Aerospace medicine gearing up for tourists in space

Physicians anticipate some civilian space travelers will have chronic medical issues.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. Jan. 14, 2008.

A commercial space flight industry is working to make the adventure and romance of space travel available to the general public -- or at least to those with $200,000 or more to spare.

Space tourism, still in its embryonic stages, has some experts estimating that 10,000 to 15,000 people a year will fly in orbital and suborbital space in the next decade.

For aerospace medicine physicians, this will mean preparing a less physically fit passenger for the demands of space. Instead of 20-year-old fighter pilots in peak condition, space tourists could be 18 to 80 years old with medical conditions that might complicate space travel but not automatically disqualify them.

"We're bringing civilian space travel into a different medical paradigm," said Jan Stepanek, MD, MPH, director of the aerospace medicine program at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and a physician within Mayo's executive health program. "Are these people going to have problems with coronary artery disease or pulmonary disease that could put them at risk? Something that could lead to an in-flight medical emergency that could compromise the safety of passengers or the safety of the flight?"

These are the questions he is asking as he anticipates the challenges ahead. If there is a typical space tourist, that client might mirror the men and women in Mayo's executive health program, Dr. Stepanek speculated. There, 75% of clients are male, and 55 is the average age. They also tend to be successful businessmen and -women with hard-driving personalities and corresponding health problems, such as hypertension and coronary disease.