Posted on 02/08/2018 3:49:45 PM PST by BenLurkin
It's already being tested on the International Space Station with mice. Forty rodents, each equipped with a special skin implant that automatically delivers medication, flew to the orbiting complex aboard a Dragon spacecraft in December. Half the mice came home in January, and the other half will return home this month. Testing is in progress on the experiment to see how well the mice reacted to the drug.
The device would work for people with wasting muscle diseases, perhaps for patients forced to rest in bed for months after a surgery. It also is being approved right now to administer medication for HIV prevention, where a single missed dose could mean a lifetime of unpleasant consequences. Grattoni expects the HIV version of the implant will be approved in as soon as three years, after its clinical testing finishes.
His team is also working on a newer version of the rodent implant experiment that should fly to the space station in 2019. This version will allow for medication injection by remote control. On Earth, Grattoni said, this version of the device will be very helpful for patients living in remote communities. After a phone consultation with a doctor in a big city, the doctor could adjust the medication dosage using Bluetooth or an Internet connection.
Grattoni's device provides several other benefits. Medication is administered continuously and smoothly, avoiding the spikes that can lead to people experiencing nasty side effects. No one can forget to take their dose. And the device, which is like a membrane, doesn't need to be replaced very often. Patients will instead only need to go to the doctor's office every 6 months to 12 months to get a medication refill. That will be especially handy on a Mars mission, which could take 18 months to two years...
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
Implantable? for “muscle”? loss???
bttt
I think "Dingy" Harry Reid has a disused piece that NASA could examine on how not to implement bands.
Apparently their bodies were in a state of advanced atrophy.
That wouldn’t work over the long term. Space has a lot of problems that can be fixed but with not-so-easy solutions. Spinning can simulate gravity, an easy fix. Magnetic fields can deflect solar radiation, a slightly harder fix. A lot of mass, about 10 tons per square foot, can deflect most cosmic rays. A much harder fix. After that, you have to deal with the longer term solutions to living in space. Food, water, and air.
Just use electric muscle stimulators.
With gov procurement regs...$10k each instead of $29.97
I want one!
Too bad that a Shuttle-like aircraft is unlikely to make a return to space.
Not in the time predicted. That shuttle-like thing was actually part of a two-stage system as seen by Clark. The much larger 1st stage would only make it to high altitude before separating and returning back. It was one of the possible options considered for the original space shuttle.
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