✧ Health & Medicine for Humans in Space ✧

On some odd horoscope website, I read that the number 86 symbolizes changing times. This is my 86th blog post that cements my last action project for GCE. It cements that times are changing for me. I cannot put into words how deeply saddened I am to be leaving GCE, but similarly, I cannot put into words how excited I am for what is to come. So, to close off my high school career, I present to you my final action project (AP) for my class Frontiers and for my time here at GCE as a whole.

In this last STEAM class, Frontiers, we have mostly studied the frontiers of ocean explorations, but this last few weeks we have focused on the exploration of space. To learn more about space in general we watched the documentary Ancient Skies: Gods & Monsters, read a few chapters from Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an excerpt from Cosmos by Carl Sagan, and learned to work with Kepler's Laws. All in all, a fascinating class about one of the greatest unknowns.

For our AP we were to create a digital conference poster about a specific Grand Challenge related to space. I chose the challenge "Protection of Humans" from frontieris.org's Current Challenges and Opportunities for Space Technologies. Below you will find my conference poster as well as the script I would use if I were to actually present my topic at a conference!

GGS. H&M for Humans in Space. 2021.

For humans to be able to explore space they have to be in good health and have reliable and innovative medicine. NASA has an infamously difficult physical test to be considered to be an astronaut. It measures bodily functions (20/20 vision is required), blood pressure (which can’t exceed 140/90 sitting), height (which should be between 5’2” and 6’3”), and swimming strength. A human’s health is the backbone for their survival, function, and performance in the challenging and potentially lethal environment that is space.

According to Hodkinson 2017, “space medicine can broadly be defined as the practice of all aspects of preventive medicine including screening, health care delivery, and maintaining human performance in the extreme environment of space and preserving the long-term health of space travelers.” The core concepts of space medicine stretch out throughout the entire process of space travel. From crew selection, physical testing, and life support technologies to medical engineering.

The most pressing space-specific health issues are the exposure to increased acceleration (both vertical and horizontal) which affect the cardiorespiratory systems, fluid redistribution shrinks the legs, weight-bearing bones and muscles deteriorate, loss of 10-15% of blood plasma creates temporary anemia, radiation illnesses, and Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS).

Overall, 60% to 80% of astronauts experience space adaptation syndrome within the first three days of travel, symptoms include nausea, pallor, and vomiting.

Ocular health is checked daily in space as vision changes spending long periods of time in space.

Radiation is a critical barrier to space travel as the radiation shielding options are currently limited. There are 4 main types of ionizing space radiation; galactic cosmic radiation, solar particle events, solar protons, and trapped radiation. On Earth we are protected by the atmosphere and Earth’s geomagnetic field, outside of the protection of the Earth’s atmosphere, cosmic radiation damages cellular DNA, increasing the risk of certain cancers.

Other smaller health issues include fluid redistribution causing head congestion and puffy face, raised CO2, hypoxia, radiation illnesses, inhaling foreign bodies, a variety of musculoskeletal injuries, and trauma.

One of the biggest problems with space health is that medical provisions are severely limited when traveling in space with a crew of fewer than 10 people, without proper available equipment or skills. Often space surgeons and doctors are on the ground ready to provide medical assistance when needed. This is why astronauts’ physicals are so tough and strict. If you have certain conditions or medical issues that affect your vision, breathing, or reaction time it is going to be a lot harder for you to become an astronaut.

Mitigation strategies for radiation exposure on long-duration space flights are challenging, but include scheduling missions to when solar activity is at a minimum, using materials of low atomic mass and high hydrogen content (water), and biological countermeasures such as chemoprevention medication. To reduce musculoskeletal and skeletal deterioration space crews have individually tailored exercise programs and access to a variety of aerobic and resistive exercise devices. Space medicine doctors are on the ground present to solve any physical, physiological, or emergency medical problems the crew itself is unable to solve on their own.

More technical solutions include creating artificial onboard gravity. This can be done either continuously by spinning the entire spacecraft, or with an onboard short arm centrifuge to intermittently spin individual astronauts. There are also many studies being conducted on organ cells, animals, and astronauts themselves to study the effects of space travel and exposure.

One of the most famous studies is NASA’s 2015 Twins Study that had ten research teams from around the country observe what physiological, molecular, and cognitive changes could happen to a human from exposure to spaceflight hazards. This was done by comparing retired astronaut Scott Kelly while he was in space, to his identical twin brother, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, who remained on Earth. Because identical twins share the same genetic makeup, twin studies provide a way for scientists to explore how our health is impacted by the environment around us, independent of the variations that occur between humans as individuals.

Two of the most exciting discoveries from this study are that Scott (the space twin) experienced changes in his telomere length, telomeres are the ends of each strand of DNA (though they readjusted after a few days back on earth), Scott also received flu vaccines in space and reacted identically to how his brother did one Earth! There are many other different findings of different parts of the human body and psyche which will prove incredibly useful for future space missions and exploration.

Citations:
G. S. Aglietti. “Current Challenges and Opportunities for Space Technologies”. Front. Space Technologies. [June 12, 2020 ; June, 2021]. 1:1. LINK.

Ó. S. Blanco, J. C. C. Terán, D. R. Cazorla. “Study Of Artificial Gravity Systems For Long Duration Space Missions”. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya Barcelonatech. [Nov. 2020 ; June 2021]. 1:1. LINK.

P. D. Hodkinson, R. A. Anderton, B. N. Posselt, K. J. Fong. “
”. British Journal of Anaesthesia. [Dec. 2017 ; June 2021] 119(1): 142-153. LINK.

Now, you may no longer see any blog posts from me, but this most certainly will not be the last you hear from me. Thank you for following me on this insane 4-year-long ride.

Much love,

          Mena