Last summer saw the first tourist flights to space. Until now, the average person has tended to travel much closer to the Earth’s surface, but according to emerging space companies, this number is expected to increase. Quickly. A few days ago, the filming of a movie shot aboard the International Space Station ended and though the small Russian crew was the first in history to deal with the absence of gravity, it most likely won’t be the last. The era in which space was frequented only by astronauts is over. The final frontier has been conquered. And questions about health risk management in space are being asked. How do space voyagers perform physiologically in orbit? Compared to professionally trained astronauts, space tourists have a higher average risk of developing heart problems in a modified gravity situation.

Those who manage flights in space will have to face new challenges and to review some risk management practices, which of course, are more complicated than usual in orbit. Current earthbound guidelines for performing cardiac massage properly require that more than one person should administer the cardiac massage, so that turns can be taken and the effectiveness of chest compressions is maintained. This is not an easy guideline to meet in space, where crews are kept to a bare minimum and fatigue strikes more quickly than it would on Earth.

And that’s where LUCAS could help. LUCAS is an automatic cardiac massager, already being used by some rescue teams both on helicopters and in inhospitable environments. Eurac Research researchers Giacomo Strapazzon and Alessandro Forti tested the automatic massager in altered gravity to obtain scientific results on its effectiveness and usefulness in these compromised conditions. With the data from these tests, space flight companies will be able to better evaluate the benefits of keeping machines like LUCAS on board as well as being able to streamline their crew numbers accordingly.

The test
The airbus carrying 35 researchers from around the world took off from Dübendorf military airport in Switzerland. During the two-hour flight, the aircraft performed 16 parabolic maneuvers - ascending and descending following a particular trajectory - that created a series of zero-gravity conditions inside the fuselage that lasted for 22 seconds each, just like in space.
The flight campaign, organized by the Swiss foundation Sky Lab takes place every year to allow institutions and companies to conduct experiments and studies on microgravity.
For the occasion, the aircraft is set up as a real laboratory with each of the research teams having their own designated workstation for their specific tests; when the aircraft reaches cruising altitude, the experts who have been strapped into the aircraft, can start testing.
LUCAS performed chest compressions on the dummy throughout the flight under the careful observation of the two doctors from Eurac Research.