As space missions become more frequent and last longer, researchers are exploring ways to bring healthcare closer to astronauts. Portable medical technologies could play a key role, as recent study testing a new X-ray device aboard a spacecraft has shown.
Non-medical crew members on a commercial spaceflight acquired the first diagnostic X-rays taken during a flight in orbit, using a portable wireless digital X-ray generator.
The results, published in the journal Radiology, by the Radiological Society of North America, showed that the quality of images was as good as on land.
All in-flight X-rays were equivalent to those taken before the takeoff in overall image quality, spatial resolution, and contrast resolution, the researchers noted.
One of the main barriers however, remains the challenge of getting a correct positioning of the patient in microgravity — a physical state in which the perceived pull of gravity is extremely weak, causing objects and people to appear weightless.
