{"id":22182,"date":"2026-07-16T10:42:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=22182"},"modified":"2026-07-16T10:43:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T06:43:55","slug":"for-the-first-time-in-the-history-of-space-medicine-astronauts-have-taken-an-x-ray-in-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/for-the-first-time-in-the-history-of-space-medicine-astronauts-have-taken-an-x-ray-in-space\/","title":{"rendered":"For the first time in the history of space medicine, astronauts have taken an X-ray in space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"1\"><span class=\"\">For the first time in the history of space medicine,<\/span><span class=\"\"> astronauts have taken X-ray images in orbit.<\/span><span class=\"\"> The results of the experiment,<\/span><span class=\"\"> conducted aboard the Fram2 spacecraft,<\/span><span class=\"\"> were published in the journal <\/span><i class=\"\" data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"198\">Radiology<\/i><span class=\"\">.<\/span><span class=\"\"> For the past 40 years,<\/span><span class=\"\"> ultrasound had remained the only reliable medical imaging tool in space,<\/span><span class=\"\"> as traditional X-ray machines are too large for spaceflight,<\/span><span class=\"\"> emit high levels of radiation,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and suffer from image degradation due to constant motion.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2\"><span class=\"\">To solve this problem,<\/span><span class=\"\"> researchers from the Mayo Clinic and SpaceX used a portable X-ray device that is solar-powered and easy to operate.<\/span><span class=\"\"> Prior to the flight,<\/span><span class=\"\"> three crew members with no medical background underwent just four hours of training.<\/span><span class=\"\"> Working completely independently in orbit,<\/span><span class=\"\"> they captured X-rays of the hand,<\/span><span class=\"\"> forearm,<\/span><span class=\"\"> abdomen,<\/span><span class=\"\"> pelvis,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and chest.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\"><span class=\"\">Upon returning to Earth,<\/span><span class=\"\"> radiologists confirmed that the quality and accuracy of the images were on par with those taken on Earth,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and the radiation exposure did not exceed safe limits.<\/span><span class=\"\"> This breakthrough is critical not only for medical care but also for engineering tasks\u2014using the portable X-ray,<\/span><span class=\"\"> the crew can inspect the spacecraft\u2019s electronics and spacesuits without disassembly,<\/span><span class=\"\"> which will significantly enhance the safety of future Moon and Mars missions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.rsna.org\/doi\/10.1148\/radiol.260258\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> Radiology<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For the first time in the history of space medicine, astronauts have taken X-ray images in orbit. The results of the experiment, conducted aboard the Fram2 spacecraft, were published in the journal Radiology. For the past 40 years, ultrasound had remained the only reliable medical imaging tool in space, as traditional X-ray machines are too [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22181,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1631,1594,1587,1657],"tags":[6317,6318],"class_list":["post-22182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-neurology","category-news","category-research","category-science","tag-space-medicine","tag-x-ray"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22182"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22187,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22182\/revisions\/22187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}