Alyson Calder / Fellow in Paediatric Anaesthesia
Alyson Calder is a senior registrar in anaesthetics, and has long-harboured a fascination with space and the little-spoken-of medical specialty that goes hand-in-hand with it. Although currently working as a paediatric anaesthesia fellow, she has many years of experience with space medicine, from organising an annual UK Space Medicine conference to the unusual practice of earth-based microgravity research in Brazil. Her interest has also taken her to China, Korea, Japan, Russia and the USA. Adventure Medic’s Rowena Clark asked her some questions to find out more.
RC / Where did your passion for Space and Space Medicine come from?
AC / When I was in Primary School, we did a school project on Space Travel to coincide with Christa McAuliffe (an American school teacher) flying on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Space Travel sparked my imagination and I became fascinated with stargazing. Because I grew up in a small village in the Highlands, stargazing conditions were perfect and I would spend hours staring into Space!
When I was 13, I travelled to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City outside Moscow. I travelled there with other British students as part of the Brunel University ‘Space School’ and was delighted to meet some fellow space geeks! My interest continued to grow and I travelled each year to Space Schools and then organized some visits to NASA in my later high school years. I would write articles for the local newspaper and so be granted a ‘press pass’. The doctors and scientists I met at the Johnson and Kennedy Space Centers were so encouraging that it fuelled my interest in Space Medicine.
RC / Who did you approach to further your interest?
AC / It started with the trip to Star City in 1992. I raised sponsorship from local businesses to fund the trip. It sort of snowballed from there. During my high school years, I organized an annual ‘space trip’ for myself, and was always lucky to have the support of local businesses that were happy to be mentioned in the newspaper articles I would write on my return. In 1995 I sent a letter to the NASA Johnson Space Center in Texas asking if I could visit them and was astonished to receive a reply from a man called Doug Ward in the public relations office. He organized a two week programme of activities, including meeting doctors, cardiovascular physiologists, scientists, technicians, the astronaut selection office… It was incredible.
RC / How did you set up your elective in Space Medicine at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida?
AC / There was an application process to go through far ahead of the Space Medicine elective. Through prior visits, I had met the organizers of the programme. Each year, two international students were selected to participate in the elective. We had to complete an application form and write an essay. Spending a whole month with the doctors and scientists was fantastic. I carried out a project looking into ways to counteract orthostatic intolerance, My supervisor was a very encouraging doctor called Phil Scarpa. I learned about occupational medicine at the centre, about safety, about astronaut screening, research, training…
RC / What has been your most unique Space Medicine experience so far?
AC / I am very fortunate to have had the chance to visit the Space institutions I have, and continue to be amazed at the generosity and warmth that staff showed me during my visits. Seeing the launch and landing of a space shuttle was pretty awesome and participating in an emergency simulation scenario following the landing of the shuttle was fascinating. Since all the emergency services are gathered on site for the landing, they used the opportunity to mock up a disaster. I had to put on a space suit and play the part of a delirious astronaut with chemical burns!
Being allowed into the shuttle simulator with astronauts in training was exciting, and the giant centrifuge at Star City was cool…
But one of my favourite trips was to the Microgavity Laboratory in Porto Alegre in Brazil. I had met Professor Thais Russomano in London a few months beforehand and we discussed an experiment to investigate how effective chest compressions would be on the moon…. We worked on the project via email and she invited me to visit her laboratory to collect the data. The bioengineering department there designed an ingenious contraption using a series of pulleys and counterweights to simulate hypogravity (i.e. as you would experience on the moon or Mars). Subjects then performed chest compressions and we measured their effectiveness and the degree of arm bending. As far as I am aware, it is the only such study to look at chest compression technique in a hypogravity environment! The device for measuring chest compression efficiency is useful for ALS training too. I was inspired by the way the Microgravity Laboratory worked. Medical doctors, physiologists, pharmacologists, engineers, computer scientists, physiotherapists and technicians all worked together on projects. The laboratory was tiny but prolific. The staff there bounced ideas off each other and it was an exciting place to be. Plus, I learned what a caipirinha is.
RC / How effective are chest compressions on the moon?!
AC / Because the gravitational force on the moon is about 0.17G (it is 1G on Earth), you can’t rely on your body weight to push down on the chest. So we found that the subjects adapted a different style of chest compressions, requiring them to bend their arms to generate the force required to generate effective chest compression depth. This becomes exhausting very quickly!
RC / Tell us a bit about the UK Space Medicine Association please
AC / The Space Medicine Association started years ago as a group of enthusiasts meeting in London. We organized the 1st UK Space Medicine conference at the University of Leicester in 2003. It emerged that there were many students and doctors interested in how microgravity affects the body. The group grew with each conference and year-by-year became more organized and official. We now have a strong committee and membership. You can read more about the association at www.uksba.org. The current committee does a great job of organising meetings and encouraging participation in Space Medicine.
RC / Is there likely to be any scope to continue a special interest in this as a consultant within the NHS?
AC / Nothing is impossible. But that doesn’t mean it would be easy. The fields of medicine that may be most relevant are areas like Occupational Medicine, Aviation Medicine, General Practice, Cardiology…. There are many areas of research which are transferrable to Space Medicine (for example, muscle wasting and osteoporosis, the effects of long term bed rest, cardiovascular deconditioning and neuroplasticity). I do believe that it is possible to merge the two interests if you have the determination to do so and understanding employers! Or, of course, you could take the plunge and be a full time researcher or doctor at a space centre (for example, the European Space Agency or NASA).
Although I now work full time in the NHS and have very little time to pursue my space interest at present, my experiences to date have provided me with many skills and insights which will stay with me throughout my career.
RC / Can you see yourself ever actually becoming a space tourist?
AC / It used to be my childhood dream to be an astronaut! However, I can see plenty to be done back down here on Earth before escaping into Space. Saying that, though, I would love to look back at the Earth from Space. I think that the experience astronauts have, in particular those who have been on the moon, must be mind-blowing.
RC / Finally, what advice do you have for someone considering a career in space medicine?
AC / Go for it! It’s not an easy career path, but if you are determined and have the ability to think outside of the box, then it is possible. There are many opportunities at the European Space Agency and NASA, and also within university research departments. I’d recommend that they join the UK Space Biomedical Association to learn about opportunities to get involved. There is plenty going on in the field right now… Exciting times!
