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Health of space explorers is a requisite for success of human exploration missions and, potentially, for return of explorers to Earth. Continuous, long term existence and complex, potentially hazardous tasks in space environments will challenge health of explorers. Immediate return to Earth will not be possible. Health care systems are being designed to address these concerns, starting from the requirement to maintain health of crew members throughout all mission phases, and the assumption that clinical (medical), preventive, and occupational health care will be necessary in space as on Earth. Systems for medical care, health monitoring and countermeasures, and environmental monitoring and countermeasures are being designed. Basic system definition concepts include an individual crew member, a crew surgeon, remote consultation, equipment, and work area or volume within space habitats that is dedicated for health care.

Fluid therapy is a basic requirement for modern medical care. As in standard Earth-based medical care, treatment of serious illness or injury of a crewmember at the planned Space Station Freedom Health Maintenance Facility (HMF) will rely on drugs and fluids administered as an aqueous solution. The inventory of prepared fluids in a hospital setting is extensive. Dependent upon the injury or illness and its severity, a patient could require more than 10 liters of fluid per day. A patient in the remote setting of the planned Space Station Freedom could have similar requirements. For the Space Station Freedom Health Maintenance Facility (HMF), volume and mass available for storage of supplies is extremely limited. Fluids for administration to a crewmember/patient are planned to be prepared from potable water.

Analogous to Earth-based medical care facilities, space-based facilities must provide capability for laboratory diagnosis. A clinical laboratory system, based on commercially available devices or technologies, is being designed for space station Freedom that can be used by the crew medical officer to provide analysis of discrete samples of blood and other biological fluids. Clinical chemistry, blood gas analysis, hematology, and microbiology are planned to be available at the space station as components of the Crew Health Care System. As with many space systems, ease of use, compact size and reliability are primary guidelines. Due to the many types of blood and urine analyses that are available, clinical chemistry may be the most frequently used analytical procedure for space medicine.