On December 18, 2017, Dr. Michael A. Schmidt delivered a keynote address at the Next Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Colorado. The talk was entitled “Spaceflight First Responder Certification: Enhancing the Culture of Safety & Medical Support.” The lecture outlined the need for spaceflight first responder and advanced life support training for the commercial spaceflight industry. Dr. Schmidt outlined the exclusive collaboration between Sovaris Aerospace and Wilderness Medical Associates in evolving wilderness-based medical support certification programs into specialized Spaceflight Medical Support Certification Programs for commercial spaceflight participants. The primary certifications include:
• Spaceflight First Aid (SFA)
• Spaceflight First Responder (SFR)
• Spaceflight Advanced Life Support (SALS)
The lecture outlined the Sovaris team’s widespread experience, having conducted trainings in extreme environments, including aviation, spaceflight (ISS), battlefield medical response (Delta Force, Special Forces), search and rescue, remote space analogues (Antarctica), high altitude research, oceanic research (NOAA), oceanic expeditionary (National Geographic), artificial gravity research (NASA), HALO Parachuting (high altitude, low opening), Naval Aerospace Medicine Operations, parabolic flight research, and others.
These Spaceflight Medical Support Certification Programs are designed to:
• Elevate the safety of suborbital flight
• Build a culture of safety, as we evolve to orbital flight and beyond
• Assure that more passengers, crew, and support teams are first-responder enabled
• Build a growing community of space aspirants on earth who seek specialized training relevant to space.
According to Dr. Schmidt, “We envision a near future in which all space participants will have, at minimum, Spaceflight First Aid certification. We further envision that every flight will have one or more participants certified in either Spaceflight First Response or Spaceflight Advanced Life Support. This will enable a professional capability in pre-mission risk management, a congruent response to unanticipated events in flight, and assure a capable cohort of passengers and crew, should telemedicine directives be required from ground-based medical staff.”
This should be of particular relevance to flight providers, ground crews, ground emergency services, spaceflight and aviation training organizations, paying spaceflight participants, physicians, government, and others. It will also give birth to a robust safety capability, as the field evolves to point-to-point transport and orbital excursions. Finally, these programs will provide a whole new generation of spaceflight aspirants and students the opportunity to become trained in spaceflight relevant survival skills that are also directly translatable to life on Earth.
See also: http://www.firstresponder.space