February 16th, 2024 | beyondearth

I attended the Human Research Program for Civilians Workshop (HRP-C), presented by the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS) in cooperation with the Aerospace Corporation, Global Spaceport Alliance, and Oklahoma State University. This workshop brought together leaders from many fields, and presented HRP-C findings, NASA’s human research program (HRP), as well as international and academic research.  

This two-day workshop was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma on January 23rd and 24th, 2024, where information and insights were shared by presenters and between the diverse set of attendees. Attending were representatives from commercial space companies, NASA programs, universities, a former NASA administrator, astronauts, as well as representatives from several international space agencies. The key product of the recent HRP-C work is available in their draft report, The Human Research Program for Civilians in Space and Space Habitation (HRP-C).

Of particular interest was the common identification that current human medical information reflects primarily NASA astronauts who are highly fit and specially selected .  All agreed that the medical data from these individuals does not reflect the growing and projected host of regular people across all demographics and age groups that will be traveling into space.  I was also intrigued by the growing debate on the potential of “personalized” therapy and health regiments, and when such methods could or should be applied.

Identified Topic Focus Areas of the HRP-C Include: 

• Artificial Gravity; An unexplored promising response to microgravity. 
• Just in Time Personalized Training; Sub-orbital to living in orbit.
• Personalized Health Regiments; Everybody’s body is different. 
• Collecting People’s Medical Data: Social implications, personal information rights and data collection.
• Other areas - TBD

Overall, a wide array of fascinating additional observations on research topics, findings, questions and potential responses to spaceflight and space habitation resulted from workshop participant interactions. The recently released Beyond Earth Institute (BE) report, “Staying Safe in Space; Policy Considerations and Recommendations on Reliability, Health, and Safety in Orbit and Beyond,” was in remarkable concert with the identified issues and findings of the HRP-C.  Developed independently, this BE report addressed the identified risks of human spaceflight in the HRP-C report and recommended potential system design responses.  

BE is now working in concert with this coalition that is building a foundational program to address the health, safety, and performance of civilian space travelers in the commercial space sector.  As the Technical Lead at Beyond Earth I intend to engage our working groups to contribute to and augment the work of the HRP-C and other space colleagues who were in attendance.

Steven J. Höeser is the Senior Technical Advisor for Beyond Earth Institute. Read more about Steve’s background and role at BE here.