Space-trekking muscle tests drugs for microgravity-induced muscle impairment

A gentle rumble ran under Ngan Huang's feet as a rocket carrying her research -- live, human muscle cells grown on scaffolds fixed on tiny chips -- lifted off, climbed, and disappeared into the sky to the International Space Station National Laboratory. These chips would help Huang better understand muscle impairment, often seen in astronauts and older adults, and test drugs to counter the condition.

Now, the results are back. Reporting in a study published July 25 in Stem Cell Reports, Huang's team showed that space-travelling muscle had metabolic changes that indicate impaired muscle regeneration and gene activities associated to age-related muscle loss called sarcopenia. But drug treatment partially prevented microgravity's adverse effects.

"Space is a really unique environment that accelerates qualities associated with aging and also impairs many healthy processes," says Huang, an associate professor at Stanford University. "Astronauts come back with muscle atrophy, or a reduction of muscle function, because the muscle isn't being actively used in the absence of gravity. As space travel becomes more common and available to civilians, it's important to understand what happens to our muscle in microgravity."

To understand the effects of microgravity on muscles, the researchers launched muscle chips -- bioengineered packages of oriented muscle cells on patterned biomaterials that mimic the structure of real muscles -- into space to grow for seven days under astronauts' care.

When the researchers compared muscle cells grown in microgravity to those grown on Earth, they found impaired muscle fiber formation. They also discovered differences in their gene activity and protein profile. Genes related to mitochondrial function, which muscles get their energy from, were compromised, and genes associated with fat formation were boosted. These findings suggest microgravity can lead to dysfunctions in muscle regeneration.

Space-traveled muscles also have gene activities that somewhat resemble muscles with sarcopenia, which most commonly affects people ages 60 and older.

"We think our research on muscle chips in microgravity may have broader implications on sarcopenia," says Huang. "Sarcopenia usually takes decades to develop on Earth, and we think that microgravity may have some ability to accelerate the disease process in orders of days."

In a proof-of-concept experiment to test the muscle chip for drug screening, the astronauts spiked the chips with drugs to treat sarcopenia or enhance muscle regeneration. The treatment partially mitigated some of the negative effects of microgravity on the muscles, preventing a metabolic shift to fat formation. Looking into gene activity patterns, the drug-treated muscle in microgravity is more similar to samples from Earth than untreated samples in microgravity.

Because space research is labor and resource intensive, the current study is a one-time experiment, and a limited number of samples were allowed to board the rocket. The scientists are now deploying equipment that simulates microgravity to overcome some of those limitations and aid their research in space. Huang's muscle chips are scheduled to embark on another space journey in 2025 to continue the research on identifying drugs for treating microgravity-induced impairment in muscle regeneration.

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Do astronauts experience 'space headaches'?

Space travel and zero gravity can take a toll on the body. A new study has found that astronauts with no prior history of headaches may experience migraine and tension-type headaches during long-haul space flight, which includes more than 10 days in space. The study was published in the March 13, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Changes in gravity caused by space flight affect the function of many parts of the body, including the brain," said study author W. P. J. van Oosterhout, MD, PhD, of Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands.

"The vestibular system, which affects balance and posture, has to adapt to the conflict between the signals it is expecting to receive and the actual signals it receives in the absence of normal gravity. This can lead to space motion sickness in the first week, of which headache is the most frequently reported symptom. Our study shows that headaches also occur later in space flight and could be related to an increase in pressure within the skull."

The study involved 24 astronauts from the European Space Agency, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

They were assigned to International Space Station expeditions for up to 26 weeks from November 2011 to June 2018.

Prior to the study, nine astronauts reported never having any headaches and three had a headache that interfered with daily activities in the last year.

None of them had a history of recurrent headaches or had ever been diagnosed with migraine.

Of the total participants, 22 astronauts experienced one or more episode of headache during a total of 3,596 days in space for all participants.

Astronauts completed health screenings and a questionnaire about their headache history before the flight.

During space flight, astronauts filled out a daily questionnaire for the first seven days and a weekly questionnaire each following week throughout their stay in the space station.

The astronauts reported 378 headaches in flight.

Researchers found that 92% of astronauts experienced headaches during flight compared to just 38% of them experiencing headaches prior to flight.

Of the total headaches, 170, or 90%, were tension-type headache and 19, or 10%, were migraine.

Researchers also found that headaches were of a higher intensity and more likely to be migraine-like during the first week of space flight.

During this time, 21 astronauts had one or more headaches for a total of 51 headaches.

Of the 51 headaches, 39 were considered tension-type headaches and 12 were migraine-like or probable migraine.

In the three months after return to Earth, none of the astronauts reported any headaches.

"Further research is needed to unravel the underlying causes of space headache and explore how such discoveries may provide insights into headaches occurring on Earth," said Van Oosterhout.

"Also, more effective therapies need to be developed to combat space headaches as for many astronauts this a major problem during space flights."

This research does not prove that going into space causes headaches; it only shows an association.

A limitation of the study was that astronauts reported their own symptoms, so they may not have remembered all the information accurately.

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How being in space impairs astronauts' immune system

A new study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has examined how T cells of the immune system are affected by weightlessness. The results, which are published in the journal Science Advances, could explain why astronauts' T cells become less active and less effective at fighting infection.

The next steps in the exploration of space are human missions to the moon and to Mars. Space is an extremely hostile environment that poses threats to human health. One such threat is changes to the immune system that occur in astronauts while in space and that persist after their return to Earth. This immune deficiency can leave them more vulnerable to infection and lead to the reactivation of latent viruses in the body.

"If astronauts are to be able to undergo safe space missions, we need to understand how their immune systems are affected and try to find ways to counter harmful changes to it," says study leader Lisa Westerberg, principal researcher at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet. "We've now been able to investigate what happens to T cells, which are a key component of the immune system, when exposed to weightless conditions."

In the study, the researchers have tried to simulate weightlessness in space using a method called dry immersion. This involves a custom-made waterbed that tricks the body into thinking it is in a weightless state. The researchers examined T cells in the blood of eight healthy individuals for three weeks of exposure to simulated weightlessness. Blood analyses were performed before the experiment started, at 7, 14 and 21 days after the start, and at 7 days after the experiment ended.

