You know that thing when you’ve got a godawful cold and you go into your medicine cabinet to dig out the DayQuil that’s been sitting there since forever and are about to pop the capsules into your mouth when you notice they expired three years ago and now you need to put on some actual clothes and make your way all the way to the pharmacy as you’re sniffling and dripping mucus and you just want to climb into bed and die? Now imagine that—but the nearest CVS is 150 million miles away.
Such is the prospect facing astronauts who dare to take on a mission to Mars, according to researchers at Duke University School of Medicine. Astronauts may be in solid physical condition before a launch, but once in space they are just like those of us stuck on Earth in that they develop aches and pains, runny noses, allergies, and trouble sleeping. Co-author and assistant professor Daniel Buckland at Duke University, along with his team, operated under the assumption that a voyage to Mars would take three years to complete, with no possibility of resupply. Buckland and his colleagues also assumed that people venturing to the Red Planet would have an identical stock of the 106 medications kept on the International Space Station, which includes everything from a medication used for ear wax removal to an antipsychotic drug.
Shelf life data could only be found on 91 of those medications, but of those, 54 were found to have a best before date of less than 36 months if stored in their original packaging. Some, like an eye drop or allergy pill, would expire at the two year mark.
“It doesn’t necessarily mean the medicines won’t work, but in the same way you shouldn’t take expired medications you have lying around at home, space exploration agencies will need to plan on expired medications being less effective,” said Buckland in a press release.
In the study, published in the journal NPJ Microgravity, the scientists pointed out that the reality could be even more dire as little is known about how microgravity affects the degradation of medicines. Given the harsh conditions involved in space travel, which can include elevated radiation levels, it wouldn’t be a surprise if many lost their efficacy even faster than on Earth.
“Pharmaceuticals will likely be the cornerstone of maintaining the health and performance of humans participating in exploration space missions,” the authors wrote. “There is a gap in public knowledge in the prospective shelf-lives of the medications contained in the ISS formulary. It is imperative to know and understand these pharmacologic parameters in order to supply a safe and effective astropharmacy.”
So, while popping an expired DayQuil here on Earth might only add to your misery, for astronauts on Mars, it’s a far grimmer scenario with no pharmacy in sight—unless Martian drug stores are part of the next NASA budget.
