Space Exploration
by Tathagat Kumar
guided by Tafheem Ahmad Masudi and Sukant Khurana
Humans are driven to explore the unknown and discover new worlds. We are keen to push boundaries of our scientific knowledge and technical limits. The intangible desire to explore and challenge the boundaries of what we know and where we have been has provided benefits to our society for centuries.
What is Space Exploration?
Humanity’s interest in the heavens has been universal and enduring, they have dreamed about spaceflight since antiquity.
Space exploration is the investigation, by means of crewed and un-crewed spacecraft, of the reaches of the universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere and the use of the information so gained to increase knowledge of the cosmos and benefit humanity.
History
The Chinese used rockets for celebratory and military purposes centuries ago, however in the latter half of the 20th century rockets were developed that were powerful enough to overcome the force of gravity and reach orbital velocities that could open space to human exploration.
· The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, went into orbit on January 31, 1958. In 1961 Alan Shepard became the first American to fly into space.
· On February 20, 1962, John Glenn’s historic flight made him the first American to orbit Earth.
· On July 20, 1969, Astronaut Neil Armstrong took “a giant step for mankind” as he stepped onto the moon. Six Apollo missions were made to explore the moon between 1969 and 1972.
· By the early 1970s orbiting communications and navigation satellites were in everyday use, and the Mariner spacecraft was orbiting and mapping the surface of Mars. By the end of the decade, the Voyager spacecraft had sent back detailed images of Jupiter and Saturn, their rings, and their moons.
· Skylab, America’s first space station, was a human-spaceflight highlight of the 1970s, as was the Apollo Soyuz Test Project, the world’s first internationally crewed (American and Russian) space mission
Stages of Space Exploration
Historians have distinguished three great Ages of Exploration:
1) The Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries associated with Prince Henry the Navigator, Columbus, Magellan and other European explorer.
2) The Second Age (18th and 19th centuries) characterized by further geographic exploration such as the voyages of Captain Cook, underpinned and driven by the scientific revolution.
3) The Third Age beginning with the International Geophysical Year and Sputnik, primarily associated with space exploration, but also with the Antarctic and the oceans.
Life in Space
From a clinical perspective, bioastronautics and space medicine research demonstrated that humans could survive in space, work in space and perform complex scientific missions on the surface of another celestial body. After the exponential growth in short duration flight objectives of the sixties, the past four decades have focused on the development of a long duration capability for human spaceflight. The vision of sending humans farther into the solar system was shared by many experts within the United States and Russia. For that vision to become reality, the acclimation of humans to space had to be studied over the course of months not days. The Russian Salyut series of space stations and the NASA Skylab program that highlighted the next decade of human spaceflight were used to evaluate the capacity of humans to live and work in microgravity for long periods of time. Both programs provided fundamental data on space physiology relevant to space medicine, but they also demonstrated the need for extended long duration missions on board a new generation of space stations.
Researchers at the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) worked in collaboration with experts in DCS at the Defence Research and Development Canada Centre in Toronto to participate as one of three NASA supported research sites to develop the new pre-breathe protocols for use in preparation for spacewalks from the Internadiagtional Space Station. This led to widespread recognition among the international partners of Canadian expertise in life science and space medicine research, which has continued into the current phase of ISS utilization.
What is Space Medicine?
Space medicine can be defined as the area of medical practice that deals with the provision of healthcare in partial and micro gravitational environments. The scope of care not only deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness and injury in space, it involves pre-flight medical selection and conditioning as well as post-flight rehabilitation. The expansion of commercial space operations to include SFPs and potentially career astronauts flying on commercial spacecraft in suborbital and orbital flights presents a number of potential issues to the space medicine community. The FAA has released a series of requirements for crew and SFPs on commercial spacecraft in support of the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004.
Why Space Medicine?
