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What If an Astronaut Needs Surgery in Space? · Made of Stars

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Speaker 1: Warning. The following podcast contains an entertaining look at astronomy, physics,
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Speaker 1: and space news throughout the known universe. Listeners have been
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Speaker 1: known to learn about astronomical phenomenon the scientific method, and
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Speaker 1: expand to vocabulary to include terms like quasar asterism and uranus. Listen,
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Speaker 1: that's your own risk. Go ahead.
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Speaker 2: When made of stars, made them stars, maize.
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Speaker 1: When made of.
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Speaker 2: Stars, you could be from high they would New Mexicomus
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Speaker 2: where a.
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Speaker 1: Stars?
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Speaker 2: When we are made of stars? I'm wes Carol. Doctor
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Speaker 2: Sean Cruising has the week off. I know that feels weird, right,
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Speaker 2: feels like he should be here with me, and he
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Speaker 2: should be, but he's got the week off. He's got
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Speaker 2: some things that he's dealing with. So this week you
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Speaker 2: get me for a Doctor Cruisen list episode of Mate
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Speaker 2: of Stars. But don't worry, his fingerprints are all over
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Speaker 2: what I'm going to talk about today, Because just a
1:22
Speaker 2: little history with how long Sean and I have been
1:26
Speaker 2: doing this show, or some version of this show. We
1:29
Speaker 2: started doing this and together in two thousand and seven.
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Speaker 2: He had been doing some radio hits with other stations
1:37
Speaker 2: and other people prior to me being involved. But in
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Speaker 2: seven is when he and I started doing these together,
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Speaker 2: and it gradually became more than just sort of a
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Speaker 2: single day segment or a single segment show that we
1:52
Speaker 2: were doing. We turned it into like a half hour,
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Speaker 2: and then it turned into a podcast version of the show,
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Speaker 2: and then by twenty twenty one, that's when we launched
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Speaker 2: this particular version of the show, which is made of Stars,
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Speaker 2: and we started doing it as a weekly show. That's
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Speaker 2: again it's about a half an hour that we typically
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Speaker 2: do together. And I have had the pleasure now of
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Speaker 2: about seventeen years of basically taking one of Sean's classes
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Speaker 2: almost I mean, it's not really one of his classes,
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Speaker 2: but it feels like that's what I'm doing every week.
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Speaker 2: And my role on the show is to basically be you. Now,
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Speaker 2: I know of some of our listeners, some of you
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Speaker 2: that are listening right now actually work for NASA, have
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Speaker 2: worked for NASA, work somewhere in the space. We have
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Speaker 2: people that that work in some of the private companies,
2:48
Speaker 2: and based on we sort of look at the geographic
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Speaker 2: listening and some around the world, but some of the
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Speaker 2: geographic listening and we see areas where, oh there's private
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Speaker 2: space companies in this area. Where people are listening, So
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Speaker 2: thank you for listening. And I'll just say this, I
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Speaker 2: don't represent you on the show because you understand more
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Speaker 2: of what Sean is saying than I.
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Speaker 1: Do on any given week.
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Speaker 2: So I've had the pleasure of picking up a lot
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Speaker 2: from him over the years, and my role is to
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Speaker 2: just take that side of the average listener who's interested
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Speaker 2: in these things but doesn't fully have a grasp of
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Speaker 2: everything that's going on. That's my job to ask those questions.
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Speaker 2: Sometimes they're kind of the dumb guy questions, and I
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Speaker 2: don't mind owning that because a lot of these things
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Speaker 2: Sean talks about, I am the dumb guy and I
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Speaker 2: don't really know exactly how to ask it or what
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Speaker 2: to ask. But I do feel like in many situations
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Speaker 2: I'm able to kind of know some of the answers
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Speaker 2: as I'm asking the question from time to time, but
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Speaker 2: I much prefer to hear him explain things than me.
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Speaker 2: Now with all of that, this week, you're going to
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Speaker 2: get me explaining something because it's something that he and
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Speaker 2: I have actually talked about in the past, probably on radio.
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Speaker 2: It's been We've probably discussed this a couple of times,
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Speaker 2: but I don't know that. We've talked about it really
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Speaker 2: in the last couple of years, and it certainly continues
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Speaker 2: to be relevant. I think it may be even more
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Speaker 2: relevant after what just happened with Starliner, with astronauts that
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Speaker 2: did not return on their vessel. They stayed put on
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Speaker 2: the International Space Station. We had a lot of clickbait
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Speaker 2: discussion about, oh my gosh, the astronauts are stuck and
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Speaker 2: right now they're still on the International Space Station, and
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Speaker 2: some people are saying they're stuck, when in reality, they
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Speaker 2: do have a means of getting home if there was
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Speaker 2: an emergency. There is a way for them to get
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Speaker 2: home if they absolutely needed to get home right now.
