Memorandum 24
Submission from Dr Tamara Banerjee
AN ARGUMENT FOR BRITISH INVOLVEMENT IN HUMAN
SPACE FLIGHT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1. The UK has the potential to be a world
leader in the field of space medicine. They have talented doctors
and scientists actively trying to move the UK forward, but this
is proving to be impossible without national support. This is
detrimental to UK education, research and the UK economy. The
UK needs to be involved in the human spaceflight programme.
COMMENTARY
2. I am currently a junior physician in
Oxford. As a medical student I had the privilege of being able
to participate in a student parabolic flight campaign, organised
and funded by ESA. My interest in this area has snowballed since
this once in a lifetime opportunity. An experiment of mine was
flown on the Foton M1 mission in Russia, and on the Cervantes
mission to the ISS. Our team was from the UK but it was the ESA
outreach programme that enabled us to do this. There are many
students who are fascinated by space and space travel. The UK
must start providing opportunities of its own to ignite young
students' interests in pursuing a science career.
3. Through a contact from another founding
UKSBG member, I spent eight weeks as an investigator for the Women
International Space Simulation for Exploration 60 day bed rest
study which took place in Toulouse, 2005. This was a unique opportunity
to observe the work of top researchers in the space physiology
field, where teams from the USA, Canada and Europe were all collaborating
to make advances for human space flight. It was sad that the UK
was unable to be a part of this. I was a member of the University
of California, San Diego team, NASA trialling a lower body negative
pressure device to potentially be used as an exercise countermeasure
on the ISS. This has many medical applications on Earth too, and
is being used in the UCSD orthopaedic department. I am still involved
in this project and have personally benefited from being part
it, but I am only able to play a minor role. UK researchers should
be able to contribute to these campaigns in a major way, and have
the opportunity to take leading roles in these advanced medical
projects.
4. I would love to pursue a PhD in the UK
in space medicine/physiology. This is currently impossible. There
are no post-graduate opportunities in this field. There are leading
space physicians and physiologists from the UK but they all work
abroad. I, along with many of my peers, am being forced to move
abroad to pursue a career in this field and will be of detriment
to the UK science community as well as the NHS.
5. A panel of four UK doctors (including
myself) and two American doctors talked at the Aerospace Medicine
Association conference in Florida, 2006 about the medical skills
set needed for a mission to Mars. This was very well received,
and our colleagues from NASA were astonished that even without
governmental support, there are such vibrant and knowledgeable
space medicine experts in the UK. These experts will not exist
for very much longer, because they are currently totally unsupported
within the UK, and will be unable to maintain their interests
with government backing.
6. The transition from aviation to aerospace
travel started in the 1960s and is progressing quickly, with the
prospect of going back to the Moon, going to Mars, and increasing
space tourism. This is happening without input from the UK. We
should not stand here and watch other countries stride ahead,
and lose the huge benefits to be gained from a healthy space medicine
research community.
October 2006
| 
