Dr. Farhan Asrar

Well, it is like even growing up, like I've always been fascinated about space.

And I think once I went into like medicine as well, even I was surprised to find out that someone can make a career out of this and really be professionally involved.

Space medicine as a whole is basically, it's just the health and caring of astronauts and humans in space so that they can adequately live and work in space.

Well, space as a whole, I would say, is quite a disabling and challenging environment.

The strain that it puts on our body, and literally every part of a system can be challenging, and even from space exploration as a whole.

So right from the get-go, the launch perspective, the G-force you're getting, the strains of being launched into space is one challenge.

The microgravity or the lack of gravity that is in space, along with even radiation exposure and so many other factors,

puts really a strain on all our systems.

Like we know that it can affect, let's say your bone mass, people are losing anywhere between like anywhere from like 1.5 to even 2% of bone mass per month.

They could even basically losing muscle mass

You also could be basically like we've been noticing fluid shifts are causing changes in our vision, causing increased risk of kidney stones, kidney issues as well.

There were even an incident of an astronaut getting a blood clot in space as well.

So literally, I could say that it's quite challenging from every perspective.

We do have countermeasures in place to address those, but it can be a really challenging environment.

That's a great question.

And that is just the challenges that space medicine has to address.

On a whole, anytime a medical issue arises, so all the crew members, all the astronauts are trained to a certain level in that basic medical training, how do you respond to an emergency, assess the situation.

Among the crew members, there are some who are designated as what we call crew medical officers.

So they receive an enhanced level of training to address these situations.

They could even carry out minor procedures.