Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hey there, welcome to Paging Dr. Gupta. Thank you so much for joining us. This has become a real community. People calling in, writing in. I love hearing from you. I love hearing your health questions. So this week, we're going to do a special Artemis II edition of the show. Think of it as a helmet tip to the four pioneering crew members.
They returned to Earth April 10th last week after a 10-day mission to the far side of the moon and back. Now, you might know, I'm a huge fan of space. I'm a huge fan of the science behind keeping humans healthy as they journey beyond our planet. And apparently, judging from all the questions you've been sending in, many of you are as well. So, let's blast off. Let's not delay.
Okay, Kira is back with us. What's our first question?
You know, Sanjay, I, too, am a bit of a space enthusiast.
Chapter 2: What is the significance of the Artemis II mission?
And the whole time watching the Artemis II mission live streamed, I was just so curious, you know, from a health perspective, what is NASA most concerned about when it comes to the crew?
Well, this is a great question. And the short answer is RIDGE, R-I-D-G-E. I'm going to tell you what that stands for after this short break. All right, welcome back to Paging Dr. Gupta. Today, we are answering questions about the Artemis II mission. It's amazing how many people are interested in this. First up, what types of health issues is NASA most worried about?
Well, it's NASA, so of course they have an acronym for what they're worried about. And the acronym is RIDGE. Radiation, Isolation, Distance from Earth, Gravity, and Environment. Let me tell you something. They get very granular about all these various topics. So if you think about all these buckets of potential concerns, we can start to address a few of them.
So gravity, for example, the minimal gravity conditions. There's lots of things that happen. Your muscle mass, your bone mass, those can both be affected. Those can both be diminished pretty quickly in a microgravity environment. The fluid in your lower body, that starts to migrate toward the head. That can leave the faces of the astronauts looking kind of puffy.
If you look at images of those astronauts in space, they often look different than those same astronauts do back on Earth. That's because of that fluid migration. But to get even more specific, as that fluid migrates, all sorts of other things happen. For example, people may develop headaches as a result of the congestion. Their eyes may start to change shape.
So when they look at the bright moon, for example, and then look back inside the capsule, things may be hard to acclimate. Their taste buds may change. We learned that from one of the NASA doctors. It's part of the reason that NASA sends up five different types of hot sauces up to the capsule as well.
Now, one thing I will tell you is that the members of the crew, they do complete daily exercises. They're testing it out on a brand new Artemis flywheel. It's an exercise contraption that's about the size of a carry-on suitcase. They can do aerobic, resistive, and rowing exercises, bicep curls, bent-over rows, deadlifts, squats, calf raises.
Again, this can help with the muscle mass, the bone density, and also to help recalibrate the fluids in the body. NASA is also trying to answer some very specific health questions. So every day when the astronauts wake up before they brush their teeth or they exercise, they take a saliva test. This is essentially filter paper, which they put on their tongue. The saliva absorbs into it.
Then they fold it up, put it in their pockets and bring it home. When they get home, NASA can look at those pieces of paper and they can find hormone levels and biomarkers looking for changes in immunity. They can even see whether or not viral DNA has been reactivated. This is kind of a fascinating issue.
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Chapter 3: What health concerns does NASA have for astronauts in deep space?
and potentially spreading. And again, potentially spreading to other astronauts whose own immunity may be impacted by the microgravity environment. It's fascinating. It's NASA. They get really detailed about these kinds of things. And by the way, they've actually seen viral DNA reactivation on the International Space Station.
So NASA is now interested in seeing what happens with Artemis as they go further and further into deep space. Another thing they're studying is the R from ridge, radiation. You know, radiation is emitted from the sun, and there's also cosmic radiation from the galaxy.
The question is, what are the effects on the brain, the cardiovascular system, the immune function we were just talking about, cancer, bone marrow? So what they're doing is they're putting radiation sensors throughout the crew module and each of the crew members also wearing a dosimeter in their pocket. This is now the first time they're being used beyond Earth's orbit.
They're hoping that the data can warn the crew if perhaps they need to build a shelter to protect from radiation caused by space weather events made by the sun, such as a solar flare. Another thing being looked at is the impact that deep space travel has on the mind. I just want you to picture this for a second.
The Orion spacecraft module that the four crew members of the Artemis II mission are traveling in has habitable space about the size of a studio apartment. It's much smaller than the International Space Station. That is basically a six-bedroom house with six sleeping quarters, two bathrooms, and a gym.
These four astronauts are sleeping, eating, exercising, and everything else in very tight quarters. And the reason this is important is because future deep spaceflight missions are very likely to occur in crafts of this size as well. So another study is monitoring how the crew functions, lives, and works in a very confined space.
The astronauts wear these trackers that are monitoring their movement and their sleep in real time. What NASA will do is combine this information with cognitive and team dynamic data to understand how close quarters, really close quarters, affect health, safety, and performance. And this will give a glimpse into when the mission is longer and even further away. For example, communication.
It takes about 3 to 14 seconds one way to communicate from Earth to the moon. When you do Earth to Mars, it's 44 minutes round trip. So understanding how astronauts handle that sort of isolation will be very, very important. So many questions about Artemis II. We'll try and get to more of them right after this break.
Hey, I'm Anderson Cooper. On my podcast, All There Is, we explore grief and loss in all its complexities. You'll hear deeply moving and honest discussions with people who have faced and are living with life-altering losses. My conversation with Dax Shepard at Tulane University during the New Orleans Book Festival. Your relationship with your dad has continued. Oh, yeah.
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