Health and Exploration

I’ve been down with a cold the past few days and it’s no fun.  There’s not much you can do about these things except rest, drink your fluids, and take whatever decongestants/achy-breaky medicine work for you. These colds usually take 7-10 days to run their course if you do nothing but lay around and rest, and about the same amount of time if you load up on cough syrup and aspirin and other stuff and lay around and rest.

As is my usual practice, I was gulping down my OTC nostrum of choice and had a sudden thought about the folks up in the International Space Station.  What do THEY do if they catch colds?  More to the point, DO they catch colds?  What if one of the visiting astronauts brings up a nasty little bug?  Do they all moan around for days, whining about stuffy noses and achy limbs, just like we do here on the surface?

I suppose other people in enclosed environments, like submarines, have to deal with these things, too.  I’m sure the ISS and NASA and the Navy all have plans in place that help them cope with illness outbreaks.

I recall from a long-ago meeting called “Case for Mars” that we discussed such plans as part of the long-term exploration of space, specifically the 18-month trips to Mars that folks will undergo someday. We had lively conversations about the common cold and flu, as well as the more outlandish (but perfectly human) conditions of pregnancy, broken bones, and even the possibilities of crew deaths en route to the Red Planet.

It’s unlikely to think that all the specialists we need for such missions will be in perfect health all the time. It may be, as I read recently, that an astronaut/explorer who is the best at the job may well have diabetes or perhaps asthma — conditions that can be treatable and still allow the bearer to do their jobs and live normal lives.  So, I suppose we can figure out work-arounds for the cold and flu. That’s some comfort, I suppose.  Now, if I could just shake this lingering cough!