Simon Evetts
Blue Abyss & ESA
Biography:
For most of the last decade Simon Evetts ran the MDT Medical Projects & Technology Unit at the European Astronaut Centre, Cologne. His responsibilities spanned medical projects, astronaut fitness and the support of astronaut health. He has been instrumental in developing the field of space biomedicine in the UK for the last 15 years and having recently moved on from Wyle, NASA’s primary astronautics services provider, is now the Managing Director of SeaSpace Research Ltd, the R&D arm of the Blue Abyss venture, which will see the biggest, deepest diving pool in the world established in the UK for the Oil & Energy and Space Industries. Simon has established the Human Spaceflight Capitalisation Office (HuSCO) at Harwell to aid the development of, and augment the benefit from the human spaceflight sector in the UK. Simon co-founded the UK Space Life and Biomedical Sciences Association and UK Space Environments Association.
Talk summary: Exploration spaceflight; health in space needs, health on earth benefit.
The astronauts of government agencies have dedicated teams to help monitor and maintain their health and fitness on the ground, during space missions and on their return from space. The challenges faced today by these teams, and the astronauts, are not the same as those they will face when undertaking exploration class missions in the future. The need for appropriate support staff and practices and appropriate autonomous capabilities for deep space travel is recognised, and will be developed in the years leading up to the first exploration mission. These challenges will lead to innovation and R&D output that is likely to be beneficial to terrestrial medical practice, helping to tackle future healthcare issues on earth. Recognising how cross sector activity, and in particular the translation of IP from space to non-space fields of endeavour, can be an efficient use of resources for societal benefit, and is crucial for the development of human spaceflight. Understanding the exact nature of the mechanisms required to enable these synergies to effectively occur, however, is a challenging task but one we must solve.
