Medical considerations for a return to the Moon

The year 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of humans setting foot on the Moon with the Apollo 11 mission. While we celebrate this incredible feat of science, engineering and human endeavour, as physicians, we might also consider the enormous challenges faced in keeping those astronauts alive. Indeed, there are few occupations that pose greater risks to an individual ’s health than that of an astronaut. Today, international attention on the Moon is renewed with a promise to return humans to its surface as early as the mid-2020s. While there has been continued human presence in space since the Apollo lunar missions, this has been entirely in Low Earth Orbit (LE O). To prepare for the medical challenges that returning to the Moon entails, we must not only revive concepts created for the Apollo programme, but also find novel solutions to as yet untested scenarios [1]. Significant new challenges when compared to International Space Station (ISS) operations include operating in partial gravity (as opposed to microgravity), the inability for a ‘relatively’ quick return to Earth and remote medical support capabilities. Consequently, appropriate tailored mission planning becomes increasingly critical, with medical considerations and risk assessment being key. Likely lunar activities must be considered in the context of limited resources , support and medical skills.
Source: Occupational Medicine - Category: Respiratory Medicine Source Type: research