They found that the T cells significantly changed their gene expression -- that is to say, which genes were active and which were not -- after 7 and 14 days of weightlessness and that the cells became more immature in their genetic programme. The greatest effect was seen after 14 days.

"The T cells began to resemble more so-called naïve T cells, which have not yet encountered any intruders. This could mean that they take longer to be activated and thus become less effective at fighting tumour cells and infections. Our results can pave the way for new treatments that reverse these changes to the immune cells' genetic programme," says Carlos Gallardo Dodd, PhD student at the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet and shared first author with researchers Christian Oertlin and Julien Record at the same department.

After 21 days, the T cells had "adapted" their gene expression to weightlessness so that it had almost returned to normal, but analyses carried out seven days after the experiment ended showed that the cells had regained some of the changes.

The researchers now plan to use Esrange Space Centre's sounding rocket platform in Kiruna, Sweden, to study how T cells behave in weightless conditions and how their function is affected.

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Mix-and-match kit could enable astronauts to build a menagerie of lunar exploration bots

When astronauts begin to build a permanent base on the moon, as NASA plans to do in the coming years, they'll need help. Robots could potentially do the heavy lifting by laying cables, deploying solar panels, erecting communications towers, and building habitats. But if each robot is designed for a specific action or task, a moon base could become overrun by a zoo of machines, each with its own unique parts and protocols.

To avoid a bottleneck of bots, a team of MIT engineers is designing a kit of universal robotic parts that an astronaut could easily mix and match to rapidly configure different robot "species" to fit various missions on the moon. Once a mission is completed, a robot can be disassembled and its parts used to configure a new robot to meet a different task.

The team calls the system WORMS, for the Walking Oligomeric Robotic Mobility System. The system's parts include worm-inspired robotic limbs that an astronaut can easily snap onto a base, and that work together as a walking robot. Depending on the mission, parts can be configured to build, for instance, large "pack" bots capable of carrying heavy solar panels up a hill. The same parts could be reconfigured into six-legged spider bots that can be lowered into a lava tube to drill for frozen water.

"You could imagine a shed on the moon with shelves of worms," says team leader George Lordos, a PhD candidate and graduate instructor in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro), in reference to the independent, articulated robots that carry their own motors, sensors, computer, and battery. "Astronauts could go into the shed, pick the worms they need, along with the right shoes, body, sensors and tools, and they could snap everything together, then disassemble it to make a new one. The design is flexible, sustainable, and cost-effective."

Lordos' team has built and demonstrated a six-legged WORMS robot. Last week, they presented their results at IEEE's Aerospace Conference, where they also received the conference's Best Paper Award.

MIT team members include Michael J. Brown, Kir Latyshev, Aileen Liao, Sharmi Shah, Cesar Meza, Brooke Bensche, Cynthia Cao, Yang Chen, Alex S. Miller, Aditya Mehrotra, Jacob Rodriguez, Anna Mokkapati, Tomas Cantu, Katherina Sapozhnikov, Jessica Rutledge, David Trumper, Sangbae Kim, Olivier de Weck, Jeffrey Hoffman, along with Aleks Siemenn, Cormac O'Neill, Diego Rivero, Fiona Lin, Hanfei Cui, Isabella Golemme, John Zhang, Jolie Bercow, Prajwal Mahesh, Stephanie Howe, and Zeyad Al Awwad, as well as Chiara Rissola of Carnegie Mellon University and Wendell Chun of the University of Denver.

Animal instincts

WORMS was conceived in 2022 as an answer to NASA's Breakthrough, Innovative and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge -- an annual competition for university students to design, develop, and demonstrate a game-changing idea. In 2022, NASA challenged students to develop robotic systems that can move across extreme terrain, without the use of wheels.

A team from MIT's Space Resources Workshop took up the challenge, aiming specifically for a lunar robot design that could navigate the extreme terrain of the moon's South Pole -- a landscape that is marked by thick, fluffy dust; steep, rocky slopes; and deep lava tubes. The environment also hosts "permanently shadowed" regions that could contain frozen water, which, if accessible, would be essential for sustaining astronauts.

As they mulled over ways to navigate the moon's polar terrain, the students took inspiration from animals. In their initial brainstorming, they noted certain animals could conceptually be suited to certain missions: A spider could drop down and explore a lava tube, a line of elephants could carry heavy equipment while supporting each other down a steep slope, and a goat, tethered to an ox, could help lead the larger animal up the side of a hill as it transports an array of solar panels.

"As we were thinking of these animal inspirations, we realized that one of the simplest animals, the worm, makes similar movements as an arm, or a leg, or a backbone, or a tail," says deputy team leader and AeroAstro graduate student Michael Brown. "And then the lightbulb went off: We could build all these animal-inspired robots using worm-like appendages.'"

Snap on, snap off

Lordos, who is of Greek descent, helped coin WORMS, and chose the letter "O" to stand for "oligomeric," which in Greek signifies "a few parts."

"Our idea was that, with just a few parts, combined in different ways, you could mix and match and get all these different robots," says AeroAstro undergraduate Brooke Bensche.

The system's main parts include the appendage, or worm, which can be attached to a body, or chassis, via a "universal interface block" that snaps the two parts together through a twist-and-lock mechanism. The parts can be disconnected with a small tool that releases the block's spring-loaded pins.

Appendages and bodies can also snap into accessories such as a "shoe," which the team engineered in the shape of a wok, and a LiDAR system that can map the surroundings to help a robot navigate.

"In future iterations we hope to add more snap-on sensors and tools, such as winches, balance sensors, and drills," says AeroAstro undergraduate Jacob Rodriguez.

The team developed software that can be tailored to coordinate multiple appendages. As a proof of concept, the team built a six-legged robot about the size of a go-cart. In the lab, they showed that once assembled, the robot's independent limbs worked to walk over level ground. The team also showed that they could quickly assemble and disassemble the robot in the field, on a desert site in California.

In its first generation, each WORMS appendage measures about 1 meter long and weighs about 20 pounds. In the moon's gravity, which is about one-sixth that of Earth's, each limb would weigh about 3 pounds, which an astronaut could easily handle to build or disassemble a robot in the field. The team has planned out the specs for a larger generation with longer and slightly heavier appendages. These bigger parts could be snapped together to build "pack" bots, capable of transporting heavy payloads.

