Abstract
Many studies have highlighted that astronauts involved in long-lasting space missions are at risk of developing pathologies similar to those caused by aging. This finding has led several scholars to raise ethical concerns about plans for exploration and colonization of other celestial bodies. This research, while recognizing the hitherto expressed medical and ethical concerns as founded, highlights the fact that human enhancement, and in particular anti-aging therapies, could be the game changer. As it will be showed, anti-aging medicine is progressing at an increasingly accelerated pace. Quantitative and qualitative methods are implemented to provide evidence of this fact. First, the author presents the results of a scientometric analysis of trends in the field of anti-aging medicine. The available data clearly show that studies in this field grow at an almost exponential rate. Then, the author resorts to qualitative meta-analysis to review several medical innovations such as stem cell transplants, organ regeneration, genetic editing, heterochronic parabiosis, telomere lengthening, growth hormone treatments, and some drug therapies, starting from those based on lithium. Given the amount and quality of studies in the field of regenerative medicine, it seems justified to cultivate a moderate optimism regarding future long-lasting space missions. If safe remedies to rejuvenate the human organism in its entirety are discovered, ethical doubts about space exploration and colonization should ipso facto dissolve.
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Campa, R. (2020). Anti-Aging Medicine as a Game Changer for Long-Lasting Space Missions. In: Szocik, K. (eds) Human Enhancements for Space Missions. Space and Society. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42036-9_10
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