Deep Space Biomedical Engineering

Tristan Richmond
Canadian Space Agency's Space Innovation Lead for Health Beyond Initiative

Tristan has studied biomedical engineering at École Polytechnique Montréal and started working in 2019 at the Canadian Space Agency in the Operational Space Medicine department. Tristan believes that space exploration has the potential to galvanize innovation in the health sector. As international ambitions for space exploration extend to deep space, the issue of crew health becomes increasingly complex, which has the potential to galvanize innovation in the health sector.

Traveling beyond low Earth-orbit implies longer communication delays, rendering ground-based medical support impractical. Furthermore, resupply missions and emergency evacuations are no longer possible. As current operations related to astronaut health are essentially Earth-centric, these challenges give rise to a paradigm shift in operational space medicine. The crew will be required to be medically self-sufficient; onboard systems will have to ensure end-to-end health coverage – from health monitoring to medical treatment. On Earth, technological progress in this field could help bridge the urban-rural gap in terms of access to quality care, as remote communities generally lack medical autonomy. For instance, end-to-end health coverage could minimize the reliance of rural communities on medical evacuations, which often contribute to negative health outcomes for the members of these communities and come with considerable financial burden. In this context, the Canadian Space Agency’s Health Beyond Initiative aims to develop innovative, relevant, and sustainable health solutions for deep space missions while considering the many similarities with the health challenges that arise in remote communities on Earth.