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SCIENCESaturday 31 October 2015

Report: NASA needs better handle on health hazards for Mars

MARCIA DUNN In this Aug. 31, 2013 photo made available by NASA, astronaut Chris Cassidy, Expedition 36 flight engineer, exercises on the
AP Aerospace Writer advanced Resistive Exercise Device (aRED) in the Tranquility node of the International Space Station.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
(AP) — NASA needs to get Associated Press
cracking if it wants to keep
its astronauts alive and well 2030s. certainty over the type of time. The Russians are the monaut Mikhail Kornienko.
on missions to Mars, ac- “The agency still faces sig- vehicles and habitats that world’s space endurance They won’t be back on
cording to an in-house re- nificant challenges to en- will be used to carry astro- champions, but even they Earth until March.
port issued Thursday. suring the safety of crew nauts into deep space, the haven’t ventured beyond On Thursday, Kelly told a TV
In an extensive audit, members on a human report stated. NASA also 14 months for a mission. interviewer that while it def-
NASA’s inspector general mission to Mars or deep needs to consolidate its ex- By coincidence, the initely feels like he’s been
office looked at the space space,” the report con- pertise; right now, there’s watchdog’s 54-page re- up there a long time, “I’m
agency’s overall effort to cluded. a lack of organization to port came out the same pretty sure I’m going to get
keep astronauts safe dur- As such, the first astronauts manage crew health risks, day NASA astronaut Scott through it without much of
ing lengthy space missions who fly to Mars may need the report noted. Kelly broke the U.S. re- an issue.” He said he hopes
— especially trips to Mars, to accept even more risk NASA agreed with the con- cord for the longest single his mission will help get as-
currently targeted for the than subsequent crews, clusions. spaceflight. tronauts to Mars.
2030s. according to the report. To date, no American Kelly is more than halfway Medical researchers ex-
Among the top health haz- Stalling the health-risk effort, has spent more than sev- through a one-year sta- pect to learn much from
ards for three-year, round- in part, is the continuing un- en months in space at a tion stint, as is Russian cos- Kelly’s flight.q
trip Mars missions: space
radiation that could cause
cancer, central nervous
system damage, cataracts
or infertility; extreme isola-
tion, which could lead to
psychological problems;
and prolonged weight-
lessness, already known to
weaken bones, muscles
and vision.
There’s also the issue of
limited amounts and types
of medicine and food, the
latter potentially leading to
weight loss and malnutri-
tion.
Inspector General Paul
Martin acknowledged that
NASA is making progress in
identifying and managing
these health risks. NASA’s
first yearlong mission is un-
derway at the Internation-
al Space Station.
But Martin pointed out that
the space agency is opti-
mistic in thinking it can re-
solve all the issues by the