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we've known for quite some time that
space travel can do a number on human
health in addition to the common
injuries and illnesses that people
always face space exploration adds new
risks from radiation exposure to bone
density changes plus the immune system
can struggle to do its job under the
challenging conditions of microgravity
while some viruses get even stronger no
thank you space shingles getting to the
nearest hospital from orbit is no easy
feat either and on a future mission to
mars it might be downright impossible so
as our species prepares for longer
farther journeys into space we need to
up our space medicine game as well the
good news is that medical science has
already made amazing advances in
diagnosing and treating conditions that
pop up in space even so the options for
medical equipment are still quite
limited due to storage issues and the
high cost of getting them into space in
the first place instead the focus is on
preventing and controlling any hazardous
situations that way doctors can catch
health issues early before someone gets
to the point of being unstable or
critically ill because if it got to that
point that could make a trip home
impossible even from low orbit knowing
an astronaut's white blood cell count
could help determine how severe their
illness or infection is and track how
they're responding to treatments during
long-haul missions the trouble is
getting that count requires drawing and
analyzing a patient's blood historically
that simply hasn't been possible in
space in part we can blame microgravity
for this because it changes how fluids
behave traditional analysis techniques
don't work in space because they were
designed to count and identify cells in
a way that requires blood samples to
flow as you would expect under normal
gravity conditions on top of that
analysis equipment is too bulky to be
easily taken on a spacecraft astronauts
today draw their blood and freeze it
until they return to earth that's
helpful for long-term research but
useless for an in-the-moment diagnosis
but all that may be about to change
thanks to an innovative blood analysis
technology called hemaq hemacube is the
first machine to successfully analyze
white blood cells in space using only
the tiny prick of a finger it requires
less than a milliliter of blood for the
test which saves a lot of time and
effort compared to dealing with tubes
full of blood better still the approach
doesn't require any added liquid
substances like those typically used for
terrestrial blood analysis plus the
device is small about the size of a
toaster and the small sample size gets
around a lot of the hassles that
microgravity creates for traditional
techniques that's a significant contrast
from most blood analysis machines which
require large quantities of added
compounds and generate a lot more
biohazardous waste from larger blood
samples the hemacue technology was
tested on the international space
station in 2021 with promising results
opening the door to identifying and
monitoring a variety of health
conditions on future space flights
diagnosis is not the only medical realm
scientists are trying to improve on in
space say an astronaut does end up
discovering a health problem through a
blood test they'll probably want to
treat it as soon as possible so it
doesn't become a bigger issue for many
ailments that treatment comes in the
form of medication the iss stocks nearly
200 different medications on board which
yes is a lot but it is not an exhaustive
list and there can only be so many of
any given pill in 2017 nasa tracked the
drug consumption of six space station
crew members on average each used four
different medications per week that
amounted to around 450 medication uses
per crew member over the five to six
month long missions the longer the
mission the larger the pharmacy you
would need on hand just the volume of
medication needed for a years-long
mission to mars would present serious
storage challenges so to plan around
this nasa is funding research focused on
the manufacture of medicine in space one
possibility is to genetically modify a
plant like lettuce to turn it into a
drug factory in 2020 researchers at the
university of california began
developing a lettuce that produces a
drug used to treat osteoporosis and this
work is in the early stages and even if
the medicinal lettuce successfully
produces the desired drugs consistently
there's still the problem of how to get
it into the astronauts the researchers
are still unsure how the drug might be
extracted from the lettuce though it
would certainly be nice if it were as
simple as just having a salad and if
that isn't sci-fi enough for you one of
the more wild ideas is to implant each
astronaut with their own little tiny
drug factory a special device that's
inserted inside the stomach known as a
gastric resident system is already being
developed to help manage the daily doses
required for tuberculosis infections
here on earth this device could be taken
one step further for use in space not
only releasing but creating necessary
medicines right inside the guts of those
who need them the core of the system
would be a bacterium like e coli which
is already used to produce drugs in
other contexts the embedded bacteria
could produce and then slowly release
melatonin acetaminophen or even caffeine
while overcoming some of these
challenges like dealing with
microgravity are unique to space flight
others might have more earthly
applications sure outer space might be
about the hardest place to make a
delivery but getting medicines to remote
communities in far-flung areas isn't a
picnic either with luck breakthroughs
made to enable the exploration of the
solar system will translate to increased
access and better equity here on earth
and if one day taking a life-saving drug
involves nothing more than snacking on a
tasty salad sign me up maybe you start
out your day with some vitamin pills or
medicine to keep you healthy maybe you
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