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Looking at medical preparedness for deep space missions

February 27th, 2026 Farhan M. Asrar and Barry Wilmore

As NASA prepares for Artemis II and future missions to Mars, deep space missions bring a new set of challenges for space medicine and caring for astronauts. Newly released expert insights look at enhancing medical preparedness in deep-space missions. The new commentary outlines the steps space agencies and decision-makers need to take in order to make the shift from Earth-dependent to Earth-independent space mission crew care, redefining clinical authority and risk thresholds.

Dr. Farhan Asrar, Associate Dean at TMU's School of Medicine, and an internationally known space medicine researcher is the lead author of this new paper in Science.

Dr. Asrar's co-author is Barry 'Butch' Wilmore, a NASA astronaut who has been on 3 space missions and is no stranger to addressing unexpected challenges. His recent space mission was meant to be for 8 days, but due to unexpected challenges, ended up spending 9 continuous months in space.

Media inquiries and interview requests:

Tania Ulrich (she/her)
PR & Communications Specialist
Central Communications
Toronto Metropolitan University
tulrich@torontomu.ca

More information:
www.science.org/eprint/6R2RNTU … 1126/science.aef9576

Provided by Toronto Metropolitan University

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