With the advent of long-duration lunar and Martian space missions, health risks will increase significantly as astronauts will be exposed to prolonged periods of reduced gravity, elevated radiation levels, celestial dust, and isolated environments that may interfere with psychological health and sleep. Astronauts will increasingly rely on pharmaceutical intervention to mitigate these health risks, particularly drugs targeted to treat spaceflight-induced medical conditions such as bone loss, cytopenias, and other degenerative conditions secondary to radiation exposure and immune system dysfunction. Many of these are biologic drugs, and peptide and protein pharmaceuticals are particularly unstable, with limited shelf life (∼6 months) even with refrigeration, which is inadequate for a 2+-year mission to Mars and back. In addition to reduced drug stability in space, there are mass/volume constraints, uncertainty regarding how much—if any—of the drugs will be needed, and severely limited re-supply opportunities. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has identified the need to establish a drug formulary for long-duration space missions, along with a process to ensure that medications remain efficacious during flight. To address these challenges, we aim to develop an “Astropharmacy,” a compact platform that uses engineered microbes to produce small doses of biologics on demand , either in transit or at space destinations that may be far from Earth. To assess the potential for this Astropharmacy, we have compiled a database of peptide and protein drugs that may be needed to mitigate the health risks during long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars that are well-suited for production by the Astropharmacy system. The compiled database acts as a guide for drugs that could be produced using the Astropharmacy system. Importantly, the database can also serve as a valuable resource for flight surgeons and the medical community on Earth, particularly those providing care in resource-limited environments, along with researchers studying biologic drug development.
Blum et al. (Tue,) studied this question.