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Speaker 2: But they have a plan. We have the emission heading
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Speaker 2: up that is going to be the Crew nine, which
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Speaker 2: will go up with empty seats ready to bring them
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Speaker 2: home in February. They were supposed to be up for
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Speaker 2: a short amount of time, you know, days, and now
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Speaker 2: that's turned into months. But that's what astronauts trained for.
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Speaker 2: They were prepared for that. So we've discussed that. We've
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Speaker 2: talked about their situation at great length about what they're
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Speaker 2: dealing with currently, and they're probably very excited now if
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Speaker 2: they've got family. You're gonna miss your family. And I'm
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Speaker 2: just speaking of any astronaut that has been asked to
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Speaker 2: stay longer than what they intended or what they initially
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Speaker 2: thought they were going to stay. But most astronauts will
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Speaker 2: tell you they like the extra time. Sean and I
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Speaker 2: just weeks ago interviewed Katie Coleman, astronaut who has a
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Speaker 2: distinguished career, one of those astronauts that other astronauts want
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Speaker 2: to meet, one of those astronauts that other astronauts say,
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Speaker 2: oh my gosh, you got to interview Katie Coleman. I'd
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Speaker 2: love to talk with She's just that caliber astronaut. And
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Speaker 2: you know in that interview, and you can listen to
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Speaker 2: that interview from a couple of weeks ago here on
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Speaker 2: Mate of Stars. But one of the questions I asked
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Speaker 2: her was, hey, we got these private companies that are
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Speaker 2: taking up now. Citizens you're a retired NASA astronaut, but
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Speaker 2: you're certainly qualified still to go to space, would you.
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Speaker 2: And before I could really finish the question, She's like, yeah,
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Speaker 2: my hand's up, Yes, I would love to go back.
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Speaker 2: You know, this is what you train for, this is
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Speaker 2: what the dream is you want an opportunity to go
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Speaker 2: back to space. So that's what they're dealing with up there.
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Speaker 2: You know, they are there, but probably a little homesick,
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Speaker 2: that's aspects of it. All of them would be homesick
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Speaker 2: to some degree. But they're there on a work trip
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Speaker 2: and they are people, so they're going to be homesick.
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Speaker 2: But they're working and they're focusing their time on their
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Speaker 2: work and this time that they're able to be doing
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Speaker 2: something very few people get an opportunity to do so
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Speaker 2: while we can, you know, feel hey, they're gonna miss
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Speaker 2: you know, the holidays. They're gonna miss the holiday season
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Speaker 2: that they expected to be home with their families. They're
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Speaker 2: gonna miss that. Sure, they'll be back, planned to return
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Speaker 2: in February. That's the plan, coming home with the Crew nine.
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Speaker 2: Half of the Crew nine to it. Well, it will
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Speaker 2: now be the full it'll be that they're part of
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Speaker 2: Crew nine. I mean, that's what they are now. But
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Speaker 2: the question that came up, and a friend of mine
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Speaker 2: actually asked me this question because she herself had her
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Speaker 2: appendix out and her father has had his appendix out,
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Speaker 2: and you have to have emergency surgery, you know, you
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Speaker 2: think about what happens if someone needs that kind of
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Speaker 2: emergency surgery, And she asked me what happens on the
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Speaker 2: International Space Station when they need emergency surgery? So let's
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Speaker 2: want to talk about this week. Because I was able
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Speaker 2: to talk with her with some level of confidence about
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Speaker 2: the way this all works, I messaged Sean and I said, Hey,
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Speaker 2: maybe coming up on the nineteenth, we can talk about
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Speaker 2: this particular issue. This was before we knew that Sean
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Speaker 2: wasn't going to be available to record this week, So
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Speaker 2: I thought, you know what, this is something that I'll
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Speaker 2: talk about. Now, take with a grain of salt. I'm
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Speaker 2: not doctor Sean Cruisin, Okay, he's the much more of
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Speaker 2: the expert on these things. This may not be his
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Speaker 2: particular field, but he has a great understanding of this,
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Speaker 2: and he and I have discussed this a few times
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Speaker 2: on the show over the years, and I'm going to
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Speaker 2: reference a couple of times an article that was done
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Speaker 2: I think twenty fifteen, Smithsonian Magazine wrote an article, great
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Speaker 2: article about this, by the way, about what happens when
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Speaker 2: there's a medical emergency in space, and specifically we'll tie
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Speaker 2: this to the International Space Station. So the first thing
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Speaker 2: to know is that this hasn't happened before. Okay, there's
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Speaker 2: been someone up there over two decades in the International
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Speaker 2: Space Station continuously, So that's the first thing to know.