"There are many buzz words that are used to describe effective systems for future space exploration: modular, reconfigurable, adaptable, flexible, cross-cutting, et cetera," says Kevin Kempton, an engineer at NASA's Langley Research Center, who served as a judge for the 2022 BIG Idea Challenge. "The MIT WORMS concept incorporates all these qualities and more."

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Hansel and Gretel's breadcrumb trick inspires robotic exploration of caves on Mars and beyond

House hunting on Mars could soon become a thing, and researchers at the University of Arizona are already in the business of scouting real estate that future astronauts could use as habitats. Researchers in the UArizona College of Engineering have developed technology that would allow a flock of robots to explore subsurface environments on other worlds.

"Lava tubes and caves would make perfect habitats for astronauts because you don't have to build a structure; you are shielded from harmful cosmic radiation, so all you need to do is make it pretty and cozy," said Wolfgang Fink, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at UArizona.

Fink is lead author of a new paper in Advances in Space Research that details a communication network that would link rovers, lake landers and even submersible vehicles through a so-called mesh topology network, allowing the machines to work together as a team, independently from human input. According to Fink and his co-authors, the approach could help address one of NASA's Space Technology Grand Challenges by helping overcome the limited ability of current technology to safely traverse environments on comets, asteroids, moons and planetary bodies. In a nod to the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel," the researchers named their patent-pending concept the "Breadcrumb-Style Dynamically Deployed Communication Network" paradigm, or DDCN.

A fairy tale inspires the future

"If you remember the book, you know how Hansel and Gretel dropped breadcrumbs to make sure they'd find their way back," said Fink, founder and director of the Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory at Caltech and UArizona. "In our scenario, the 'breadcrumbs' are miniaturized sensors that piggyback on the rovers, which deploy the sensors as they traverse a cave or other subsurface environment."

Continuously monitoring their environment and maintaining awareness of where they are in space, the rovers proceed on their own, connected to each other via a wireless data connection, deploying communication nodes along the way. Once a rover senses the signal is fading but still within range, it drops a communication node, regardless of how much distance has actually passed since it placed the last node.

"One of the new aspects is what we call opportunistic deployment -- the idea that you deploy the 'breadcrumbs' when you have to and not according to a previously planned schedule," Fink said.

All the while, there is no need for input from the mother rover; each subordinate rover will make that determination on its own, Fink added. The system can work in one of two ways, Fink explained. In one, the mother rover acts as a passive recipient, collecting data transmitted by the rovers doing the exploration. In the other, the mother rover acts as the orchestrator, controlling the rovers' moves like a puppet master.

Machines take over

The new concept dovetails with the tier-scalable reconnaissance paradigm devised by Fink and colleagues in the early 2000s. This idea envisions a team of robots operating at different command levels -- for example, an orbiter controlling a blimp, which in turn controls one or more landers or rovers on the ground. Already, space missions have embraced this concept, several with participation by UArizona researchers. For example, on Mars, the Perseverance rover is commanding Ingenuity, a robotic helicopter. A concept for another mission, which ultimately was not selected for funding, proposed sending an orbiter carrying a balloon and a lake lander to study one of the hydrocarbon seas on Saturn's moon Titan. The breadcrumb approach takes the idea one step further by providing a robust platform allowing robotic explorers to operate underground or even submerged in liquid environments. Such swarms of individual, autonomous robots could also aid in search and rescue efforts in the wake of natural disasters on Earth, Fink said.

Fink said the biggest challenge, apart from getting the rovers inside the subsurface environment in the first place, is to retrieve the data they record underground and bring it back to the surface. The DDCN concept allows a team of rovers to navigate even convoluted underground environments without ever losing contact to their "mother rover" on the surface. Outfitted with a light detection and ranging system, or lidar, they could even map out cave passages in all three dimensions, not unlike the drones that can be seen exploring an alien spacecraft in the movie "Prometheus."

"Once deployed, our sensors automatically establish a nondirected mesh network, which means each node updates itself about each node around it," said Fink, who first detailed the DDCN concept in a proposal to NASA in 2019.

"They can switch between each other and compensate for dead spots and signal blackouts," added Mark Tarbell, paper co-author and senior research scientist in Fink's laboratory. "If some of them die, there still is connectivity through the remaining nodes, so the mother rover never loses connection to the farthest node in the network."

Mission of no return

The robust network of communication nodes ensures all the data collected by the robotic explorers make it back to the mother rover on the surface. Therefore, there is no need to retrieve the robots once they have done their job, said Fink, who published the idea of using groups of expendable mobile robotic surface probes as early as 2014.

"They're designed to be expendable," he said. "Instead of wasting resources to get them into the cave and back out, it makes more sense to have them go as far as they possibly can and leave them behind once they have fulfilled their mission, run out of power or succumbed to a hostile environment."

"The communication network approach introduced in this new paper has the potential to herald a new age of planetary and astrobiological discoveries," said Dirk Schulze-Makuch, president of the German Astrobiological Society and author of many publications on extraterrestrial life. "It finally allows us to explore Martian lava tube caves and the subsurface oceans of the icy moons -- places where extraterrestrial life might be present."

The proposed concept "holds magic," according to Victor Baker, a UArizona Regents Professor of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, Geosciences and Planetary Sciences."The most amazing discoveries in science come about when advances in technology provide both first-time access to a thing or place and the means of communicating what is thereby discovered to creative minds that are seeking understanding," Baker said.

Exploring hidden ocean worlds

In places that call for submersible robots, the system could consist of a lander -- either floating on a lake, as might be the case on Titan, or sitting on the ice atop a subsurface ocean like on Europa -- that is connected to the submarine, for example through a long cable. Here the communication nodes would act as repeaters, boosting the signal in regular intervals to prevent it from degrading. Importantly, Fink pointed out, the nodes have the capabilities to gather data themselves -- for example measuring pressure, salinity, temperature and other chemical and physical parameters -- and to ingest the data into the cable connecting back to the lander.

"Imagine you make it all the way to Europa, you melt your way through miles of ice, make it down to the subsurface ocean, where you find yourself surrounded by alien life, but you have no way of getting data back to the surface," he said. "That's the scenario we need to avoid."

