Memorandum 3
Submission from Gihan Ganeshanantham
SELECT COMMITTEE
ON SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY
INQUIRY INTO
UK SPACE POLICY
1. During my five years of medical education
at Imperial College London I have enjoyed and been inspired by
the space medicine opportunities that have been available to me.
I undertook an intercalated BSc degree at King's College London
in Aerospace Physiology, participated in a European Space Agency
student parabolic flight campaign competition, worked as a visiting
researcher at a microgravity laboratory in Brazil and now hope
to go on to undertake an elective with NASA in the final year
of my medical degree. These have all fuelled a childhood desire
to be involved with space medicine and I intend to incorporate
these interests with a prospective medical career in ophthalmology.
However, being born and living in the UK may prove to be a distinct
disadvantage due to the lack of the UK's involvement in human
space flight and I fear these opportunities will soon begin to
disappear once I qualify as a doctor.
2. Determined to involve myself with the
aerospace world I desperately sought a means to do so. Throughout
my early medical school years I kept my eyes open and ears pealed
for any prospects, and eventually an opportunity arose. Intercalated
with our medical degree we had to undertake a Bachelor of Science
degree of our choosing and discovering the Aerospace Physiology
BSc degree programme was a dream come true. The course was run
at King's College London by a prolific and world-renowned Prof
J Ernsting OBE and involved the study of human body function and
its adaptations to the evolutionary, very recent exposure to extreme
altitudes, high accelerative forces and to weightless environments.
It was a fascinating course allowing me to gain an in-depth knowledge
of cardiovascular and respiratory physiology and its application
to the aerospace environment but this knowledge is equally usefully
in a clinical setting. It turned out to be a very challenging
course but at the same time highly interesting and enjoyable.
3. While at King's College, I decided to
participate in a European Space Agency (ESA) competition. It had
been an ambition of mine for a number of years and with the help
of the some of the academics and a student team I put together
an experiment proposal for a parabolic flight campaign. These
are two-week campaigns that allow undergraduate students from
all around Europe to design experiments, which compete for places
to be performed on the flights. The flights run by ESA and Novespace
utilise a modified Airbus 320 to fly parabolas and create short
periods of weightlessness. Our experiment involved helping develop
techniques for basic life support in microgravity, which is essential
for the planned longer Lunar and Martian missions. Although we
were not successful in our application, the ESA have suggested
that using it for an application for a professional flight campaign
would be more appropriate! That application is currently being
formulated and will be submitted in the near future.
4. This work regarding basic life support
in space provided the foundation for an invitation from the Laboratiore
de Microgravidade, PUCRS University, Brazil. I worked there under
the head of the laboratory Prof. T. Russomano further investigating
basic life support in space using their body suspension device
to simulate micro and hypo gravity. I enjoyed my time there tremendously
and the studies went very well. Some of the work I performed I
will be presenting at the forthcoming UK Space Medicine Day alongside
numerous national and international clinicians and scientist at
the National Space Centre, Leicester.
5. These opportunities have arisen through
a combination of hard work, determination and good fortune and
of course, availability. They have allowed me to fuel my desire
to be involved with space medicine and having being highly interesting
and enjoyable have whet my appetite for more. Next year I plan
to take undertake my medical elective with the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration (NASA) in the United States and that
will be allowed through a competition for medical undergraduates
organised by the CASE research group at University College London.
I feel that this will be a wonderful experience and allow me to
be further involved with aerospace research, hopefully in the
visual science area, and will stand me in good steed to further
my aerospace career. I am set to qualify in Medicine in June 2008
and I aim to incorporate the aerospace field in my prospective
career. I am very interested in pursuing Ophthalmology in clinical
medicine and the scope to link this with aerospace medicine to
further develop my expertise in this field should be abundant.
However, I can foresee this not being particularly easy and the
experiences that I have enjoyed and been academically stimulating
will suddenly no longer exist at a postgraduate level. There will
be no more formal exchange programmes, no space medicine or physiology
research posts, no scope for linking clinical work with space
medicine and thus I obviously see my prospects for space medicine
in the UK as bleak. This is very much unlike other countries that
lead the scientific community and simply results from the UK's
under subscription to international human space flight programmes.
6. As the fourth richest country in the
world and the country which has historically been at the forefront
of scientific endeavor, it is surprising to see a void in aerospace
research opportunities throughout the rest of the world and the
UK. If I wanted to pursue my career at NASA I would have to change
my nationality and since the UK does not currently subscribe to
the European Space Agency's human space flight programme I will
be unable to participate in their programmes also. Lunar landings
are planned for 2020 and it would be a momentous occasion for
a Briton to stand on the lunar surface that would surely lead
to a scientific interest epidemic throughout British schools in
an unprecedented manner.
7. As for now, Britain can significantly
contribute to international space exploration through advances
in aerospace medicine. There is a great source of highly talented,
intelligent and motivated individuals in the UK who if they had
sufficient resources could lead and focus aerospace scientific
work to best effect. The appeal of aerospace medicine in the UK
spans from internationally renowned professors all the way to
students who have not even applied to medical school yet—and
thus the foundations for a long lasting and continuous research
effort are already established. It is also important to note that
although the research will be primarily geared towards medicine
for use in space exploration, the challenges which it imposes
would no doubt produce creative and innovative research that would
be equally applicable to a terrestrial clinical setting and benefits
to patients will result.
8. I hope that the UK can further our contribution
to the international research effort in space medicine. It would
be a shame and almost an embarrassment to be left behind. Having
had many opportunities available to me at an undergraduate level,
such as BSc degrees, ESA competitions, and exchange programmes,
my desire to be involved with space medicine has been fuelled
further. This determination and enthusiasm, however, will be worthless
if the opportunities that once existed disappear at a postgraduate
level. Personally, I will focus all my efforts to succeed in both
ophthalmology and aerospace medicine and sincerely hope that I
will not be frustrated and limited by the opportunities available
in the UK and by the closure of international opportunities due
to the under subscription to human space flight programmes.
October 2006
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