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Speaker 2: This hasn't come up yet. Okay, it could, it hasn't.
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Speaker 2: That's the first thing to acknowledge that. You know, they
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Speaker 2: have had situations where someone has needed types of treatment
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Speaker 2: up there, but nothing involving emergency surgery. So they are
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Speaker 2: equipped for emergencies though they have the paddles if they
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Speaker 2: had to do that, They have ways to provide oxygen.
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Speaker 2: All the things that you would think would be needed
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Speaker 2: to treat somebody medically they have, and they have a
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Speaker 2: crew member who's designated as the medical officer that's up there.
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Speaker 2: Does that mean they always have a surgeon on board?
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Speaker 2: You know, maybe not. I don't know that that was
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Speaker 2: the vision that they always have someone with surgery capabilities.
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Speaker 2: But you know, in an emergency situation, they would have
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Speaker 2: to be maybe talk through some of the things that
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Speaker 2: would have to be done by folks on the ground.
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Speaker 2: So telehealth is a key component to how they are
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Speaker 2: treated while they are up there. Now, keep in mind,
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Speaker 2: before they go they've gone through rigorous treatment, they've gone
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Speaker 2: through they've been prodded, probed tested a number of ways
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Speaker 2: to help eliminate the risk of their being something up there.
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Speaker 2: And keep in mind too, when they're up there, they're
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Speaker 2: in a very closed environment, so it's not like they're,
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Speaker 2: you know, going to get exposed to the mumps while
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Speaker 2: they're up there. That's not you know, they're just not
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Speaker 2: getting exposed to things. Could someone bring something up with them?
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Speaker 2: Of course, this came up during COVID. They were in
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Speaker 2: a situation where they were quarantined very strictly before anyone
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Speaker 2: went up because they did not want to take it
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Speaker 2: up with them and they didn't want to be in
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Speaker 2: these emergency situations. So those kind of precautions are in
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Speaker 2: place to begin with. They're not going to be put
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Speaker 2: themselves in a situation where they might take something up
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Speaker 2: there with them, and they want to obviously keep the
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Speaker 2: percentage chance of that happening as low as possible. But
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Speaker 2: again back to something like an emergency situation. So this
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Speaker 2: particular article in the Smithsonian and I found it on
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Speaker 2: the website, and the article written by Tim Wright. This
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Speaker 2: was about nine years ago, and the article is called
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Speaker 2: Space station Er, and it asked the question what happens
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Speaker 2: of an astronaut in space needs surgery. And one of
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Speaker 2: the things that he lays out in the articles he
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Speaker 2: discusses some of the things that were done on the
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Speaker 2: Vomit Comet. The basically, it's the UH it's the Boeing
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Speaker 2: aircraft that goes up and down creates conditions of zero gravity.
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Speaker 2: And back then they were specifically working with a surgeon
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Speaker 2: who was on board is named Mark R. Campbell, and
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Speaker 2: he went on board on the Vomit Commet and he
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Speaker 2: was conducting some different types of experimental surgeries on animals
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Speaker 2: and testing the way that blood would react in weightlessness.
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Speaker 2: And they learned things about that, and they did a
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Speaker 2: number of experiments where they were testing what would happen
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Speaker 2: should they need to do a surgery in space. And
12:38
Speaker 2: then there's a number of questions that come into play,
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Speaker 2: and the article lays out some of the different tests
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Speaker 2: and things that he did concerning the way blood and
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Speaker 2: blood a liquid's kind of bubble, right, you're going to
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Speaker 2: get the little blood bubbles that are going to come out.
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Speaker 2: They did admit that the blood didn't exactly act the
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Speaker 2: way and weightlessness that they thought it would. But the
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Speaker 2: first thing to lay out is they do have a
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Speaker 2: means if there was an emergency, they could stabilize someone
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Speaker 2: and get them home very quickly on essentially a space ambulance. Okay,
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Speaker 2: that's the first thing I feel like I need to
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Speaker 2: stress that. So if they were in a position where
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Speaker 2: they said someone could die if they don't get some
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Speaker 2: sort of immediate help, yes, they could put them on
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Speaker 2: this particular pod that's going to get them home very quickly,
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Speaker 2: the most intense ambulance ride that you're ever going to experience.
