5 Topic Commentaries

Standardizing SANS in Spaceflight

Standardizing SANS in Spaceflight

• 

  Mark J. Rosenberg, MD

  Neurology (Aerospace Neurology)

  •

  Medical University of South Carolina

  There’s a necessity to make sure that we have appropriate standards now that we’re starting to have increased players in space flight, especially transport services with commercial entities starting to send people up. We need to make sure that there’s standardization so that we don’t have potential fatalities or complications that might affect human health. Ultimately, we need to make something that is inherently dangerous as safe as possible.

  Source
• 

  Michael A. Williams, MD

  Neurology

  •

  UW Medicine

  We want to be sure wherever we are, whatever planet we're on, we're using the same research standards for ethics. We want standards that are applicable to everybody who's participating in the research and that the research is going to benefit everybody, both in commercial spaceflight and national spaceflight. And by having larger numbers of research subjects, we have a better opportunity to get good results and to see something that may bring benefit to people on Earth.

  Source
• 

  Benjamin D. Levine, MD

  Cardiology; Environmental/Exercise Physiology

  •

  UT Southwestern Medical Center

  It would be a disaster if astronauts had such severe impairments that they couldn’t see what they’re doing and it compromised the mission.

  Source
• 

  Prem S. Subramanian, MD, PhD

  Neuro-ophthalmology

  •

  University of Colorado School of Medicine

  It’s a big issue because no one ever saw these SANS-type changes – the spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome changes – until a person had been in space cumulatively for at least three months. The really concerning thing about it is that we’ve had people stay now six months, nine months, 12 months, and even a little bit longer, and there doesn’t seem to be a stopping point for when these changes plateau (in space). … And so, as a result, NASA has ranked SANS as the No. 2 human health hazard in spaceflight, with the only thing exceeding it being radiation exposure.

  Source
• 

  Nimesh Patel, OD, PhD, FAAO

  Vision Science; Optometry

  •

  University of Houston College of Optometry

  The results of these investigations suggest that, although there may be resolution of structural changes, there could be long-term ocular anatomical changes after extended-duration spaceflight.

  Source