there are up to 100 medical conditions that can affect an astronaut’s health
He development of predictive and personalized medicine is the key to solving the challenges you face future missions equipped on the planet Mars, because being millions of miles away from Earth, astronauts must be autonomous when they need medical and psychological help.
According to the doctor Emmanuel Urquieta, Deputy Scientific Director of the Translational Research Institute for Space Health, funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (GODMOTHER), there are up to 100 medical conditions that can affect the health of an astronaut during a space mission, so training and developing new materials and tools are essential to meet the needs of crews.
“Because of the distance, the communication delay can take up to 20 or 40 minutes (…) We need to think about how we will predict a disease “, confirmed the scientist.
He also stressed that communication between crews and stations on Earth is one of the main challenges of traveling to the red planet, in addition to the complications derived from weightlessness and cosmic radiation.
In recent years, NASA has compiled medical information obtained from space missions to the development of artificial intelligence that is capable detects abnormalities in the vital signs of astronauts and can predict the occurrence of diseases, offering a wider margin for its treatment and solution.
Regarding the issue of harmful amounts of radiation in space, he explained that efforts are focused on genetic modification and editing, in order to give space travelers greater resistance to these elements.