As record numbers of civilians head into space and scientists improve techniques for collecting data on these intrepid subjects, we may be entering a renaissance in human spaceflight research.
A sign that a renaissance is imminent was published earlier this week in the journal Nature. A hiding place for documents It details the physical and mental changes the four-person crew of Inspiration 4 underwent nearly three years ago. The mission, in partnership with SpaceX, launched on September 15, 2021, and returned to Earth three days later.
During the mission, the crew experienced a wide range of mild molecular changes, immune system dysregulation, and slight declines in cognitive abilities, but researchers were only able to analyze the data (more than 100,000 health-related data points) because the four-person crew was able to reliably collect it in the first place.
This is a bigger achievement than you might imagine. The Inspiration 4 crew received extensive training from SpaceX, which provided the Dragon capsule for the orbit. But their preparation is a far cry from that of NASA astronauts who fly aboard the ISS and regularly subject themselves to a series of health tests, including ultrasounds, cognitive tests, biopsies, blood and saliva tests, skin swabs, and sensory-motor tests.
“The biggest achievement is being able to conduct research together with civilians in space.” [of the research]”Space medicine is a critical step toward keeping humans safe,” said Dr. Dorit Donobiel in a recent interview. Donobiel is a co-author of the Nature paper and an associate professor at Baylor University’s Center for Space Medicine. She also serves as executive director of the Translational Research in Space Medicine (TRISH), a NASA-funded research consortium that conducts and funds cutting-edge research to improve human safety in space.
“To be honest, nobody was sure that we would be able to collect enough data, that we would be able to do it, that ordinary people who have no exposure to scientific research would be able to do something that we could actually analyze,” she continued, referring to the Inspiration 4 mission.
The Inspiration 4 crew is decidedly far from ordinary. Mission leader Jared Isaacman is a billionaire who founded a payment processing company at age 16. Hayley Arceneaux is a physician assistant at the world-renowned St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Sian Proctor is a pilot with a PhD and a university professor of geology. Christopher Sembroski is a former US Air Force machinist who came to his current employer, Blue Origin, after a long career as an aerospace engineer.
Still, they came to Inspiration 4 as spaceflight novices, which meant the TRISH researchers had to devise a test suite that could be run with minimal training. Inspiration 4 crew members also wore Apple Watches, and the capsule was equipped with environmental sensors that allowed researchers to correlate it with other test results. Correlating the data is “unusual,” Dr. Donobiel says, but it gave the researchers unique insights into how limited environmental changes affect things like heart rate and cognitive performance.
Overall, researchers are working to digitize tests and make data collection more passive in order to reduce the cognitive burden on commercial astronauts. (NASA astronauts also take cognitive tests, but with pencil and paper, Dr. Donobiel said.)
Collecting this information will be important as more private citizens head into space, which is almost certain to increase over the next decade. It will allow researchers to better understand the effects of spaceflight on people who don’t fit the mold of a typical NASA astronaut: men, white people, and those in the top 10 percent of physical and cognitive performance. But researchers can only do that if future space travelers are willing to collect data.
More data would allow for a better understanding of how spaceflight affects women and men, and could also help future space travelers with pre-existing conditions understand how they fare in a weightless environment. Inspiration4’s results are particularly promising for space travel: based on data from that mission, the TRISH paper found that short-term missions do not pose significant health risks. This latest preliminary finding adds to existing data that suggests long-term stays in space (340 days in this case) may not be as dangerous as once assumed.
So far, commercial providers from Axiom Space to SpaceX and Blue Origin have been willing to work with TRISH, agreeing to standardize and pool the data collected by their respective missions, Donobiel said.
“They’re all competing for this talent. [as customers]But this allows us to contribute to a common knowledge base,” she added.
This is just the beginning. The rise of non-government spaceflight missions raises big questions about the norms, ethics, and regulations of human research in space. More private citizens than ever before will head to space, but will they be interested in being guinea pigs to advance scientific research? After paying $50 million for a luxury spaceflight experience, will private astronauts want to spend their time performing ultrasound scans on themselves in orbit and meticulously measuring temporary cognitive decline?
Maybe it’s possible, maybe it’s not. Last year, Donoviel Science Magazine Article Among other things, it calls for the development of a set of principles to guide commercial spaceflight missions. One of the principles the authors called for is social responsibility, essentially the idea that private astronauts are considered to have a higher social responsibility in pursuing this research.
“When you go to space, you’re relying on public funding that made it possible for you to go to space. Taxpayers paid for the space capabilities that made it possible for you to go to space, so your research should be owed to taxpayers,” Dr. Donoviel argued. She went on to say that advances in wearable technology, not just the Apple Watch, Bio Button Device It continuously collects many vital signs and sweat patches.
“We’re not going to put you in any pain. We’re not going to stick needles in you. We’re not going to make you do an ultrasound. We’re just going to put a biobutton on you and put on a sweat patch.”
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