"'Our crews are extensively trained to handle unexpected medical situations… Yesterday was a classic example of that training in action.'"Charles Mccasland, 6th grade
NASA usually has a strict schedule about bringing up and taking down astronauts from the ISS. In fact, no astronauts in the history of NASA have ever come home early. Until this month. On January 8th, according to a NASA.gov announcement, four astronauts (Zena Cardman, Micke Fincke, Kimia Yui, and Oleg Platonov) would splash down on January 15th, at around 3:40 AM. The reason for this splashdown was a medical emergency.
Well, a medical situation, that is still unknown. According to El Pais, “‘We have a very comprehensive medical team aboard the International Space Station, but we don't have all the equipment you would have in an emergency room, for example, to evaluate a patient…
Since one of the astronauts, NASA still hasn’t revealed which astronaut was the reason for the emergency medical situation, bringing them back home early is completely stable, this is not an emergency evacuation.”
“ We didn't immediately disembark or bring the astronaut down, but that lingering risk and the lingering question of what the diagnosis is remain.’” Said Dr. James Polk, head of Health at NASA. Also, according to El Pais, “‘Our crews are extensively trained to handle unexpected medical situations… Yesterday was a classic example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, after careful deliberation, we made the decision to return Crew 11, while ensuring minimal operational impact on ongoing work aboard the ISS,”said Amit Kshatriya, NASA Associate Administrator.”
The reason coming back to earth is such a big deal is because spaceflight, orbital mechanics, and especially financing are all very precise and complex fields that have little to no flexibility in their schedules, be that firing a multi-stage rocket or deciding how to handle this while maintaining high productivity. In fact, despite being a very easily understood website, NASA.gov’s explanation of orbital mechanics is… intimidating. Here are some highlights: “the cannonball follows its ballistic arc, falling as a result of Earth's gravity… called the periapsis of the orbit…called the apoapsis…has an orbital period of 134.2 minutes, with its periapsis altitude of 654 km, and apoapsis altitude of 3,969 km…A spacecraft's periapsis altitude can be raised by increasing the spacecraft's energy at apoapsis…” etc, etc. Needless to say, this is a complicated subject. And the more gears you have, the more a wrench messes them up.
Believe it or not, although this is the first early landing, it is not the first medical situation that NASA has had to contend with. According to Universe: Space tech, during the Apollo 7 mission, “Shortly after launch, mission commander Walter Schirra came down with a cold. Later, the rest of the crew also developed symptoms.” Space tech also states that “It is possible that long-term inhalation of [moon] dust could have… serious consequences and cause lung disease.”. In addition, Vladimir Vasyutin aboard the Soyuz T14 mission (note: not a NASA mission) contracted a prostate disease and tried to treat it himself, while keeping it a secret from his crewmates.
In space, the crew on the ISS used a special device to detect and diagnose the problem ( We don’t know what the problem is, though, as NASA has yet to reveal it, citing patient privacy, according to AZ family): an ultrasound device. According to Science Alert, “NASA's Mike Fincke said the crew used the onboard ultrasound machine once the medical problem arose Jan. 7, the day before a planned spacewalk that was abruptly canceled.” “Ultrasound machines are used to generate two-dimensional images of tissues and organs by sending beams of ultrasound waves into the body,” according to the UDS. These astronauts are trained to use these machines to diagnose any dangerous diseases or conditions in space.
In short, this problem is a big change in what is normally expected of NASA.
It isn't the first time something like this has happened, and it won’t be the last. But let’s hope that it is a more or less one time event.
Well, a medical situation, that is still unknown. According to El Pais, “‘We have a very comprehensive medical team aboard the International Space Station, but we don't have all the equipment you would have in an emergency room, for example, to evaluate a patient…
Since one of the astronauts, NASA still hasn’t revealed which astronaut was the reason for the emergency medical situation, bringing them back home early is completely stable, this is not an emergency evacuation.”
“ We didn't immediately disembark or bring the astronaut down, but that lingering risk and the lingering question of what the diagnosis is remain.’” Said Dr. James Polk, head of Health at NASA. Also, according to El Pais, “‘Our crews are extensively trained to handle unexpected medical situations… Yesterday was a classic example of that training in action. Once the situation on the station stabilized, after careful deliberation, we made the decision to return Crew 11, while ensuring minimal operational impact on ongoing work aboard the ISS,”said Amit Kshatriya, NASA Associate Administrator.”
The reason coming back to earth is such a big deal is because spaceflight, orbital mechanics, and especially financing are all very precise and complex fields that have little to no flexibility in their schedules, be that firing a multi-stage rocket or deciding how to handle this while maintaining high productivity. In fact, despite being a very easily understood website, NASA.gov’s explanation of orbital mechanics is… intimidating. Here are some highlights: “the cannonball follows its ballistic arc, falling as a result of Earth's gravity… called the periapsis of the orbit…called the apoapsis…has an orbital period of 134.2 minutes, with its periapsis altitude of 654 km, and apoapsis altitude of 3,969 km…A spacecraft's periapsis altitude can be raised by increasing the spacecraft's energy at apoapsis…” etc, etc. Needless to say, this is a complicated subject. And the more gears you have, the more a wrench messes them up.
Believe it or not, although this is the first early landing, it is not the first medical situation that NASA has had to contend with. According to Universe: Space tech, during the Apollo 7 mission, “Shortly after launch, mission commander Walter Schirra came down with a cold. Later, the rest of the crew also developed symptoms.” Space tech also states that “It is possible that long-term inhalation of [moon] dust could have… serious consequences and cause lung disease.”. In addition, Vladimir Vasyutin aboard the Soyuz T14 mission (note: not a NASA mission) contracted a prostate disease and tried to treat it himself, while keeping it a secret from his crewmates.
In space, the crew on the ISS used a special device to detect and diagnose the problem ( We don’t know what the problem is, though, as NASA has yet to reveal it, citing patient privacy, according to AZ family): an ultrasound device. According to Science Alert, “NASA's Mike Fincke said the crew used the onboard ultrasound machine once the medical problem arose Jan. 7, the day before a planned spacewalk that was abruptly canceled.” “Ultrasound machines are used to generate two-dimensional images of tissues and organs by sending beams of ultrasound waves into the body,” according to the UDS. These astronauts are trained to use these machines to diagnose any dangerous diseases or conditions in space.
In short, this problem is a big change in what is normally expected of NASA.
It isn't the first time something like this has happened, and it won’t be the last. But let’s hope that it is a more or less one time event.
