SpaceX's Polaris Dawn crew is reportedly receiving an unconventional method of training through Level Ex's video games.
The Polaris Dawn team is hard at work preparing for their orbital voyage early next year, which will include the first commercial spacewalk and studies on the long-term effects of radiation and microgravity on human health.
The Polaris Dawn crew is carrying out scientific and research tests to investigate the effects of space travel and radiation on the human body. Perhaps even more importantly, Polaris Dawn seeks to pioneer the study of human health.
However, just before the anticipated space mission, the SpaceX crew is reportedly undergoing training through a not-so-conventional method due to time constraints.
What Is SpaceX's Polaris Dawn?
Polaris Dawn, as its name implies, is the first phase of the three-part Polaris program, which also features the SpaceX Starship's first crewed mission.
According to Space, the Polaris Dawn crew discussed the significance of their private space flight in an exclusive interview with SPACE.com. They will launch on a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft no early than March 2023 from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.
On November 14, a four-person crew from Polaris Dawn visited the University of Colorado, Boulder, and discussed their flight with aerospace instructors and students. A series of investigations to be carried out on Polaris Dawn are being organized by the university's BioServe Space Technologies center.
How Level Ex Video Games Help Train SpaceX Crew
According to ZDNet, to prepare the Polaris Dawn crew for medical ultrasound operations, SpaceX has teamed up with Level Ex, a seven-year-old business. Level Ex turns medical education using cutting-edge, real-time simulation technology, all through applications you may download on your phone.
Level Ex's mission, according to CEO Sam Glassenberg, is to advance the practice of medicine through playing and increasing the adoption curve of new health practices by utilizing video game technology and video game design. Level Ex already has three million gamers, including more than one million medical professionals.
To help visualize the training, Level Ex can cater to medical practitioners through a selection of games. For instance, with Gastro Ex, medical professionals can practice performing GI procedures with various endoscopic equipment inside of what appears to be real but is actually virtual anatomy. Additionally, doctors can practice intubating virtual patients in realistic operating room environments using Airway Ex.
"In human spaceflight missions, crews must be ready to address medical problems as they arise - a challenge for many reasons, including their limited medical training and the fact that bodies function differently due to microgravity," Level Ex tells MobiHealthNews.
The only games you can play to receive Continuing Medical Education (CME) credit toward renewing your medical license are those offered by Level Ex. To speed up the understanding and implementation of its technologies, the company also collaborates with close to 30 of the top manufacturers of life science devices.
Medical personnel has started to accept medical training simulations because they are a vast improvement over the alternative, which is learning to use new tools or perform new procedures on actual patients. Since astronauts lack the time for comprehensive medical instruction, the same reasoning obviously applies to their training.
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