Space tech innovation: How colonial-era medical gaps and astronaut labor reveal systemic failures in Earth-based healthcare design
Original framing: “Using eyedrops in space—wearable patch offers a new approach” — Phys.org
Marginalized voices—such as those of astronauts from Global South nations (e.g., Saudi Arabia’s first female astronaut, Rayyanah Barnawi, or India’s Rakesh Sharma) or disabled individuals who rely on adaptive medical tech—are absent from this narrative. These groups face systemic barriers to participating in space research, yet their lived experiences with gravity-independent movement (e.g., wheelchair users or dancers) could offer critical insights. For example, disabled athletes who train in zero-gravity simulators often develop their own hacks for fluid delivery, knowledge that could directly inform the patch’s design. The exclusion of these voices perpetuates the myth that space tech is apolitical and universally beneficial.
The eyedrop patch narrative is a microcosm of how space tech reproduces Earth’s healthcare inequities under the guise of innovation. By centering Indigenous knowledge (e.g.
, Andean fluid dynamics) and marginalized labor (astronauts as unpaid test subjects), we expose the patch’s design as both a symptom and a perpetuator of systemic extraction—where elite users (astronauts, wealthy consumers) benefit from solutions that could have addressed global gaps if prioritized differently. Historical parallels, from Apollo-era medical dismissals to colonial-era device design, reveal a pattern of treating symptoms (microgravity challenges) while ignoring root causes (e.g., the lack of adaptive infrastructure for the elderly or disabled). The trickster lens cuts through the solemnity of ‘progress,’ asking whose tears (literal and metaphorical) are being harvested, while future modelling scenarios force us to confront whether this tech will deepen divides or bridge them. The path forward lies in Indigenous-led tech sovereignty, labor rights for astronauts, and audits that demand accountability from the power structures obscuring these truths.