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Space travel influences the way the brain works

Scientists of the University of Antwerp and University of Liège have found how the human brain changes and adapts to weightlessness, after being in space for 6 months. Some of the changes turned out to be lasting -- even after 8 months back on Earth. Raphaël Liégeois, soon to be the third Belgian in space, acknowledges the importance of the research, "to prepare the new generation of astronauts for longer missions."

A child who learns not to drop a glass on the floor, or a tennis player predicting the course of an incoming ball to hit it accurately are examples of how the brain incorporates the physical laws of gravity to optimally function on Earth. Astronauts who go to space reside in a weightless environment, where the brain's rules about gravity are no longer applicable. A new study on brain function in cosmonauts has revealed how the brain's organization is changed after a six-month mission to the International Space Station (ISS), demonstrating the adaptation that is required to live in weightlessness.

The University of Antwerp has been leading this BRAIN-DTI scientific project through the European Space Agency. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data were taken from 14 astronaut brains before and several times after their mission to space. Using a special MRI technique, the researchers collected the astronauts' brain data in a resting condition, hence without having them engage in a specific task. This resting-state functional MRI technique enabled the researchers to investigate the brain's default state and to find out whether this changes or not after long-duration spaceflight.

Learning effect

In collaboration with the University of Liège, recent analyses of the brain's activity at rest revealed how functional connectivity, a marker of how activity in some brain areas is correlated with the activity in others, changes in specific regions.

"We found that connectivity was altered after spaceflight in regions which support the integration of different types of information, rather than dealing with only one type each time, such as visual, auditory, or movement information', say Steven Jillings and Floris Wuyts (University of Antwerp). "Moreover, we found that some of these altered communication patterns were retained throughout 8 months of being back on Earth. At the same time, some brain changes returned to the level of how the areas were functioning before the space mission."

Both scenarios of changes are plausible: retained changes in brain communication may indicate a learning effect, while transient changes may indicate more acute adaptation to changed gravity levels.

"This dataset is so special as their participants themselves. Back in 2016, we were historically the first to show how spaceflight may affect brain function on a single cosmonaut. Some years later we are now in a unique position to investigate the brains of more astronauts, several times. Therefore, we are deciphering the potential of the human brain all the more in confidence," says Dr. Athena Demertzi (GIGA Institute, University of Liège), co-supervisor of this this work.

New generation of astronauts

"Understanding physiological and behavioral changes triggered by weightlessness is key to plan human space exploration. Therefore, mapping changes of brain function using neuroimaging techniques as done in this work is an important step to prepare the new generation of astronauts for longer missions," comments Raphaël Liégeois, Doctor of Engineering Science (ULiège) with a Thesis in the field of Neuroscience, future ESA Astronaut.

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Floating in space might be fun, but study shows it's hard on earthly bodies

Ever wondered if you have anything in common with an astronaut? Turns out there are 206 things -- your bones. It's these parts of our body that are the focus of a research study on bone loss in astronauts, and the important question of whether bone can be re-gained after returning to Earth.

The TBone study was started in 2015 by Dr. Steven Boyd, PhD, director of the McCaig Institute for Bone and Joint Health and professor in the Cumming School of Medicine. The study has followed 17 astronauts before and after spaceflight over the last seven years to understand whether bone recovers after 'long-duration' spaceflight. Findings are published in Scientific Reports, and while it might not seem like it matters to you here on Earth, the research is important to better understand bone health generally.

"Bone loss happens in humans -- as we age, get injured, or any scenario where we can't move the body, we lose bone," says Dr. Leigh Gabel, PhD, assistant professor in Kinesiology, and lead author of the study.

"Understanding what happens to astronauts and how they recover is incredibly rare. It lets us look at the processes happening in the body in such a short time frame. We would have to follow someone for decades on Earth to see the same amount of bone loss," Gabel says.

The researchers travelled to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas to scan the wrists and ankles of the astronauts before they left for space, on their return to Earth, and then at six- and 12-months.

"We found that weight-bearing bones only partially recovered in most astronauts one year after spaceflight," she says. "This suggests the permanent bone loss due to spaceflight is about the same as a decade worth of age-related bone loss on Earth."

This loss happens because bones that would normally be weight-bearing on Earth, like your legs, don't have to carry weight in microgravity -- you just float.

"We've seen astronauts who had trouble walking due to weakness and lack of balance after returning from spaceflight, to others who cheerfully road their bike on Johnson Space Center campus to meet us for a study visit. There is quite a variety of response among astronauts when they return to Earth, says Boyd.

Former UCalgary Chancellor and astronaut, Dr. Robert Thirsk, BSc (Eng)'76, Hon. LLD'09, MD, knows firsthand how bizarre the return to Earth can be. "Just as the body must adapt to spaceflight at the start of a mission, it must also readapt back to Earth's gravity field at the end," says Thirsk. "Fatigue, light-headedness, and imbalance were immediate challenges for me on my return. Bones and muscles take the longest to recover following spaceflight. But within a day of landing, I felt comfortable again as an Earthling."

Some astronauts who flew on shorter missions, under six months, recovered bone strength and density in the lower body, compared to those who flew for longer durations.

Access to astronauts is rare -- the study team includes two members from the European Space Agency (ESA), Dr. Anna-Maria Liphardt, PhD, and Martina Heer, PhD, as well as two from NASA, Dr. Scott Smith, PhD, and Dr. Jean Sibonga, PhD. The study was funded by the Canadian Space Agency and conducted in partnership with ESA, NASA and astronauts from North America, Europe, and Asia.

As future space missions are exploring travel to more distant locations, the study's next iteration will explore the effects of even longer trips, to support astronauts who may one day travel beyond the International Space Station.

As Thirsk says, "Astronauts will venture to deep space this decade and, in the coming centuries, humanity will populate other star systems. Let's push back the frontiers of space exploration now to make this vision possible."

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Astronauts may one day drink water from ancient moon volcanoes

Billions of years ago, a series of volcanic eruptions broke loose on the moon, blanketing hundreds of thousands of square miles of the orb's surface in hot lava. Over the eons, that lava created the dark blotches, or maria, that give the face of the moon its familiar appearance today.

Now, new research from CU Boulder suggests that volcanoes may have left another lasting impact on the lunar surface: sheets of ice that dot the moon's poles and, in some places, could measure dozens or even hundreds of feet thick.

