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ESDMD #0405: Exploration Medical Capabilities for Deep Space Missions

Medical prevention, diagnosis and treatment that crews can carry out themselves, with long-life medical supplies, when the ground cannot help in time (bin 5, rating 46 of 57). ISS medicine assumes real-time ground support, evacuation for serious events, frequent resupply and missions under a year. The Mars target depends on "future integrated risk assessment trades". The Moon target is the same, "except with less communication delay and some additional abort capability" (Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0405).

Quotations below are from row ESDMD #0405 of the tech gaps spreadsheet unless marked otherwise. ADD Rev C's Appendix D prints the same table for this gap, and it matches the row field for field (ADD Rev C, p. 222).

Description

"As missions become more Earth-independent (increased duration, communications delays, limited abort or resupply), improvements are required across the spectrum of medical capabilities to enable deep space human habitability. There is a need for improved capabilities to allow for prevention, early diagnosis, and treatment options for a wider range of medical conditions as well as long-duration storage of medical supplies. In addition, we cannot fully rely on ground support to address time-critical treatments, increasing the need for crew autonomy in initial diagnostic decision support and guidance in the use of treatments for medical care."

Impacts and benefits: "Failure to close this gap increases the risk to crew of adverse medical outcomes impacting risk of loss of crew/mission or risk of decremented crew performance. Some medical scenarios or emergencies requiring advanced medical treatment may be unsuccessful due to limited or absent real-time ground support. In addition, crews will need to be increasingly autonomous and less reliant on ground support to address time-critical diagnoses and treatments."

Current state of the art

"The scope of ISS medical capabilities is predicated on real-time communication and ground support, evacuation for definitive care of significant medical events, frequent and reliable resupply, and mission durations less than one year."

Performance target

  • Moon: "Same as Mars target, except with less communication delay and some additional abort capability."
  • Mars: "Dependent upon future integrated risk assessment trades. Medical systems and ConOps to reduce risk of adverse crew health outcomes with communication delay, limited abort capability, and limited diagnostic and treatment resources."

Child gaps

  • 0405-01: Medical treatment for high-risk and/or high-likelihood medical ailments
  • 0405-02: High-pressure oxygen generation for medical response
  • 0405-03: Probabilistic risk models and simulations for crew health
  • 0405-04: In-situ medical sample storage, processing, and analysis
  • 0405-05: Medical imaging, diagnostics, and decision support
  • 0405-06: Crew health & performance integrated data architecture

Traceability

  • Use cases and functions: UC-X-101 L -- FN-X-101 L; UC-X-101 L -- FN-D-105 L; UC-X-102 L -- FN-X-102 L; UC-X-102 L -- FN-D-106 L; UC-X-103 L -- FN-X-103 L; UC-X-104 L -- FN-X-104 L; UC-X-105 M -- FN-X-101 M; UC-X-106 M -- FN-X-102 M
  • Definition tasks: Mars: Maximum Total Crew Mission Duration
  • Cross-reference: FN-X-103 L, "Provide crew countermeasure system(s) to support the crew for moderate durations (month+) on the lunar surface", is also one of the Users Guide's Phase 1 functional gaps (Users Guide, p. 9; see Phase 1 functional gaps). This link joins the two sources; neither makes it. UC-X-103 L -- FN-X-103 L also appears under the four countermeasure gaps, #0401 to #0404.

Segments and sub-architectures

Priority

Priority bin 5, overall prioritization rating 46 of 57. The rating is "the gap's location in the prioritized list of gaps", so 1 is the highest priority, and bins group gaps of similar priority, bin 1 highest. Criticality, urgency, breadth and depth set the order; cost is not considered (ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199; method on the gaps index).

Moon Base relevance

Not established by the sources so far. The Users Guide does not name #0405 among its near-term Moon Base challenges (Technology and knowledge challenges). One of its Phase 1 habitation capability targets is "Demonstrate extended duration medical capabilities", but it does not cite this gap there (Users Guide, p. 9; see Phase 1 functional gaps).

Sources

Tech gaps spreadsheet, ESDMD #0405 · ADD Rev C, pp. 78, 199, 222 · Users Guide, p. 9