Astronauts advised to print own medical kit

ASTRONAUTS should be taught how to print out 3D medical equipment as missions get longer, with greater risk of health emergencies, experts have said.

Intensive care doctors called for extra training for those embarking on space voyages, to cope with the unusual challenges of microgravity and limited storage room.

Astronauts should be told how to print out their own medical equipment, on demand, experts will tell a conference today.

And those preparing to go on such missions should be told how to perform livesaving techniques in a situation of microgravity, when it is not possible to use body weight in the same way.

Methods include performing handstands to achieve cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), or wrapping the legs around a patient to stop them floating away.

Those planning space travel should also consider matching astronauts by blood group, to enable transfusions in space, the Euroanaesthesia conference in Geneva heard.

Professor Jochen Hinkelbein, President of the German Society for Aerospace Medicine, said goals for longterm missions, such as sending humans to Mars, meant allowing for the challenges of older age, as well as spacespecific health risks.

“Since astronauts are selected carefully, are usually young, and are intensively observed before and during their training, relevant medical problems are, fortunately, rare in space,” he said.

“However, in the context of future long-term missions, for example to Mars, with durations of several years, the risk for severe medical problems is significantly higher. Therefore, there is also a substantial risk for a cardiac arrest in space requiring CPR.”

Exposure to space itself disturbs most physiological systems and can trigger heart problems as well as decompression sickness and osteoporotic fractures.