A deep dive into Space Medicine by C Moksha Vijay, 8th Grade, Hyderabad

Space exploration is a spectacular achievement which may include some human involvement required expeditions to outer space too. This requires the Astronauts not only to have gone through their extremely challenging training but also to be in their best mental and physical conditions as this is required by them while they are performing very important and consequential tasks out there in space. Space Medicine is the branch which deals with the health and fitness of the Astronauts. It is a branch, born in the 1950s, of medicine that is involved in dealing with the biological and physiological effects on the human body for spaceflight.

Medicine in Space is not much different from medicine on Earth, likewise it has progressed step by step, slowly and deeply, evolving with space flight and understanding the capabilities and limits of our bodies and our perceptions, but on the other hand it also had to evolve as quickly as possible, as it had to support the survival of humans in space, an environment for which human bodies were not designed for. Space medicine plays a vital role in the human exploration of space. The productivity, safety and health of the living element in the spaceflight environment is looked after by this field, space medicine. The main aim of space medicine is to make sure astronauts work in a safe environment and to bring to light how well people can adapt to the various environments, like to the earth’s after their voyage and for how long one can sustain himself the extreme circumstances they have to face in space. Space medicine plays a crucial role in the human exploration of space as, for example, being in space astronauts are put though extremely low-gravity conditions to almost no-gravity conditions, which impacts the way a human body functions like for example weight loss, upward fluid shift, anemia, loss of sight, cardiovascular deconditioning, muscle atrophy, bone and muscle loss due to floating for long hours in space and mainly neurological, cardiopulmonary, and immunological processes; and only experts in this field can ensure the safety, and health of these space travelers.

The most recalcitrant and troubling of all these problems is the persistent bone loss related to negative calcium balance, this problem appears to be irreversible, and critical. And another issu