The vertical distance between astronauts on the space station and the nearest hospital on Earth is about 250 miles. Humans will also send astronauts to Mars, so that distance is even farther, estimated to be about 35 million miles. So what if someone gets sick or injured on Mars? Doctors on the spacecraft will treat some illnesses, but they are not experts in curing all diseases. Besides, the most important thing before developing a treatment plan is to make an accurate diagnosis of the disease. Are there instruments on the ship or other planets that can make a diagnosis? Are there specialized personnel who can operate these instruments and make correct diagnoses? In order to ensure the health of astronauts in flight, it is important to address this issue during future long-duration flights.
Ultrasonic Diagnostic Instrument
NASA engineers and flight surgeons have suggested a single ultrasonic diagnostic instrument to solve this problem. It had a dual function as a medical device for scientific research and for physical examination of astronauts.
A diagnostic ultrasound machine is an instrument that a pregnant woman needs to use several times during her pregnancy to ensure the health of the fetus in her womb. Since it can diagnose the health of the fetus in the mother's womb, it should also be useful for astronauts' physical examinations. This association led to a plan to expand its application into space. So NASA proposed to perform physical examinations on astronauts in flight by arranging for a specialized radiologist on the ground to instruct astronauts in space in the use of the ultrasound diagnostic instrument.
However, there is still a lot of work to be done to realize this plan. It's not easy to skillfully maneuver a diagnostic ultrasound machine and make a correct diagnosis of the test results. On the ground, it takes about 500 hours to train a person in this technique.
It is difficult to be able to accurately control the probe of an ultrasound machine. Especially in space, the size of organs and their location in the body change from what they are on the ground. For diagnostic ultrasound technology, it's difficult to use the probe to find the exact location of an organ, even if it changes within millimeters. It takes a radiologist years to accurately interpret black-and-white, shaded ultrasound images. The surgeon in charge of the program and NASA engineers then came up with the idea of establishing video communications between the ISS and the ground base, with specialists guiding the astronauts in the operation of the diagnostic ultrasound machines.
The plan would be realized by setting up a continuous video link in space and on the ground for astronaut-physician communication, where the doctors could give the astronauts instructions on where to place ultrasound probes to get a clear picture. Astronauts in space can also place probes by looking at diagrams of the body's structure. Radiologists can look at the ultrasound images sent back by the astronauts as if they were playing a "copy of a home video".
There is a two-second lag between the station and the ground. Astronauts and radiologists communicate with each other using a device that pauses the picture with a hard drive. Effective real-time communication between the space station and the ground base occurs only 60 percent of the time.
The astronauts train for the program for only four to six hours. This includes classroom and hands-on training. Although the technology has not yet been used in space for medical emergencies, NASA has completed testing of the entire process and conducted experiments on the ISS. The first experiment in the application of diagnostic ultrasound technology in space was conducted on the ISS's 9th astronaut crew. Two astronauts, under the guidance of ground specialists, succeeded in sending back to the ground clear images of the musculature of the shoulder, proving that astronauts with only a minimal amount of time for training could master the operation of the diagnostic ultrasound instrument. The 10th astronaut group continued the ultrasound experiments and increased the parts of the body that were detected by ultrasound, scanning the astronauts' abdomen, teeth and bones as well.
This NASA research program is beneficial to ensure the health of astronauts in space flight, but also expands the remote diagnostic treatment technology on the ground. In the event of a major accident, for example, this method would allow a remote expert to guide the staff at the accident site in diagnosing and treating the injured. Francis Hospital in Wichita, USA, has already begun this work by training nursing staff in the crews of helicopters flying to accident sites. The hospital plans to use a means of communication to link up with medical specialists in the hospital so that surgeons can instruct the nursing staff at any time. Another example is that when sports competitions are held, athletes are prone to injuries, and it is very beneficial to the health of athletes to have ultrasound diagnostic equipment and staff with short-term training at the sports site to diagnose athletes' injuries in a timely manner.
An ultrasound diagnostic instrument has been installed in the locker room of a field hockey team in Detroit, U.S.A. After a short period of training and remote guidance from experts, one of the team's coaches has been able to use this equipment to take ultrasound pictures of athletes' shoulders and other injured parts.
Knowledge
Ultrasonic waves
Ultrasonic waves are sound waves with a frequency higher than 20,000 hertz, which have good directionality, strong penetrating ability, easy to obtain a more concentrated acoustic energy, and propagate a long distance in water, which can be used for distance measurement, speed measurement, cleaning, welding, stone crushing, sterilization and so on. In medicine, military, industry, agriculture, there are many applications, ultrasound because of its frequency lower limit is approximately equal to the upper limit of human hearing and named.