UCF trains new generation of space doctors

Welcome back. In Fox 35 Mission Control, as commercial space travel starts to boom, more everyday people are now trading the Earth for orbit. And these people aren't trained like astronauts, and it's creating a brand new challenge for health care. Now one local university is stepping up to keep people healthy in zero gravity. Fox 35's Matt Trezza is in Lake Nona now with a look at UCF's new push to train the next generation of space doctors. Every year, more people are going into space, and sometimes those people aren't actually trained astronauts. The way that it used to be until a few years is that you get a very healthy individual because astronauts are highly selected. UCF's vice chair of aerospace medicine says more passengers without NASA training or evaluation are going to space aboard commercial rockets. UCF professor Emmanuel Yurketa says that means the world needs more health professionals trained to handle a new breed of space voyager. This is the new paradigm of human spaceflight, not working only with very healthy individuals, but people with medical conditions. So then you have to get them ready to fly into space. To face these challenges, along with the existing nuances of space healthcare, UCF's College of Medicine is launching three new programs to educate the next generation of space doctors. Dr. Melcher Antignano is one of five new faculty members hired to teach these courses. He previously spent more than 30 years with the FAA. How many times in life do you have the opportunity to start new things from scratch, new programs, to be part of something that you know is going to grow, that is going to be impactful, that is going to change people's lives? Starting this May, the school is offering their medical students a course in aerospace medicine. Then, in fall 2027, they're launching a two-year online master's degree on the same subject. Finally, in 2028, they're starting a two-year residency program offering physicians aerospace medicine board certification. Dr. Antoniano says they'll also have all the equipment that goes with it. It will be not only the training programs, but also the infrastructure that is being brought on board. Like we already have the module of one of the space stations here in the space. We have also a flight simulator. We are going to add to those capabilities an altitude chamber, a hyperbaric chamber. we're going to have, eventually, a neutral buoyancy tank, like the one that NASA has. Space medicine is important because the human body has different health needs in zero gravity. Pretty much all of the human systems change in space flight. We know that about six weeks from you being in space, most of the human systems get adapted to the new norm, which is zero gravity, and some of the systems get to adapt faster than others. UCF anticipates 30 to 50 students in the master's program, 12 students in the elective course, and two physicians undergoing board certification. In Lake Nona, Matt Trezza, Fox 35 News.