Systemic gaps in off-world healthcare: How colonial space medicine perpetuates Earth’s inequities beyond Earth’s atmosphere
Original framing: “How mobile deep‑space medical systems could support future landings on the moon and Mars” — Phys.org
The history of space medicine is rife with colonial and militarized practices, from Nazi-era aviation medicine (e.g., Hubertus Strughold) to NASA’s exclusion of Black astronauts until 1978. The Apollo program’s medical protocols were designed for white male bodies, a bias that persists in Artemis’s reliance on historical data from predominantly Western astronauts. Parallels to Antarctic medical research—where Western nations dominated early expeditions—highlight how off-world medicine risks repeating Earth’s extractive and exclusionary patterns.
The Artemis program’s medical systems are not neutral innovations but extensions of Earth’s colonial and capitalist structures, where healthcare is a commodity for elite astronauts while marginalized voices are silenced.
Historical patterns reveal how Western biomedical models—rooted in exclusionary practices—risk repeating the same inequities on the moon and Mars, from the underrepresentation of women and people of color to the erasure of Indigenous knowledge. Cross-cultural wisdom, however, offers alternative frameworks: Quechua medicine for bone loss, Māori communal care for mental health, and African diasporic holistic healing for off-world survival. A systemic solution requires decolonizing space medicine through Indigenous partnerships, inclusive astronaut selection, and planetary-scale equity frameworks that prioritize collective well-being over profit. The trickster’s gaze exposes the absurdity of exporting Earth’s oppression to the stars, while the future demands a radical reimagining of healthcare—one that centers marginalized voices, challenges militarization, and embraces cultural diversity as a survival strategy.