"We envision it as a frost on the moon that built up over time," said Andrew Wilcoski, lead author of the new study and a graduate student in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences (APS) and the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder.

He and his colleagues published their findings this month in The Planetary Science Journal.

The researchers drew on computer simulations, or models, to try to recreate conditions on the moon long before complex life arose on Earth. They discovered that ancient moon volcanoes spewed out huge amounts of water vapor, which then settled onto the surface -- forming stores of ice that may still be hiding in lunar craters. If any humans had been alive at the time, they may even have seen a sliver of that frost near the border between day and night on the moon's surface.

It's a potential bounty for future moon explorers who will need water to drink and process into rocket fuel, said study co-author Paul Hayne.

"It's possible that 5 or 10 meters below the surface, you have big sheets of ice," said Hayne, assistant professor in APS and LASP.

Temporary atmospheres

The new study adds to a growing body of evidence that suggests that the moon may be awash in a lot more water than scientists once believed. In a 2020 study, Hayne and his colleagues estimated that nearly 6,000 square miles of the lunar surface could be capable of trapping and hanging onto ice -- mostly near the moon's north and south poles. Where all that water came from in the first place is unclear.

"There are a lot of potential sources at the moment," Hayne said.

Volcanoes could be a big one. The planetary scientist explained that from 2 to 4 billion years ago, the moon was a chaotic place. Tens of thousands of volcanoes erupted across its surface during this period, generating huge rivers and lakes of lava, not unlike the features you might see in Hawaii today -- only much more immense.

"They dwarf almost all of the eruptions on Earth," Hayne said.

Recent research from scientists at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston shows that these volcanoes likely also ejected towering clouds made up of mostly carbon monoxide and water vapor. These clouds then swirled around the moon, potentially creating thin and short-lived atmospheres.

That got Hayne and Wilcoski wondering: Could that same atmosphere have left ice on the lunar surface, a bit like frost forming on the ground after a chilly fall night?

Forever ice

To find out, the duo alongside Margaret Landis, a research associate at LASP, set out to try to put themselves onto the surface of the moon billions of years ago.

The team used estimates that, at its peak, the moon experienced one eruption every 22,000 years, on average. The researchers then tracked how volcanic gases may have swirled around the moon, escaping into space over time. And, they discovered, conditions may have gotten icy. According to the group's estimates, roughly 41% of the water from volcanoes may have condensed onto the moon as ice.

"The atmospheres escaped over about 1,000 years, so there was plenty of time for ice to form," Wilcoski said.

There may have been so much ice on the moon, in fact, that you could, conceivably, have spotted the sheen of frost and thick, polar ice caps from Earth. The group calculated that about 18 quadrillion pounds of volcanic water could have condensed as ice during that period. That's more water than currently sits in Lake Michigan. And the research hints that much of that lunar water may still be present today.

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Study explores effects of extended spaceflight on brain

Scientists from the U.S., Europe and Russia are part of a team releasing the results of a large collaborative study involving the effects of long duration spaceflight on the brain. It appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found that while all of the astronauts and cosmonauts they studied had a similar level of cerebrospinal fluid buildup in the brain, along with reduced space between the brain and the surrounding membrane at the top of the head, there was a noteworthy difference when it came to the Americans. They had more enlargement in the perivascular spaces in the brain, passages that serve as a cleaning system during sleep. That's something the researchers say warrants further investigation.

Donna Roberts, M.D., a neuroradiologist at the Medical University of South Carolina who helped lead the study, said a challenge when it comes to exploring the effects of spaceflight has been that there aren't many people in the U.S. who have traveled to space. Combining information about NASA astronauts with that of Russian cosmonauts and astronauts from the European Space Agency gave the study depth.

"By putting all our data together, we have a larger subject number. That's important when you do this type of study. When you're looking for statistical significance, you need to have larger numbers of subjects."

The study focused on 24 Americans, 13 Russians and a small, unspecified number of astronauts from the ESA. It used MRI scans of their brains before and after six months on the International Space Station to evaluate changes in the perivascular spaces.

Lead researcher Floris Wuyts, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium, put the scope of the project in perspective. "I think it is one of the largest studies on space data, and for sure, one of the very few studies with NASA, ESA and Roscosmos data. It comprises data of almost 10% of all people who went into space." Roscosmos is the Russian space corporation.

Fellow researcher and neuroscientist Giuseppe Barisano, M.D., Ph.D., who works at the University of Southern California, said they looked for differences between the crews. "And in this analysis, we found an increased volume of fluid-filled channels in the brain after spaceflight that was more prominent in the NASA crew than in the Roscosmos crew."

Roberts explained what that might mean. "An important implication of our findings is that the volume of fluid-filled channels in the brain of astronauts is linked to the development of the spaceflight-associated neuro-ocular syndrome, a syndrome characterized by vision changes and whose mechanisms are still not completely clear."

But space physiologist Elena Tomilovskaya, Ph.D., of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said further study is needed to determine if there are clinical implications for future flights. "We need to understand how specific microgravity-countermeasure usage, exercise regimes, diet and other factors may play a role in the differences we found between crews."

Roberts agreed. "It is important not to speculate about pathology or brain health problems at this time. The observed effects are very small, but there are significant changes when we compare the post-flight scans with the preflight scans," she said.

The idea for the large study came about as the scientists gathered at annual meetings held by NASA and ESA. "Independently, we had previously reported similar changes in space crews at post-flight brain MRI, including enlargement of the cerebral ventricles. We discussed our findings and realized how valuable it would be to perform a joint analysis of our data. I would like to point out that Dr. Wuyts, in particular, was instrumental in organizing our group, which met regularly for two years to carry out this analysis," Roberts said."I believe it highlights the importance of international cooperation in understanding the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body. In fact, we believe international cooperation in space medicine research is essential to ensure the safety of our crews as we return to the Moon and on to Mars."

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Researchers discover source of super-fast electron 'rain'

UCLA scientists have discovered a new source of super-fast, energetic electrons raining down on Earth, a phenomenon that contributes to the colorful aurora borealis but also poses hazards to satellites, spacecraft and astronauts.

