A unique environment presents unique challenges.
When astronauts are in space, their bodies are affected by environments we don’t experience here on Earth. Learning how extended time in a microgravity environment with increased exposure to radiation affects the health and well-being of astronauts is invaluable to mitigate risk and facilitate effective designs for future human space exploration.
But there is currently an unhealthy gap in this plan.
Currently, when an astronaut retires from NASA, they do not receive health care that reflects the unique risks that they experienced during their career.
To address this issue, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Subcommittee on Space convened a hearing and conducted meaningful discussions earlier this week with key representatives of the space industry concerning the importance of health care and monitoring for retired astronauts. The hearing addressed the important topic of ensuring astronauts receive appropriate health care following their service in our nation’s space agency. It also addressed the lack of information NASA has access to that is essential to helping the agency make informed decisions on future mission designs based on data of long-term effects of spaceflight.
NASA’s Chief Health and Medical Officer, Dr. Rich Williams, spoke about the critical issue of astronaut health care. NASA is able to anticipate some health problems to an extent, but many come as complete surprises. For example, NASA didn’t foresee that some astronauts would have changes in their eyesight as a result of working in space. Thought to be a result of increased cranial pressure in microgravity, the vision problems may be permanent, or may improve or degrade over time. No one knows, because at this time there is not enough information to know. And that is part of the problem.
What is the current health care system for active and retired astronauts?
Active astronauts have medical care and treatment provided by NASA. How does NASA find ways to minimize negative impacts to their health? They use valuable data from the treatment that active astronauts receive as well as specialized monitoring and regular checkups.
Former astronauts are not treated the same. After they stop working, their health care is no longer tailored to their unique environment they once worked in.
Captain Michael Lopez-Alegria, President of the Association of Space Explorers and former astronaut, also made the point that following retirement, astronauts are responsible for their own health costs associated with medical issues they incurred during their time serving in space to expand our knowledge of humans spaceflight.
As we do not totally understand the long-term effects of the space environment on humans, it’s essential that we continue to monitor astronauts after their service ends. Currently, the International Space Station is the greatest laboratory for learning about the effects of long-duration spaceflight. It is imperative that we continue to learn from astronaut experiences there even after they have ended. However the lack of specialized care made available to astronauts after their retirement causes many of them to not participate in the yearly evaluation. Moreover, the data available about long-term effects of spaceflight are already severely limited; there are only 280 living astronauts. Many of them do not participate in long-term monitoring. Lopez-Alegria described the situation and the fact that the U.S. does not collect data from every living astronaut as “unforgiveable”.
Captain Scott Kelly, who recently returned from the ISS after spending a year in space, agreed. “The major objective of this year in space mission was to expand the experience and knowledge base required to safely send humans deeper into our solar system.” Onboard the International Space Station (ISS), astronaut time is very valuable. It is used to perform hundreds of scientific experiments – yet astronaut health is so important that two hours are taken up by exercise everyday. This is the best way to counteract effects of exposure to microgravity, Captain Chris Cassidy, Chief of the Astronaut Office said.
How do we design vehicles to protect against the long term effects of microgravity and radiation exposure if we still aren’t certain of what those effects entirely are?”, Cassidy asked.
What happens if questions and concerns arise from this evaluation? NASA cannot do anything other than encourage the former astronaut see their personal health care provider, Williams points out. Here, they will not get the proper preventative care and targeted tests required after spaceflight. Furthermore, NASA is not able to conduct tests it believes are necessary to monitor the health of these individuals.
Without any legislation to access this extremely sparse and valuable data, we are losing an extraordinarily precious opportunity as a nation to make improvements and data-driven design improvements to our future space systems and missions. But at least as importantly, there is an ethical issue at hand. Chairman Babin rightly described astronauts as “modern heroes”, who risk life and well-being in service to their country. The country therefore has an obligation to care for retired astronauts.
Stay tuned – The Coalition will provide ongoing coverage of this issue.
For more information about the hearing, visit the House of Representatives website.