Medical considerations for a return to the Moon

Anderton, Ryan A; Posselt, Bonnie N.; Komorowski, Matthieu; Hodkinson, Peter D.

doi:10.1093/occmed/kqz099

Cited by 12 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Providing advanced medical care beyond Earth’s vicinity and evacuating a patient remain open challenges due to extreme environmental factors and issues of medical skills and supplies. 7,8 Another consideration is that the overriding priority during a mission is flight safety: Caring for the injured crew member must not endanger the others.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the ambitions of human space travel expand, the risk to health and the probability of severe medical events intensify. 7,8 While exemplary planning can go so far as to mitigate risk with provision of necessary skills and equipment, the heterogeneity of medical/surgical emergencies demands consideration of in-mission uncertainties, personnel training, and on-site synthesis of equipment.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…6–8 Specifically, challenges of the unique lunar environment include exposure to reduced gravity (about one sixth of Earth’s gravity on the Moon and one third on Mars), ionizing radiations, meteoroids, planetary dust, hypobaric decompression sickness, and extreme temperatures. 7–9…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Challenges of Anesthesia and Surgery during Interplanetary Spaceflight

Komorowski¹,

Thierry²,

Stark³

et al. 2021

Anesthesiology

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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On the Challenges of Anesthesia and Surgery during Interplanetary Spaceflight

Komorowski¹,

Thierry²,

Stark³

et al. 2021

Anesthesiology

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“…Autonomous systems augmented by artificial intelligence may prove invaluable in allowing self-diagnosis and management in the absence of communications or an incapacitated crew medical officer, and where live interpretation will be required of a whole range of data composed of clinical history, blood work, imaging and other investigations 60. Additionally, the prospect of three-dimensional printing of equipment and pharmaceutical products is a promising solution to spaceflight constraints of mass and volume 61 Table 3. summarises medical conditions that have occurred or may occur during spaceflight and they are classified according to treatment priority.…”

Section: Medical and Surgical Problems During Spaceflightmentioning

confidence: 99%

Space Medicine: Inspiring a new generation of physicians

Mian

2022

Postgraduate Medical Journal

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Space medicine is critical in enabling safe human exploration of space. The discipline focuses on supporting human survival, health, and performance in the austere environment of space. It is set to grow ever more important as significant transitions in the standard of space operations in the suborbital, low earth orbit (LEO) and beyond LEO domains will take place in the coming years. NASA along with their international and commercial partners have committed to returning to the Moon through the Artemis missions in this decade with the aim of achieving a permanent sustainable human presence on the lunar surface. Additionally, the development of reusable rockets is set to increase the number and frequency of humans going to space by making space travel more accessible. Commercial spaceflight and missions beyond LEO present many new challenges which space medicine physicians and researchers will need to address. Space medicine operates at the frontier of exploration, engineering, science and medicine. Aviation and Space Medicine (ASM) is the latest specialty to be recognised by the Royal College of Physicians and the General Medical Council in the UK. In this paper, we provide an introduction to space medicine, review the effects of spaceflight on human physiology and health along with countermeasures, medical and surgical issues in space, the varied roles of the ASM physician, challenges to UK space medicine practice and related research, and finally we explore the current representation of space medicine within the undergraduate curriculum.

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“…Accessible deposits of water could, for example, be exploited to produce consumables of critical importance to both crewed and uncrewed missions, such as breathable air, potable water, and rocket propellant (Anand et al 2012). They may even help to shield habitats and their inhabitants against cosmic and solar radiation (Singleterry 2013;Baiocco et al 2018), another critical aspect of long-term missions beyond Earth orbit (Chancellor et al 2018;Anderton et al 2019). Any assessment of the possible uses of lunar water is, however, still severely constrained by the fact that we do not yet fully understand the extent and distribution of volatile deposits expected to exist at the lunar poles (Lucey et al 2021;Landis et al 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Distribution of Water Ice and Other Volatiles at the Lunar South Pole with LUVMI-X: A Mission Concept

et al. 2022

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The search for exploitable deposits of water and other volatiles at the Moon’s poles has intensified considerably in recent years, due to the renewed strong interest in lunar exploration. With the return of humans to the lunar surface on the horizon, the use of locally available resources to support long-term and sustainable exploration programs, encompassing both robotic and crewed elements, has moved into focus of public and private actors alike. Our current knowledge about the distribution and concentration of water and other volatiles in the lunar rocks and regolith is, however, too limited to assess the feasibility and economic viability of resource-extraction efforts. On a more fundamental level, we currently lack sufficiently detailed data to fully understand the origins of lunar water and its migration to the polar regions. In this paper, we present LUVMI-X, a mission concept intended to address the shortage of in situ data on volatiles on the Moon that results from a recently concluded design study. Its central element is a compact rover equipped with complementary instrumentation capable of investigating both the surface and shallow subsurface of illuminated and shadowed areas at the lunar south pole. We describe the rover and instrument design, the mission’s operational concept, and a preliminary landing-site analysis. We also discuss how LUVMI-X fits into the diverse landscape of lunar missions under development.

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Medical considerations for a return to the Moon

Cited by 12 publications

References 12 publications

On the Challenges of Anesthesia and Surgery during Interplanetary Spaceflight

On the Challenges of Anesthesia and Surgery during Interplanetary Spaceflight

Space Medicine: Inspiring a new generation of physicians

Assessing the Distribution of Water Ice and Other Volatiles at the Lunar South Pole with LUVMI-X: A Mission Concept

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