Axiom Space has partnered with the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to better understand how space travel impacts the body and mind and how to prevent the negative effects of environmental conditions in space. The Ax-2 crew will track several key biomedical metrics before and after spaceflight for the TRISH Essential Measures project and wear a specialized “skinsuit” that simulates some of the effects of Earth’s gravity to mitigate some of the physiological effects of microgravity as part of MIT research.
TRISH Essential Measures
TRISH is sending a dynamic portfolio of research projects aboard Axiom Mission 2 (Ax-2) to better understand the wide-ranging effects of spaceflight on the human body and mind. When astronauts travel to space, they must adapt to the harsh environmental conditions, including microgravity, increased radiation, and isolation. Without the proper countermeasures, spaceflight causes nausea and disorientation, muscle atrophy, bone loss, changes to cognitive health, immune system dysfunction, vision changes, sleep alterations, and changes to the cardiovascular system. While scientists have already discovered significant findings about how spaceflight affects the body and how to manage or limit its impacts, there is so much more to learn. This knowledge is particularly crucial as commercial spaceflight enables more people, some of which have medical conditions, to visit space than ever before.
Based at Baylor College of Medicine and in consortium with MIT and Caltech, TRISH is an applied space health research catalyst that pursues and funds novel research to deliver high-impact scientific and technological solutions to advance space health and help humans thrive wherever they explore, in space or on Earth. For the Ax-2 mission, TRISH has partnered with experts in a variety of fields to track several key health metrics before and after spaceflight. Dr. Mathias Basner and his team at the University of Pennsylvania will track the astronauts’ physiologic performance, and changes in memory, abstraction, spatial orientation, emotion recognition, risk decision-making, and sustained attention to better understand the impact of spaceflight on human cognition and performance. Dr. Mark Shelhamer of Johns Hopkins University will study how the astronauts’ inner ears and eyes sense and respond to the rapid lack of gravity changes in orientation and balance experienced during flight and how this correlates with space-related motion sickness. TRISH will also collect ocular images and vision function data to assess risk of Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), gather biomedical samples to surveil for alterations at the genomic level in partnership with Dr. Richard Gibbs at Baylor College of Medicine’s Human Genome Sequencing Center, and administer a set of standardized research questionnaires for the crew to collect data on their sleep, personality, health history, team dynamics, and immune-related symptoms.
The information collected from the Ax-2 crew will be stored in TRISH’s EXPAND database alongside similar data from participants of other private spaceflight missions, including Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1). This repository of information will serve as a useful resource for scientists solving the complex health risks to human spaceflight and preparing for future deep space exploration missions. By revealing the body’s innate vulnerabilities, capabilities, and areas of resilience, spaceflight data also contributes to our general knowledge of physiology and medicine, with clear applications for improving human health on Earth.
MIT Skinsuit: Gravity Loading Countermeasure
The Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit (or “Skinsuit”) is an intravehicular activity suit for astronauts that has been developed to simulate some of the effects of Earth’s gravity by providing vertical load on the body, from the shoulders to the feet. The Skinsuit is a potential spaceflight countermeasure, which aims to mitigate physiological effects of microgravity, including spinal elongation, muscle atrophy, and sensorimotor changes. This low-mass and low-volume wearable system is intended to supplement exercise during future missions to the Moon and Mars and to further attenuate microgravity-induced physiological effects in future low Earth orbit mission scenarios. Previous Skinsuit experiments, led by MIT and/or international collaborators, have included ground experiments, parabolic flights, International Space Station (ISS) Expedition 44S (Sep 2015, 10 days) and ISS Expedition 50/51 (Oct 2016 to Jun 2017).
The goal of the MIT Skinsuit study on Ax-2 is to characterize the Skinsuit and its physiological effects during a short-duration low-Earth orbit mission. The Skinsuit and accompanying exercise procedure will be the primary countermeasure to mitigate musculoskeletal and sensorimotor changes for one private astronaut crew member, as a technology demonstration during the 8-day mission on the ISS. The project will also demonstrate new features and applications for the suit, exploring the use of a “smart” suit with integrated sensors to monitor the suit’s behavior inflight.
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