The researchers observed unexpected, rapid "electron precipitation" from low-Earth orbit using the ELFIN mission, a pair of tiny satellites built and operated on the UCLA campus by undergraduate and graduate students guided by a small team of staff mentors.

By combining the ELFIN data with more distant observations from NASA's THEMIS spacecraft, the scientists determined that the sudden downpour was caused by whistler waves, a type of electromagnetic wave that ripples through plasma in space and affects electrons in the Earth's magnetosphere, causing them to "spill over" into the atmosphere.

Their findings, published March 25 in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrate that whistler waves are responsible for far more electron rain than current theories and space weather models predict.

"ELFIN is the first satellite to measure these super-fast electrons," said Xiaojia Zhang, lead author and a researcher in UCLA's department of Earth, planetary and space sciences. "The mission is yielding new insights due to its unique vantage point in the chain of events that produces them."

Central to that chain of events is the near-Earth space environment, which is filled with charged particles orbiting in giant rings around the planet, called Van Allen radiation belts. Electrons in these belts travel in Slinky-like spirals that literally bounce between the Earth's north and south poles. Under certain conditions, whistler waves are generated within the radiation belts, energizing and speeding up the electrons. This effectively stretches out the electrons' travel path so much that they fall out of the belts and precipitate into the atmosphere, creating the electron rain.

One can imagine the Van Allen belts as a large reservoir filled with water -- or, in this case, electrons, said Vassilis Angelopolous, a UCLA professor of space physics and ELFIN's principal investigator. As the reservoir fills, water periodically spirals down into a relief drain to keep the basin from overflowing. But when large waves occur in the reservoir, the sloshing water spills over the edge, faster and in greater volume than the relief drainage. ELFIN, which is downstream of both flows, is able to properly measure the contributions from each.

The low-altitude electron rain measurements by ELFIN, combined with the THEMIS observations of whistler waves in space and sophisticated computer modeling, allowed the team to understand in detail the process by which the waves cause rapid torrents of electrons to flow into the atmosphere.

The findings are particularly important because current theories and space weather models, while accounting for other sources of electrons entering the atmosphere, do not predict this extra whistler wave-induced electron flow, which can affect Earth's atmospheric chemistry, pose risks to spacecraft and damage low-orbiting satellites.

The researchers further showed that this type of radiation-belt electron loss to the atmosphere can increase significantly during geomagnetic storms, disturbances caused by enhanced solar activity that can affect near-Earth space and Earth's magnetic environment.

"Although space is commonly thought to be separate from our upper atmosphere, the two are inextricably linked," Angelopoulos said. "Understanding how they're linked can benefit satellites and astronauts passing through the region, which are increasingly important for commerce, telecommunications and space tourism."

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Carbon dioxide reactor makes 'Martian fuel'

Engineers at the University of Cincinnati are developing new ways to convert greenhouse gases to fuel to address climate change and get astronauts home from Mars.

UC College of Engineering and Applied Science assistant professor Jingjie Wu and his students used a carbon catalyst in a reactor to convert carbon dioxide into methane. Known as the "Sabatier reaction" from the late French chemist Paul Sabatier, it's a process the International Space Station uses to scrub the carbon dioxide from air the astronauts breathe and generate rocket fuel to keep the station in high orbit.

But Wu is thinking much bigger.

The Martian atmosphere is composed almost entirely of carbon dioxide. Astronauts could save half the fuel they need for a return trip home by making what they need on the red planet once they arrive, Wu said.

"It's like a gas station on Mars. You could easily pump carbon dioxide through this reactor and produce methane for a rocket," Wu said.

UC's study was published in the journal Nature Communications with collaborators from Rice University, Shanghai University and East China University of Science and Technology.

Wu began his career in chemical engineering by studying fuel cells for electric vehicles but began looking at carbon dioxide conversion in his chemical engineering lab about 10 years ago.

"I realized that greenhouse gases were going to be a big issue in society," Wu said. "A lot of countries realized that carbon dioxide is a big issue for the sustainable development of our society. That's why I think we need to achieve carbon neutrality."

The Biden Administration has set a goal of achieving a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas pollutants by 2030 and an economy that relies on renewable energy by 2050.

"That means we'll have to recycle carbon dioxide," Wu said.

Wu and his students, including lead author and UC doctoral candidate Tianyu Zhang, are experimenting with different catalysts such as graphene quantum dots -- layers of carbon just nanometers big -- that can increase the yield of methane.

Wu said the process holds promise to help mitigate climate change. But it also has a big commercial advantage in producing fuel as a byproduct.

"The process is 100 times more productive than it was just 10 years ago. So you can imagine that progress will come faster and faster," Wu said. "In the next 10 years, we'll have a lot of startup companies to commercialize this technique."

Wu's students are using different catalysts to produce not only methane but ethylene. Called the world's most important chemical, ethylene is used in the manufacture of plastics, rubber, synthetic clothing and other products.

"Green energy will be very important. In the future, it will represent a huge market. So I wanted to work on it," Zhang said.

Synthesizing fuel from carbon dioxide becomes even more commercially viable when coupled with renewable energy such as solar or wind power, Wu said.

"Right now we have excess green energy that we just throw away. We can store this excess renewable energy in chemicals," he said.

The process is scalable for use in power plants that can generate tons of carbon dioxide. And it's efficient since the conversion can take place right where excess carbon dioxide is produced.

Wu said advances in fuel production from carbon dioxide make him more confident that humans will set foot on Mars in his lifetime.

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Astronauts demonstrate CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in space

Researchers have developed and successfully demonstrated a novel method for studying how cells repair damaged DNA in space. Sarah Stahl-Rommel of Genes in Space and colleagues present the new technique in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 30, 2021.

Damage to an organism's DNA can occur during normal biological processes or as a result of environmental causes, such as UV light. In humans and other animals, damaged DNA can lead to cancer. Fortunately, cells have several different natural strategies by which damaged DNA can be repaired. Astronauts traveling outside of Earth's protective atmosphere face increased risk of DNA damage due to the ionizing radiation that permeates space. Therefore, which specific DNA-repair strategies are employed by the body in space may be particularly important. Previous work suggests that microgravity conditions may influence this choice, raising concerns that repair might not be adequate. However, technological and safety obstacles have so far limited investigation into the issue.

