We want to boldly go where humanity has never gone before: Mars. A manned mission to the red planet will happen once we’ve gone back to the Moon via NASA’s Artemis project. To make it happen, we’ll have to fix a few key issues to ensure astronauts can live in space as comfortably as possible for longer periods than ever before.
It’s not just about developing the spaceships that will get us to Mars, growing food in space, figuring out how to wash clothes, or possibly drinking recycled urine while on spacewalks. It’s also about ensuring astronauts have access to critical life support systems, including medicines that can treat all sorts of medical conditions humans tend to encounter.
Getting drugs to the International Space Station or even a base on the Moon is manageable. While far from Earth, they can be resupplied before the medicine that astronauts have on hand expires. But a mission to Mars would probably take about 36 months. Most of the drugs the astronauts will take with them will expire before that.
Researchers from the Duke University School of Medicine have considered the problem. They published a new study that aims to warn officials that the expiration date of various drugs will impact space missions that take longer than the regular ISS missions or the trips to the Moon that will start soon.
The study shows that more than half of the drugs that NASA routinely stocks on the ISS will expire before the mission to Mars is over. These might include painkillers, antibiotics, allergy medicine, and sleeping aids.
Once expired, they could be less effective or even harmful. Astronauts returning to Earth might have to use medications that no longer work as they are supposed to.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean the medicines won’t work, but in the same way you shouldn’t take expired medications you have lying around at home, space exploration agencies will need to plan on expired medications being less effective,” senior study author Daniel Buckland said in a statement.
“A well-stocked pharmacy that is regularly resupplied prevents small injuries or minor illnesses from turning into issues that affect the mission.”
The ISS stocks some 106 drugs in total. The researchers obtained the list of medications NASA uses on the ISS by submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. They found expiration information for 91 of them.
The researchers discovered that 54 of those 91 medications have a shelf-life of 36 months or less. That’s when they’re being stored on Earth, in the packaging the retailer has devised for them. Add the side effects of space, like the exposure to some radiation and the need to pack everything as efficiently as possible, and drugs’ shelf-life might decrease.
The study found that 14 meds on the NASA list for the ISS would expire within 24 months. The list includes an advanced life support drug, as well as key meds for anaphylaxis, psychosis, and two antibiotics.
Moreover, 89 of the 106 drugs had a minimum shelf life shorter than the expected 36-month duration of a mission to Mars.
The expiration date of medicine isn’t a problem for the ISS mission, which gets routine resupply missions. It wouldn’t be a problem for a permanent base on the Moon, which could benefit from frequent resupply missions. But a trip to Mars, or even farther than that, would need a fix.
As The Guardian points out, previous studies have shown that astronauts on the ISS report daily use of drugs. The same would probably apply to any mission in space, including future travel to Mars.
The authors of the study concluded that NASA will have to find ways to fix the medication problems.
“Those responsible for the health of space flight crews will have to find ways to extend the expiration of medications to complete a Mars mission duration of three years, select medications with longer shelf-lives, or accept the elevated risk associated with administering expired medication,” lead study author Thomas E. Diaz said in a statement.
One idea is to increase the number of medications brought on board. This might compensate for the lowered efficacy of expired drugs. Another is to have equipment on the spaceships that let astronauts manufacture some medicines.
As someone who has seen The Martian several times, I’ll throw my hat in the ring for fixing the meds problem. One way of extending the expiration date of drugs would be to plan uncrewed resupply missions that depart Earth to Mars about a certain period after the start of the mission. That way, they’d reach the red planet before the astronauts had to leave, bringing the much-needed drugs and other supplies.
Still, that can’t be the main fix, as nothing guarantees the success of such a mission. Another way to partially solve the problem would be to fund research that allows pharmaceutical companies to develop longer-lasting versions of various drugs, better suited for space travel.
The full study is available in Nature’s npj Microgravity.
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