In a first, NASA orders astronauts home after unspecified medical issue

"The crew is highly trained, and they came to the aid of their colleague right away."

See full article...

 

[wagnerrp]

Unrelated, but now I'm wondering how kidney stones work in space...

They're worse, because of the bone loss.

 

[wagnerrp]

I am surprised that NASA has been so closed lipped about the identity of the stricken astronaut and his condition. I understand privacy and all that but they're going to have to release the information eventually.

They don’t have to, and they’re not even allowed to without consent.

 

[wagnerrp]

I imagine operating an ultrasound and a defibrillator wouldn't be too different in space. I wonder how IVs are administered though in microgravity? Does the IV equipment come with a pump to ensure consistent flow?

Found a copy of the ISS medical checklist. IVs and injections start on page 596.

https://ia800507.us.archive.org/5/i...22-e-4/ISS Medical Checklist JSC-48522-E4.pdf

 

[wagnerrp]

Some newer jets use extreme pressures to also assist the pilot with g-forces and can go many atmospheres positive pressure in the airway of pure O2 (I asked one of the flight surgeons about that, with an obvious concern, what happens when the g-forces lift and the pilot now has 9x the volume of O2 in their lungs, the answer was "flying fighters is dangerous business" Uh, nope!

That doesn't make any sense. I can't believe their face masks would even survive eight atmospheres gauge, much less their pulmonary system.

 

[wagnerrp]

Agree. It's because it's part of the mission, obviously. Otherwise technically, people have no real "need" to know anything about the mission at all. NASA could just describe the mission very generally with one paragraph on its website and that's it. No updates, video or anything else.

So yes, it's a "public" mission, publicly funded, therefore everything should be public. You have a right to privacy in your home but not out in space on a public spacecraft where the world's eyes are on you anyway and you volunteered to do it. There will be ZERO shortage of same-quality astronaut candidates if they made this a requirement.

Laws on medical privacy supersede the public's right to information on public funding. We can choose to except public employees from privacy laws starting from the top down. The executive and legislative branches are publicly funded too, after all.

 

[wagnerrp]

If they don't want to share that information, they can (and often do) resign and withdraw from the public sphere.

Change that "often" to an "always", and then we can consider the same requirements for lower ranking public employees.

 

[wagnerrp]

Um, actually, I know people often take liberties with acronyms but there isn't an E anywhere in cliff!

E for Earth, or if you prefer, Escarpment.

 

[wagnerrp]

We'll see what happens when we finish coding Fantasy Moonbase League 2025.

I'm sure someone is offering odds on which astronaut it is. It just hasn't been fully industrialized yet.