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Speaker 2: So that's one option. They're going to do what they
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Speaker 2: can while they're there to treat the person. If they
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Speaker 2: have to have surgery there, someone would have to be
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Speaker 2: able to do that. Someone would have to step up
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Speaker 2: and do whatever they could do. But there's a lot
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Speaker 2: of questions. They don't really know how medicine is going
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Speaker 2: to affect people in space. They don't know how dosage
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Speaker 2: is going to work with some of these things, with
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Speaker 2: anesthesian things. Anything that's breathed in the body and breathed
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Speaker 2: out of the body then becomes part of the air
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Speaker 2: system of the International Space Station. So keep in mind
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Speaker 2: as someone is breathing in something that's a type of
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Speaker 2: medicine and then breathing it back out. How's that going
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Speaker 2: to affect the other astronauts on board. Obviously, the main
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Speaker 2: concern is treating the person who needs the emergency attention,
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Speaker 2: so that's the main thing. But the medicines and things
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Speaker 2: that are given to them, how are those things going
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Speaker 2: to and even dosing the medicines or giving them the medicine.
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Speaker 2: Because we've done story Sean, I've done stories over the
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Speaker 2: years where a food item goes missing and it just
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Speaker 2: kind of floats off. There was a Russian sausage that
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Speaker 2: just floated through the International Space Station and it just
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Speaker 2: wandered around and they had to go looking for it.
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Speaker 2: There was a missing tomato not too long ago that
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Speaker 2: they had to track down and they found it. So
14:57
Speaker 2: those kinds of things, and think about those as really
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Speaker 2: small particles. Whether it's a type of a medicine or
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Speaker 2: something that's breathed out, any of those sorts of things
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Speaker 2: that gets into the air, it then becomes part of bathroom.
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Speaker 2: If they're not good in the bathroom, if they're not
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Speaker 2: accurate and true in the bathroom, any sort of miss
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Speaker 2: This isn't one of those deals where you've got to
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Speaker 2: wipe down the toilet seat. This isn't one of those
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Speaker 2: deals where you know, you got to clean the floor
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Speaker 2: around the toilet. This is one of those deals where
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Speaker 2: if you miss in space, it becomes part of the
15:29
Speaker 2: atmosphere of the International Space Station. So this is all
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Speaker 2: part of this. They have to be aware of that
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Speaker 2: should this eventually begin, and eventually I suppose it will,
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Speaker 2: someone's going to need to have some sort of surgery.
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Speaker 2: So the short answer to the question, and I've given
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Speaker 2: a long answer to it, but the short answer to
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Speaker 2: the question is yes, if someone had to have surgery,
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Speaker 2: there there would be a medical officer who would have
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Speaker 2: to do it. If they could stabilize them and get
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Speaker 2: them home in this you know, space ambulance pod, they
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Speaker 2: would do that if they had to get them home
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Speaker 2: and they felt like there was enough time for them
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Speaker 2: to get home. But ultimately the questions all become, well,
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Speaker 2: what happens, what happens during the surgery, how does the
16:16
Speaker 2: blood react, not on the vomit comment, but on the
16:19
Speaker 2: International Space Station. How do the medications affect them? You
16:24
Speaker 2: gotta believe that they don't want this to ever happen,
16:28
Speaker 2: but you got to know that in the name of science.
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Speaker 2: When it does eventually happen, they're going to have a
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Speaker 2: lot of questions that they're going to want to get
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Speaker 2: answers to. This is part of the way the whole
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Speaker 2: science process works. So can they do surgery in space?
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Speaker 2: They certainly believe if they had to they could. Would
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Speaker 2: they want to do it? Not for the astronaut who
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Speaker 2: needed it, maybe in the name of science. And this
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Speaker 2: is me talking. I'm not speaking on behalf of astronauts,
16:58
Speaker 2: but you gotta believe that when when it comes to science,
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Speaker 2: there would be a certain level of maybe excitement about
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Speaker 2: the fact that we're going to learn about how this works. Now,
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Speaker 2: we certainly don't want this to be on this particular person,
17:14
Speaker 2: but you know, there is that side of all of
17:17
Speaker 2: this where they're going to learn something and they're going
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Speaker 2: to know a little bit more about future missions and
17:22
Speaker 2: future situations where this could come up. So that's ultimately
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Speaker 2: the answer. Yes, they can know. They really don't know
17:31
Speaker 2: exactly how all of that is going to work. So
17:37
Speaker 2: coming up after a really quick break, we're going to
17:40
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about music under the Dome. We'll
17:44
Speaker 2: do that right after this. Okay, So music under the
18:12
Speaker 2: Dome is getting ready to kick off again at Columbus
18:16
Speaker 2: State University's Coca Cola Space Science Center. So here's the
18:20
Speaker 2: way all of this works. And we're just gonna quickly
18:24
Speaker 2: talk music under the Dome because it is a concert
18:27
Speaker 2: experience unlike anything you've ever seen or done, unless, of course,
18:31
Speaker 2: you've already been to Music under the Dome in the past.
