vulture 2, I think you hit the nail on the head. It completely depends on how many people are assigned to the mission. <br /><br />Astronauts are extremely capable individuals who are excellent at following complex directions: for small crews, similar to Apollo, STS, and ISS missions, Astronauts can handle many situations with support from ground side experts. <br /><br />As crew sizes expand, there will be more reasons to pick Astronauts with mission specific expertese. Commanders with command experience, geologists with geology experience, etc. At some point a crew will become so large that you will even want a designated chef/cook. Somewhere along that continuim you will want to add a medical professional.<br /><br />At an exploration and risk seminar held a few years ago by NASA (2004?), there was a good discussion about this topic. Many of the participants are actively involved in exploring remote locations on earth including long expeditions in caves, arctic/antarctic regions, high altitude deaserts, etc. Also included were researchers on polar explorers of previous centuries. They generally said the two most important medical skills were trauma surgery, and dental practice. If you have doctors with these two skill sets in your expedition, you have the best chance for survival. Plus with today's communication systems, remote specialists can guide your local doctor through most problems outside their experience. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Brian J. Pfeifer http://sabletower.wordpress.com<br /> The Dogsoldier Codex http://www.lulu.com/sabletower<br /> </div>