As part of its human spaceflight objectives, the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) recruits, trains and secures flight opportunities for Canadian astronauts. This brings the responsibility to optimize the safety, health and performance of Canadian astronauts during all phases of their careers. This responsibility reaches its penultimate level when astronauts fly onboard the International Space Station (ISS) – where their health and performance are of critical importance to mission success. The CSA currently implements a suite of programs to identify, characterize and address astronauts’ health and performance issues. These programs cover scientific research, technology development, hardware manufacturing and payload operations, as well as the training of astronauts and delivery of ground and space-based health care and medical services.
Looking ahead, the CSA is pursuing preliminary work to prepare Canada’s potential participation in upcoming international efforts to move human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit – with the ultimate objective of sending human missions to Mars within the next two decades. As part of this effort, in fall 2017 the CSA established an Expert Group on the Potential Canadian Healthcare and Biomedical Roles for Deep Space Human Spaceflight, with members from healthcare institutions, industry associations, remote medicine and Indigenous healthcare organizations, academic and research institutions and former physician-astronauts. The Expert Group helped the CSA engage with the broader Canadian biomedical, health and performance communities, and studied whether Canada should get involved in astronaut health care for deep space missions and whether Canada has the capability take on a leadership role in astronaut health care. In February 2018, the Expert Group submitted their recommendations to the CSA President as outlined in their Report entitled Canada’s Leadership in 2
Autonomous Health Systems. Their recommendations were that Canada should get involved and that Canada could and should take on a leadership role.
The CSA is now seeking expert advice and support to further develop elements of the health care vision outlined in the Expert Group Report and to better understand how this vision could be implemented.
This entails engaging the Canadian biomedical and health performance communities in order to identify, scope and assess health and biomedical contributions that would:
? -Provide Canada with a meaningful, visible and sustainable role and influence in international missions;
? -Leverage existing Canadian health and medical expertise / capabilities and leadership in collaborative international relations; and
?- Have high potential for significant socio-economic benefits for Canada, including growing Canada’s health and medical capabilities, as well as improving the quality of life.
