PHM for astronauts: Elaborating and refining the concept

Clarifying and evolving the “PHM for Astronauts” concept, introduced in [1], this conceptual paper focuses on particular PHM-based solutions to bring Human Health and Performance (HH&P) technologies to the required technology readiness level (TRL) in order to mitigate the HH&P risks of manned space exploration missions. This paper discusses the particular PHM-based solutions for some HH&P technologies that are, namely by NASA designation, the Autonomous Medical Decision technology and the Integrated Biomedical Informatics technology. Both of the technologies are identified as essential ones in NASA's integrated technology roadmap for the Technology Area 06: Human Health, Life Support, and Habitation Systems. The proposed technology solutions are to bridge PHM, an engineering discipline, to HH&P domain in order to mitigate the risks by focusing on efforts to reduce countermeasure mass and volume and drive the risks down to an acceptable level. The Autonomous Medical Decision technology is based on wireless handheld devices and is a result of a paradigm shift from tele-medicine to that of health support autonomy. The Integrated Biomedical Informatics technology is based on Crew Electronic Health Records (CEHR) system with predictive diagnostics capability developed for crew members rather than for healthcare professionals. The paper explores the proposed PHM-based solutions on crew health maintenance in terms of predictive diagnostics providing early and actionable real-time warnings of impending health problems that otherwise would have gone undetected.