The Space Studies Program (SSP) is a course promoted by the International Space University (ISU) and this year, for the first time, it was held in Portugal. It was organized by the Portuguese Space Agency, Portugal Space and Instituto Superior Técnico. The event will take place between June 27 and August 26 at various faculties in Lisbon and the "Human Space Exploration" module took place today at the Reynaldo dos Santos Building, at Lisbon School of Medicine (FMUL). Professor Edson Oliveira and Professor Thais Russomano were the speakers and the topic covered was the changes in the human body's exposure to conditions in space, as well as their short and long-term consequences.
At a time when space is no longer just for experienced astronauts who are healthy and in good physical condition - with the opening up of tourist trips - it is important to establish protocols to understand who should and shouldn't go on this odyssey.
The audience, vast and diverse, included students from this course, from different backgrounds and fields of study. There were engineers, architects and lawyers. No doctors, but everyone had a passion for space.
The fact that FMUL had recently inaugurated the Center for Advanced Medicine Studies (CEMA) was not unrelated to the faculty's choice of venue for one of the SSP22 modules. Professor Fausto Pinto, who gave the welcoming speech, explained that the opening of this center was the idea of Professor Edson Oliveira and Professor Thais Russomano as a strong commitment to the development of this area of knowledge and that it makes perfect sense, since there is a subject related to aerospace in the Medicine course taught here.
Professor João Eurico, recently sworn in as Director of FMUL, recalled that his generation was marked by man's flight to the moon and that for many years he wanted to be an astronaut, "then I followed medicine and thought I was going to be a doctor at NASA", he confessed.
Networking is an important working tool these days and with the creation of CEMA an important partnership has been established with various institutions linked to space issues, of which FMUL wants to be a part.
"Don't forget that very soon we'll have the first Portuguese person in space," said Chris Lehnhardt, representing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Professor Virginia Wotring from ISU was surprised by the conditions found in Portugal and highlighted why the Portuguese application was selected for SSP22.
This topic will be covered in the next FMUL newsletter.
