Astronauts on long-duration missions to the moon, Mars and beyond will need to learn extensive medical skills to treat life-threatening illnesses and injuries, an intensive care expert has warned.
Read more: Apollo astronaut deaths raise serious concerns about deep space travel
They may also need to prepare for the worst as some “non-survivable illnesses or injuries” will be beyond their treatment capabilities.
While crews already undergo a certain degree of medical training, it still only covers a fraction of the possible treatments that could be carried out by a fully qualified doctor. Astronauts are also limited by how much equipment and medicine they can carry with them.
"Space exploration missions to the Moon and Mars are planned in the coming years. During these long duration flights, the estimated risk of severe medical and surgical events, as well as the risk of loss of crew life are significant" Matthieu Komorowski, a consultant in intensive care and anaesthesia at London’s Charing Cross Hospital, says.
"The exposure to the space environment itself disturbs most physiological systems and can precipitate the onset of space-specific illnesses, such as cardiovascular deconditioning, acute radiation syndrome, hypobaric decompression sickness and osteoporotic fractures."
Komorowski is one of a group of experts that will discuss the challenges of emergency medical care in space at this week’s Euroanaesthesia congress in Geneva.
"In the worst-case scenario, non-medical personnel may have to care for an injured or ill crewmember. Far from low earth orbit, real-time telemedicine will not be available and the crew will need to be self-reliant," explains Komorowski.
Read more: Could you cut it as an astronaut? Try your hand at these real-life training scenarios
"Duplication of skills will be critical to enhance crew safety, especially if the doctor on board himself becomes ill, injured, incapacitated or dies. As such, extending basic medical training to most crewmembers will be extremely important".
He explains that, in some cases, treatment may simply be unfeasible. "In remote environments, medical and surgical conditions with a low probability of success that also require using vast quantities of consumables are often not attempted".
Various techniques for medical treatment in space are being developed in harsh environments on Earth, such as Antarctic polar bases and during military operations. These include matching crew members by blood type to enable transfusions when there is no spare blood and 3D-printing medical equipment when it’s needed rather than launching items from Earth.
Astronauts are selected partially for their good health, and are continually monitored through their training to identify any potential conditions but long-term missions increase the risks significantly.
"There is also a substantial risk for a cardiac arrest in space requiring CPR," says Jochen Hinkelbein, from the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany.
The microgravity environment of space presents a big challenge as actions like CPR, that require a person to use their body weight, will not work in the same way. Prof Hinkelbein will outline a number of space-friendly alternatives at this week’s conference, including methods that have been tested on parabolic microgravity flights.
"In the context of future space exploration, the longer duration of missions, and the consecutively higher risk of an incident requiring resuscitation increase the importance of microgravity-appropriate medical techniques," Hinkelbein explains.
The issue of deep space health is one that is being taken seriously. Last year, a study of the astronauts that flew on Apollo moon missions in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s raised new concerns over the affects of deep space radiation on the body.
The research found that of the seven of the astronauts who had died, almost half had died as a result of cardiovascular disease. Compared with astronauts who had flown in Low Earth Orbit and those who had trained but not yet left Earth, the study found that those who flew into deep space had a 43 per cent higher chance of being struck down by cardiovascular problems.
Another study from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), found that astronauts travelling to Mars and beyond could be at risk from chronic dementia.
Long-term microgravity missions are also known to weaken bones and affect eyesight. Space agencies around the world are developing ways to combat these issues in preparation for future long-term missions.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