Despite rigorous screening programs, the increased size of the ISS crew coupled with the long duration missions and the increasing frequency of flights by SFPs suggests that the frequency of on-orbit medical events may increase. While the majority of these events include space adaptation syndrome, motion sickness, back pain, musculoskeletal problems and disrupted sleep, the potential for a more significant medical event exists. For this reason, there has been considerable interest and research in developing and testing innovative diagnostic and therapeutic modalities over the past decade that will continue throughout ISS utilization.
Current Model
The current paradigm for provision of healthcare on the ISS is based on dedicated crew medical officers (CMOs) utilizing the resources of the Crew Health Care System (CHeCS) to prevent, diagnose and treat on orbit medical events. A number of integrated medical kits are available on the ISS to treat the common medical problems that arise in space as outlined in the Integrated Medical Group medical operations checklist for expedition flights. In some cases the CMO is a physician, but for the most part, they are crew members that have received additional medical training in preparation for the mission. CMOs provide care under the direction of Flight Surgeons in mission control based on voice/video private medical conferences. This approach has been extremely effective in managing the medical events that have taken place in space.
With current technology, other diagnostic imaging (DI) technologies are not practical for use in space. Further research on the role of diagnostic ultrasound and the development of alternative DI technologies is as important as an exploration enabling capability for future missions beyond low earth orbit. Past research efforts have focused on understanding the physiologic acclimation to microgravity with the development of a series of preventive countermeasures leading to further work that will continue to improve this preventive strategy. However, there is a tremendous amount of clinical research that is needed.
What needs to be done?
The future of human spaceflight will likely include increased accessibility and utilization of-low earth orbit for commercial ventures and continued use of the ISS, ultimately leading to a transition back to exploration missions potentially involving lunar return or missions to Mars. The need to further develop mission-specific medical capability involves discussions of the balance between the need for a “stand-and-fight” capability and the utilization of a “load-and-go” approach to returning to Earth for definitive medical care. Currently approaches to on orbit health care use both approaches with the combination of immediate clinical care combined with the potential for an urgent or emergent deorbit and landing for definitive medical care. As humans travel farther into space, a medical abort to Earth scenario becomes less practical and at some point transitions to continued flight to the destination. This raises a number of questions about defining the appropriate level of care, the effect of longer signal transmission to Earth on crew autonomy and the role that new technologies will play in the delivery of healthcare during the different phases of the mission.
The future of Space Medicine.
The next decade provides an opportunity for further ISS research to develop new diagnostic and treatment capabilities, assess new technologies and evaluate strategies for CMO skill retention and just-in-time training. This research will be important to prepare for exploration class missions beyond low earth orbit in addition to developing on board clinical care for commercial space complexes. Based on the terrestrial approach of providing on-board healthcare for commercial ocean cruises, it is likely that commercial space complexes will have an on-board clinic with a physician or other health care professional providing clinical care. The evolution of commercial space travel in the decades to come will extend the scope of space medicine beyond the realm of the government supported human spaceflight into the realm of civilian spaceflight. While the objectives of human space travel will differ between the government and commercial groups, there will be a shared interest amongst practitioners of space medicine in developing the best approaches to prevent and treat illnesses and injuries during a mission.
Why Space Exploration??
· It allows people to know more about the universe.
· It creates numerous jobs.
· It can offer a solution to many problems
(aside from collecting information about the outer space, many space exploration programs are used to address some of the problems that plague modern society. Some programs, for example, help scientists learn more about the earth’s atmosphere and know how to better predict weather and natural disasters. Others, meanwhile, focus on looking for planets that can support human life, which may be the solution to the earth’s growing population.)
· It paves the way to advanced technology.
1. GPS technology
2. Breast cancer test imaging
3. An artificial heart pump based on the design of NASA’s space shuttle main engine fuel pumps that supplements the heart’s pumping capacity in the left ventricle
4. Teflon-coated fiberglass developed in the 1970s as a new fabric for astronaut spacesuits has been used as a permanent roofing material for buildings and stadiums.
Cons of Space Exploration
· It is a costly endeavour
(In 2005 NASA had a budget of $16.2 billion; this includes not only the human spaceflight division, but also other engineering projects, and science funded by NASA. The total federal spending budget in 2005 was on the order of $2 trillion ($2000 billion), making the NASA share 0.8% of the budget).