Now, Stahl-Rommel and colleagues have developed a new method for studying DNA repair in yeast cells that can be conducted entirely in space. The technique uses CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology to create precise damage to DNA strands so that DNA repair mechanisms can then be observed in better detail than would be possible with non-specific damage via radiation or other causes. The method focuses on a particularly harmful type of DNA damage known as a double-strand break.

The researchers successfully demonstrated the viability of the novel method in yeast cells aboard the International Space Station. They hope the technique will now enable extensive research into DNA repair in space. This study marks the first time that CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has successfully been conducted in space, as well as the first time in space that live cells have undergone successful transformation -- incorporation of genetic material originating from outside the organism.

Future research could refine the new method to better mimic the complex DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation. The technique could also serve as a foundation for investigations into numerous other molecular biology topics related to long-term space exposure and exploration.

"It's not just that the team successfully deployed novel technologies like CRISPR genome editing, PCR, and nanopore sequencing in an extreme environment, but also that we were able to integrate them into a functionally complete biotechnology workflow applicable to the study of DNA repair and other fundamental cellular processes in microgravity," said senior author Sebastian Kraves. "These developments fill this team with hope in humanity's renewed quest to explore and inhabit the vast expanse of space."

First author Sarah Stahl Rommel adds, "Being a part of Genes in Space-6 has been a highlight of my career. I saw firsthand just how much can be accomplished when the ideas of innovative students are supported by the best from academia, industry, and NASA. The expertise of the team resulted in the ability to perform high-quality, complex science beyond the bounds of Earth. I hope this impactful collaboration continues to show students and senior researchers alike what is possible onboard our laboratory in space."

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Astronauts' mental health risks tested in the Antarctic

Astronauts who spend extended time in space face stressors such as isolation, confinement, lack of privacy, altered light-dark cycles, monotony and separation from family. Interestingly, so do people who work at international research stations in Antarctica, where the extreme environment is characterized by numerous stressors that mirror those present during long-duration space exploration.

To better understand the psychological hurdles faced by astronauts, University of Houston professor of psychology Candice Alfano and her team developed the Mental Health Checklist (MHCL), a self-reporting instrument for detecting mental health changes in isolated, confined, extreme (ICE) environments. The team used the MHCL to study psychological changes at two Antarctic stations. The findings are published in Acta Astronautica.

"We observed significant changes in psychological functioning, but patterns of change for specific aspects of mental health differed. The most marked alterations were observed for positive emotions such that we saw continuous declines from the start to the end of the mission, without evidence of a 'bounce-back effect' as participants were preparing to return home," reports Alfano. "Previous research both in space and in polar environments has focused almost exclusively on negative emotional states including anxiety and depressive symptoms. But positive emotions such as satisfaction, enthusiasm and awe are essential features for thriving in high-pressure settings."

Negative emotions also increased across the study, but changes were more variable and predicted by physical complaints. Collectively, these results might suggest that while changes in negative emotions are shaped by an interaction of individual, interpersonal and situational factors, declines in positive emotions are a more universal experience in ICE environments. "Interventions and counter measures aimed at enhancing positive emotions may, therefore, be critical in reducing psychological risk in extreme settings," said Alfano.

At coastal and inland Antarctic stations, Alfano and her team tracked mental health symptoms across a nine-month period, including the harshest winter months, using the MHCL. A monthly assessment battery also examined changes in physical complaints, biomarkers of stress such as cortisol, and the use of different emotion regulation strategies for increasing or decreasing certain emotions.

Study results also revealed that participants tended to use fewer effective strategies for regulating (i.e., increasing) their positive emotions as their time at the stations increased.

 Read more at Science Daily

NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts headed to International Space Station

 

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's Crew Dragon spacecraft is launched on NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station with NASA astronauts Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Soichi Noguchi onboard, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission is the first crew rotation mission of the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi launched at 7:27 p.m. EST from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center to begin a six month mission onboard the orbital outpost.

An international crew of astronauts is en route to the International Space Station following a successful launch on the first NASA-certified commercial human spacecraft system in history. NASA's SpaceX Crew-1 mission lifted off at 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday from Launch Complex 39A at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket propelled the Crew Dragon spacecraft with NASA astronauts Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, and Shannon Walker, along with Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), into orbit to begin a six-month science mission aboard the space station.

"NASA is delivering on its commitment to the American people and our international partners to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective missions to the International Space Station using American private industry," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "This is an important mission for NASA, SpaceX and our partners at JAXA, and we look forward to watching this crew arrive at station to carry on our partnership for all of humanity."

The Crew Dragon spacecraft, named Resilience, will dock autonomously to the forward port of the station's Harmony module about 11 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16. NASA Television and the agency's website are providing ongoing live coverage through docking, hatch opening, and the ceremony to welcome the crew aboard the orbiting laboratory.

"I could not be more proud of the work we've done here today," said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX. "Falcon 9 looked great, Dragon was dropped off into a beautiful orbit about 12 minutes into the mission, and we'll get more data as we go."

The Crew-1 mission is the first of six crewed missions NASA and SpaceX will fly as part of the agency's Commercial Crew Program. This mission has several firsts, including:
 

• The first flight of the NASA-certified commercial system designed for crew transportation, which moves the system from development into regular flights;
• The first international crew of four to launch on an American commercial spacecraft;
• The first time the space station's long duration expedition crew size will increase from six to seven crew members, which will add to the crew time available for research; and
• The first time the Federal Aviation Administration has licensed a human orbital spaceflight launch.

The astronauts named the Crew Dragon spacecraft Resilience, highlighting the dedication teams involved with the mission have displayed and to demonstrate that when we work together, there is no limit to what we can achieve. They named it in honor of their families, colleagues, and fellow citizens.

"Watching this mission launch is a special moment for NASA and our SpaceX team," said Steve Stich, manager of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. "We are looking forward to getting this crew to station to continue our important work, and I want to thank the teams for the amazing effort to make the next generation of human space transportation possible."

During flight, SpaceX commands the spacecraft from its mission control center in Hawthorne, California, and NASA teams monitor space station operations throughout the flight from the Mission Control Center at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi will join the Expedition 64 crew of Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineer Sergey Kud-Sverchkov, both of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins of NASA.

