This NASA astronaut has spent years shaping the future of spaceflight. Now he’s finally heading to orbit05-02-2026 BY Rebecca Heilweil
Anil Menon discusses his upcoming ISS mission, commercial space stations, and the unanswered medical questions of life in microgravity.
Anil Menon might have the world’s spaciest resume. After several years as a NASA flight surgeon, he became SpaceX’s medical director in 2018, where he authored research on the effects of space on the human body. In 2021, he was selected as a NASA astronaut and has spent the past several years training for his own journey to space. Along the way, he also supported his wife, Anna Menon, who traveled to space on a private mission in 2024 and was herself selected as a NASA astronaut last year.
Somewhere in the margins, Menon has also served as an Air Force Reserve member and emergency room doctor.
(...) At this point in time, in medicine, it’s not often you see totally new diseases, but we’re seeing new things in space. I think in the future, we’ll continue to see new things, and that’s probably the biggest thing.
If I were to just pick a specific thing for a concrete example, we’re seeing clotting happen in space in unexpected ways. You take a really healthy person, put them in space, there’s three things that increase your chance of a clot: One is injury, and that’s when your body closes the wound—[and] that’s normal. The other is stasis, which means if you just keep blood in a static spot, it’s going to clot. The other is some element of hypercoagulability. If you take oral contraceptives for women, it makes you a little more prone to clotting. In space, what you’re getting is stasis on some level, so blood isn’t moving the same. You’re getting one cornerstone of that clotting triangle, and it just takes a little bit more to see something else. (...)
https://www.fastcompany.com/91534928/this-nasa-astronaut-has-spent-years-shaping-the-future-of-spaceflight-now-hes-finally-heading-to-orbit
Wątek: AMS Menon - 15.10.1976 (Przeczytany 99 razy)