· There is a possibility of bringing back harmful elements to Earth.
· It leads to pollution in space.
· It poses risks to astronauts.
It can’t be denied that space exploration puts astronauts’ lives in danger. In fact, many accidents have happened over the years and have resulted to numerous injuries and even deaths. Even if missions don’t always end up in disasters, they can still expose astronauts to a wide range of health problems. Studies have shown that spending long periods of time in zero gravity can seriously affect a person’s cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems and make him prone to various illnesses. Exposure to high-energy ionizing cosmic rays, which are present in space, can lead to the development of cancer.
Conclusion
Space exploration is one of the biggest achievements of humans as a whole, and it has paved the way to greater scientific understanding and many technological advancement over the years. A lot of people think we should give up space exploration, largely due to cost (and it is expensive — NASA spends approximately 16 billion tax dollars each year). But money spent on space exploration does not nebulously float away into the galaxy. It creates new technologies and products, as well as new jobs and businesses. So maybe you could live without Tang, but would you give up your computer, the GPS navigating system in your car, or your cell phone? Just within the next few years, the space program is expected to improve our knowledge of solar energy power, cryogenics, and robotics that are expected to offer great improvements in health care, energy and the environment, everyday technology, and many other areas. However, it can’t be denied that it also has several drawbacks, which is why governments and scientists should find a balance between the advantages and disadvantages as soon as possible.
References:
· Daniel Boorstin’s The Discoverers (1983), especially pp. 186–201.
· Link MM. In: Space medicine in project mercury NASASP- 4003. Link MM, editor. Washington, DC: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office; 1965. b.
· Johnston RS, Dietlein LA, Berry CA. In: Biomedical Results of Apollo. Johnston RS, Dietlein LA, Berry CA, editors. Washington, DC: NASA Scientific and Technical Information Office; 1975. C
· The proceedings of the skylab life sciences symposium, Volume 2, 27–29 Aug. 1974. Houston, TX, United States: 1974.
· Sawin CF. Biomedical investigations conducted in support of the extended duration orbiter medical project. Aviat Space Environ Med. 1999 Feb;70(2):169–180
· Stepaniak PC, Ramchandani SR, Jones JA. Acute urinary retention among astronauts. Aviat Space Environ Med. 2007 Apr;78(4 Suppl):A5–A8 [PubMed]
· Williams DR. The biomedical challenges of space flight. Annu Rev Med. 2003;54:245–256
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Hello! I’m Tathagat Kumar,
A Computer Science undergrad student pursuing B.Tech from NIIT University, Neemrana and currently in 3rd year. I did my schooling from Bridgeford School, Ranchi. A conscientious, detail-oriented, inquisitive person with a goal of utilizing his analytical, leadership and communication skills while benefiting the organisation and gaining some invaluable experience.
I’m proficient in various programming languages. Currently working on the methods of text summarization using Python.
Also, actively participated in the college Community Connect program: teaching the less privileged sections of society.
linkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tathagat-kumar-776a0314a/
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kumar.tathagat
Digital Portfolio: https://tathagatkumar4.wixsite.com/tathagat
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Tafheem is a space enthusiast working in the field of astrobiology and is studying self sustaining environments in outer space. Together with a dynamic research team, he is a establishing a space learning platform. Also he is working towards creating first of its kind subject specific interactive educational gaming modules in various Indian schools.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tafheemmasudi/
Dr. Sukant Khurana runs an academic research lab and several tech companies. He is also a known artist, author, and speaker. You can learn more about Sukant at www.brainnart.com or www.dataisnotjustdata.com and if you wish to work on blockchain, biomedical research, neuroscience, sustainable development, artificial intelligence or data science projects for public good, you can contact him at skgroup.iiserk@gmail.com or by reaching out to him on linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/in/sukant-khurana-755a2343/.
Here are two small documentaries on Sukant and a TEDx video on his citizen science effort.
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