Sarang Yoon
Associate Professor
What are you trying to do? Articulate your objectives using absolutely no jargon.
We want to keep people who work in high-risk environments healthy and safe. This includes workers on the ground and people who will work in space. Our goal is to better understand how work environment affect the body and mental health, and to use that knowledge to prevent injuries, illness, and long-term health problems. We want to create practical ways to determine fitness-for-duty, monitor health, reduce risks, and help workers stay healthy while doing difficult jobs.
How is it done today, and what are the limits of current practice?
Today, worker health is protected through medical checkups, safety regulations, and monitoring of workplace hazards. In space missions, astronauts are carefully screened before flight, and their health is monitored during missions. However, current methods on the ground have limitations. Most health checks occur before or after work rather than continuously. Many risks are only detected after a problem has already appeared. In space, medical care is limited, and it remains relatively unknown how to monitor or treat health problems for future non-astronaut workers. Current workplace health programs may not adapt well to new technologies or unusual work environments.
What is new in your approach and why do you think it will be successful?
Our approach focuses on understanding how the worker’s body responds to work environments, both on Earth and in space. We plan to combine real-time health monitoring, better data analysis, and research on how “space” conditions affect workers over time. By learning from both space missions and challenging jobs on Earth, we can design better tools to detect risks early, prevent health problems, and support workers before injuries or illness occur.
Who cares? If you are successful, what difference will it make?
Workers, employers, space agencies, and the public all benefit when people stay healthy at work. If successful, this research will make high-risk jobs safer and reduce injuries and illness. It will help non-astronaut workers stay healthy on long missions and improve safety for workers in industries such as aviation, construction, mining, and emergency response. Ultimately, this work will help ensure that people can safely perform demanding work both on Earth and in space while protecting their long-term health.