18:35
Speaker 2: October first will be the first of the new season. Now,
18:39
Speaker 2: season passes went on sale and we talked about them
18:44
Speaker 2: on the show a couple of weeks ago, and about
18:46
Speaker 2: three days later they were sold out. That's for the
18:49
Speaker 2: season passes. Now. They have a designated number of season
18:53
Speaker 2: passes that they sell at the Coca Cola Space Science Center,
18:56
Speaker 2: and then they have other seats that are available for
18:58
Speaker 2: individual purchase that you can get leading up to the show.
19:02
Speaker 2: So the shows aren't all sold out. These season passes
19:05
Speaker 2: are all sold out. Now you can go and individually
19:09
Speaker 2: buy tickets to every one of the shows and have
19:11
Speaker 2: your own individually collected season passes, and I have it
19:14
Speaker 2: on good authority. It's the same price as if you
19:18
Speaker 2: bought them as season passes. The season pass side of
19:21
Speaker 2: this is that it's just a little easier to get
19:23
Speaker 2: them all in one lump, sum and one time. So
19:29
Speaker 2: basically we're talking about the first show coming up on
19:33
Speaker 2: October first, and then on November fifth, before there's a
19:36
Speaker 2: slight break into the new year when they return in March.
19:43
Speaker 2: So here's what we have coming up on the first
19:45
Speaker 2: and it's rhapsodic recitations. So here's the way this works. There,
19:52
Speaker 2: you sit inside the planetarium and you just sit back.
19:56
Speaker 2: You're well, I'm sorry I jumped ahead. First, there's a
19:59
Speaker 2: wine cheese mixer that takes place there at the Cocola
20:02
Speaker 2: Space Science Center. That's the way the whole process begins.
20:07
Speaker 2: And you get there at about five o'clock and you
20:09
Speaker 2: have some wine and some cheese, and then you take
20:11
Speaker 2: a seat and you enjoy this concert experience, which is
20:16
Speaker 2: a dazzling show that will take place on the screen
20:19
Speaker 2: above you while live musicians from the Schwob School of Music.
20:25
Speaker 2: It's faculty and it is students, and they come in
20:29
Speaker 2: and they play for you as you watch the presentation
20:32
Speaker 2: on the screen above you. And basically, like the actual
20:36
Speaker 2: concert starts at five thirty seven, the reception with wine
20:39
Speaker 2: and cheese starts at five, so you get about thirty
20:41
Speaker 2: seven minutes and then you get about a forty five
20:44
Speaker 2: minute concert and it is again, it's one of those
20:49
Speaker 2: things that when you're watching it, you think, this is
20:51
Speaker 2: not happening in Columbus, Georgia. This is not happening here
20:56
Speaker 2: in my hometown. This is something that I'm seeing in
20:58
Speaker 2: a larger city and a bigger venue, you know. And
21:02
Speaker 2: this is sort of where stem meets steam and you
21:06
Speaker 2: put the arts in there and it's tying in to
21:09
Speaker 2: this dazzling show above. And I believe Lance Tankersley, who
21:14
Speaker 2: works there in the planetarium is in charge of all
21:16
Speaker 2: of this as far as the shows actually did the
21:19
Speaker 2: visuals for this first show. And then of course the
21:23
Speaker 2: Schwob legendary for its incredible musicians and staff, you know,
21:30
Speaker 2: working with the student musicians there putting on this concert
21:33
Speaker 2: for you. Again, it's October the first. Everything gets started
21:37
Speaker 2: at five o'clock and you can learn more about the
21:39
Speaker 2: upcoming shows and as well as the astronomy nights coming up.
21:46
Speaker 2: It's a great time of year to check out the
21:49
Speaker 2: Astronomy nights. Doctor Rosa Williams will walk you through what's
21:54
Speaker 2: going on in the sky during astronomy nights. Learn all
21:57
Speaker 2: about all the events at co Cola Space Science Center
22:00
Speaker 2: at CCSSC dot org stands for Coca Cola Space Science
22:05
Speaker 2: Center CCSSC dot org. Hopefully Sean is back next week.
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Speaker 2: I believe he will be, and we thank you for listening,
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