Have you ever had a bad cold, and you grabbed that Dayquil you’d left lying around in your medicine cabinet, and you were about to pop a capsule in your mouth only to discover that it expired three years ago, and you had to get dressed to go to the pharmacy, but your nose was running and you just wanted to crawl into bed and die? Now imagine that, but the nearest CVS is 150 million miles away.
The prospects facing astronauts attempting a mission to Mars are Researchers from the Duke University School of Medicine worked under the assumption that the trip to Mars would take three years with no possibility of resupply, and that those heading to Mars would have the exact same inventory of 106 medicines stored on the International Space Station, which contains everything from earwax removers to antipsychotics.
Of those medicines, expiration date data was available for only 91, but 54 of those had a shelf life of less than 36 months when stored in their original packaging, with some, such as eye drops and allergy medications, expiring in as little as two years.
“This doesn’t necessarily mean the medication won’t work, but just as you shouldn’t take expired medication sitting around your house, space agencies should assume that expired medications will be less effective,” Buckland said. press release.
In studypublished in the journal NPJ MicrogravityScientists say the reality could be even more dire, because little is known about how microgravity affects drug degradation. Space travel involves harsh environments, including elevated radiation levels, so it wouldn’t be surprising if many medicines lost their effectiveness even faster than they would on Earth.
““Medicines will be fundamental to maintaining the health and performance of humans participating in space exploration missions,” the authors write. “There is a gap in public awareness regarding the expected shelf life of medications included in the ISS prescription. Knowing and understanding these pharmacological parameters is essential to provide safe and effective space medicines.”
So while taking an expired Dayquil on Earth might only increase the pain, for astronauts on Mars it’s a much more dire scenario with no pharmacy in sight — unless a Martian pharmacy is included as part of the next NASA budget.
