the ISS improves knowledge about the effects of long-term space exposure on the human body.
Subjects currently under study include muscle atrophy, bone loss, and fluid shift.
The data will be used to determine whether space colonisation and lengthy human spaceflight are feasible.
As of 2006, data on bone loss and muscular atrophy suggest that there would be a significant risk of fractures and movement problems if astronauts landed on a planet after a lengthy interplanetary cruise (such as the six-month journey time required to fly to Mars).
Large scale medical studies are conducted aboard the ISS via the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI).
Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity study in which astronauts (including former ISS Commanders Leroy Chiao and Gennady Padalka) perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts.
The study considers the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions in space.
Usually, there is no physician on board the ISS, and diagnosis of medical conditions is a challenge.
It is anticipated that remotely guided ultrasound scans will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations where access to a trained physician is difficult.
Researchers are investigating the effect of the station's near-weightless environment on the evolution, development, growth and internal processes of plants and animals.
In response to some of this data, NASA wants to investigate microgravity's effects on the growth of three-dimensional, human-like tissues, and the unusual protein crystals that can be formed in space.
The investigation of the physics of fluids in microgravity will allow researchers to model the behaviour of fluids better.
Because fluids can be almost completely combined in microgravity, physicists investigate fluids that do not mix well on Earth.
In addition, an examination of reactions that are slowed by low gravity and temperatures will give scientists a deeper understanding of superconductivity.
The study of materials science is an important ISS research activity, with the objective of reaping economic benefits through the improvement of techniques used on the ground.
Other areas of interest include the effect of the low gravity environment on combustion, through the study of the efficiency of burning and control of emissions and pollutants.
These findings may improve our knowledge about energy production, and lead to economic and environmental benefits.
Future plans are for the researchers aboard the ISS to examine aerosols, ozone, water vapour, and oxides in Earth's atmosphere, as well as cosmic rays, cosmic dust, antimatter, and dark matter in the universe. 
The ISS provides a platform to conduct scientific research that cannot be performed in any other way.
While small unmanned spacecraft can provide platforms for zero gravity and exposure to space, space stations offer a long term environment where studies can be performed potentially for decades, combined with ready access by human researchers over periods that exceed the capabilities of manned spacecraft.
The Station simplifies individual experiments by eliminating the need for separate rocket launches and research staff.
The wide variety of research fields include astrobiology, astronomy, human research including space medicine and life sciences, physical sciences, materials science, space weather, and weather on Earth (meteorology).
Scientists on Earth have access to the crew's data and can modify experiments or launch new ones, benefits generally unavailable on unmanned spacecraft.
Crews fly expeditions of several months duration, providing approximately 160-man-hours a week of labour with a crew of 6.
Kibō is intended to accelerate Japan's progress in science and technology, gain new knowledge and apply it to such fields as industry and medicine.
To detect dark matter and answer other fundamental questions about our universe, engineers and scientists from all over the world built the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), which NASA compares to the Hubble telescope, and says could not be accommodated on a free flying satellite platform due in part to its power requirements and data bandwidth needs.
On 3 April 2013, NASA scientists reported that hints of dark matter may have been detected by the "Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer".
According to the scientists, "The first results from the space-borne Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer confirm an unexplained excess of high-energy positrons in Earth-bound cosmic rays.
"The space environment is hostile to life.
Unprotected presence in space is characterised by an intense radiation field (consisting primarily of protons and other subatomic charged particles from the solar wind, in addition to cosmic rays), high vacuum, extreme temperatures, and microgravity.
Some simple forms of life called extremophiles, including small invertebrates called tardigrades can survive in this environment in an extremely dry state called desiccation.
Medical research improves knowledge about the effects of long-term space exposure on the human body, including muscle atrophy, bone loss, and fluid shift.
This data will be used to determine whether lengthy human spaceflight and space colonisation are feasible.
As of 2006, data on bone loss and muscular atrophy suggest that there would be a significant risk of fractures and movement problems if astronauts landed on a planet after a lengthy interplanetary cruise, such as the six-month interval required to travel to Mars.
Medical studies are conducted aboard the ISS on behalf of the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI).
Prominent among these is the Advanced Diagnostic Ultrasound in Microgravity study in which astronauts perform ultrasound scans under the guidance of remote experts.
The study considers the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions in space.
Usually, there is no physician on board the ISS and diagnosis of medical conditions is a challenge.
It is anticipated that remotely guided ultrasound scans will have application on Earth in emergency and rural care situations where access to a trained physician is difficult.
Since Gemini, exercise has been tried as a way of preventing bone loss, but it has not been shown to be successful.
This may be in part due to lack of adequately designed studies (no controlled study had been done as of 2005, either in space or using bedrest as an attempt to simulate conditions which lead to bone loss).
It is not known whether a different exercise regimen (perhaps including larger loads than past ones) would be effective.
Increasing dietary calcium and vitamin D is a standard countermeasure for osteoporosis.
Clay is reportedly used by NASA for retaining calcium.
A variety of drug remedies currently used or proposed for osteoporosis may work for spaceflight, including hormone therapy (estrogen and/or progestin), selective estrogen receptor modulators, bisphosphonates, teriparatide, and others.
Whether they can provide the same benefits for spaceflight as they do for osteoporosis is not yet known. 
During the 1950s and 1960s the USSR used dogs for sub-orbital and orbital space flights to determine whether human spaceflight was feasible.
In this period, the Soviet Union launched missions with passenger slots for at least 57 dogs.
The number of dogs in space is smaller, as some dogs flew more than once.
Most survived; the few that died were lost mostly through technical failures, according to the parameters of the test.
A notable exception is Laika, the first dog to be sent into orbit, whose death was expected from the outset. 
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