Mackaill is now working with Nasa’s chief health and medical officer Dr James Polk on developing guidelines for doctors on how to treat astronauts, who have experienced these changes or trauma on return.
“Astronauts lose about 15% of their circulating plasma volume, which means when they come back, their blood pressure can drop and they might need additional fluids,” she says.
“If they had trauma coming back and came into hospital, the astronauts could require blood products quicker or be at an increased risk of fractures.”
She also says with the recent Artemis II mission and future projects going deeper into space than ever before, there is also higher chance of radiation exposure and solar flares from the sun.
“Astronauts’ immune systems could be affected from the radiation, which can lead to viruses, such as glandular fever, when they come back,” Mackaill says.
“It’s important to know about the physiological changes because doctors could do harm if they are not aware of how astronauts physiology changes in space with the amount of fluid in their body, their immune system or their risk of fracture.”