Space tourism to bring new health challenges

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This was published 7 years ago

Space tourism to bring new health challenges

By Jorge Branco
Updated

The groundbreaking push toward space tourism is throwing up new challenges for those charged with keeping people safe as they break free of Earth's gravity.

Beyond the obvious dangers of hurtling into space at roughly three-and-a-half times the speed of sound, endeavours such as Virgin Galactic raise many questions the industry needs to prepare to deal with, according to one of Australia's most respected researchers in the field.

The International Space Station at an altitude of about 220 miles above the Earth, about three and a half times as high as Virgin Galactic would fly.

The International Space Station at an altitude of about 220 miles above the Earth, about three and a half times as high as Virgin Galactic would fly.Credit: AP

Nausea and radiation exposure are just some of the problems researchers will have to tackle as more tourists begin crossing a border previously reserved for professionals with extensive training.

James Cook University academic Professor Peter Leggat was recently elected to the prestigious International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine in recognition of more than a decade in the field. The academy has only 250 full members at any time.

Sir Richard Branson poses in front of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket after it was unveiled.

Sir Richard Branson poses in front of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket after it was unveiled.Credit: Mark J. Terrill

He told Fairfax Media researchers and public health physicians had "a bit of catching up to do" to keep pace with the burgeoning space tourism market.

"I mean obviously there's been a lot of tickets already sold for Virgin Galactic and things like that but I think the average health professional probably hasn't given much thought to what that means," he said.

"I think we've come a long way just in the aviation medicine area and looking at the health and wellbeing of people travelling by aircraft but I think the next level up is going to need a lot more education and understanding."

Virgin Galactic has had its problems, including a fatal accident in 2014, but nearly 700 people had signed up for $US250,000 rides when Richard Branson's company launched its new ship in February.

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Commercial flights would see the general public dealing with weightlessness and much higher than previously experienced G forces for the first time.

"Some people obviously have difficulty travelling on planes, particularly those that might have some respiratory or other conditions but when you're going to space it's a totally different ball game," Professor Leggat said.

Professor Leggat said he and other researchers needed to confront several key challenges in readying average consumers for space flight.

"Even your average astronaut that goes into space has problems like vomiting, people get a bit of motion sickness, a bit like going on a boat or something like that," he said.

"When you're going into space, spacecraft are not a static thing. They can roll and tumble and so people can get a little bit uneasy going into space.

"And of course once you go further up into the atmosphere, you get more exposure to radiation and those types of risks as well so I think there's quite a few challenges coming up for people wanting to have that space experience."

Helping professional astronauts survive long trips to destinations such as Mars would also pose many challenges, something NASA itself touched on last year.

The public health expert of some 25 years, working in aerospace for more than a decade, will become an academician of the AASM in 2017 at a ceremony in Rome.

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