"It is an honor to have our Japanese astronaut launch on this Crew-1 Dragon as the first astronaut of the International Partner participating in the ISS program," said Hiroshi Sasaki, JAXA vice president. "We look forward to having him conduct lots of science and demonstrate the technology, for here on Earth and for the future. I would also like to thank NASA and SpaceX for their tremendous effort to make this happen."

Rubins, Hopkins, Glover, Walker, and Noguchi will participate in a live crew news conference from orbit at 9:55 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 19, on NASA TV and the agency's website.

Crew-1 Astronauts

Michael Hopkins is commander of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the Crew-1 mission. Hopkins is responsible for all phases of flight, from launch to re-entry. He also will serve as an Expedition 64 flight engineer aboard the station. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2009, Hopkins spent 166 days in space as a long-duration crew member of Expeditions 37 and 38 and completed two spacewalks totaling 12 hours and 58 minutes. Born in Lebanon, Missouri, Hopkins grew up on a farm outside Richland, Missouri. He has a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Illinois, and a master's degree in aerospace engineering from Stanford University. Before joining NASA, Hopkins was a flight test engineer with the U.S. Air Force.

Victor Glover is the pilot of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and second-in-command for the mission. Glover is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance. He also will be a long-duration space station crew member. Selected as an astronaut in 2013, this is his first spaceflight.

The California native holds a Bachelor of Science degree in general engineering from California Polytechnic State University, a Master of Science degree in flight test engineering and a master's degree military operational art and science from Air University, and a Master of Science degree in systems engineering from Naval Postgraduate School. Glover is a naval aviator and was a test pilot in the F/A‐18 Hornet, Super Hornet, and EA‐18G Growler aircraft.

Shannon Walker is a mission specialist for Crew-1. As a mission specialist, she works closely with the commander and pilot to monitor the vehicle during the dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight. She also is responsible for monitoring timelines, telemetry, and consumables. Once aboard the station, Walker will become a flight engineer for Expedition 64. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 2004, Walker launched to the International Space Station aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-19 spacecraft as the co-pilot, and spent 161 days aboard the orbiting laboratory. More than 130 microgravity experiments were conducted during her stay in areas such as human research, biology, and materials science. A Houston native, Walker received a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics from Rice University, as well as a Master of Science degree and a doctorate in space physics, both from Rice University, in 1992 and 1993, respectively.

Soichi Noguchi also is a mission specialist for Crew-1, working with the commander and pilot to monitor the vehicle during the dynamic launch and re-entry phases of flight, and keeping watch on timelines, telemetry and consumables. Noguchi also will become a long-duration crew member aboard the space station. He was selected as an astronaut candidate by the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA, currently the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in May 1996. Noguchi is a veteran of two spaceflights. During STS-114 in 2005, Noguchi became the first Japanese astronaut to perform a spacewalk outside the space station. He performed a total of three spacewalks during the mission, accumulating 20 hours and 5 minutes of spacewalking time. He launched aboard a Soyuz spacecraft in 2009, to return to the station as a long-duration crew member. The Crew Dragon will be the third spacecraft Noguchi has flown to the orbiting laboratory.

Mission Objectives

The crew will conduct science and maintenance during a six-month stay aboard the orbiting laboratory and will return in spring 2021. It is scheduled to be the longest human space mission launched from the United States. The Crew Dragon spacecraft is capable of staying in orbit for at least 210 days, as a NASA requirement.

Crew Dragon also is delivering more than 500 pounds of cargo, new science hardware and experiments inside, including Food Physiology, a study of the effects of an optimized diet on crew health and, Genes in Space-7, a student-designed experiment that aims to better understand how spaceflight affects brain function, enabling scientists to keep astronauts healthy as they prepare for long-duration missions in low-Earth orbit and beyond.

Among the science and research investigations the crew will support during its six-month mission are a study using chips with tissue that mimics the structure and function of human organs to understand the role of microgravity on human health and diseases and translate those findings to improve human health on Earth, growing radishes in different types of light and soils as part of ongoing efforts to produce food in space, and testing a new system to remove heat from NASA's next generation spacesuit, the Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU).

During their stay on the orbiting laboratory, Crew-1 astronauts expect to see a range of uncrewed spacecraft including the next generation of SpaceX cargo Dragon spacecraft, the Northrop Grumman Cygnus, and the Boeing CST-100 Starliner on its uncrewed flight test to the station. They also will conduct a variety of spacewalks and welcome crews of the Russian Soyuz vehicle and the next SpaceX Crew Dragon in 2021.

At the conclusion of the mission, the Crew-1 astronauts will board Crew Dragon, which will then autonomously undock, depart the space station, and re-enter Earth's atmosphere. Crew Dragon also will return to Earth important and time-sensitive research. NASA and SpaceX are capable of supporting seven splashdown sites located off Florida's east coast and in the Gulf of Mexico. Upon splashdown, the SpaceX recovery ship will pick up the crew and return to shore.

NASA's Commercial Crew Program is delivering on its goal of safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the United States through a partnership with American private industry. This partnership is changing the arc of human spaceflight history by opening access to low-Earth orbit and the International Space Station to more people, more science, and more commercial opportunities.

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Sleep duration, efficiency and structure change in space

 It's hard to get a good night's sleep in space. An evaluation of astronauts serving on the Mir space station found that they experienced shorter sleep durations, more wakefulness, and changes in the structure of their sleep cycles while in microgravity.

Researchers at Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, and NASA Ames Research Center studied the sleep patterns of four cosmonauts and one astronaut before, during and after spaceflight to conduct missions on the space station. Preliminary results show that they slept an average of only 5.7 hours in space, compared with 6.7 hours on Earth. They also spent significantly more time awake in bed, leading to a 17.7% reduction in sleep efficiency.

In space their time in non-REM and REM sleep decreased by 14.1% and 25.8% respectively. On average it also took about 90 minutes after falling asleep for astronauts to reach their first episode of REM sleep in space, nearly 1.5 times longer than on Earth. In contrast, most sleep measures were stable across the inflight phase, with the exception of a decrease in the amount of time spent in bed and an increase in the length of time it took to fall asleep after going to bed.

"There were marked shifts in sleep architecture compared to baseline, and some of these evolved over the course of the mission," said lead author Oliver Piltch, an undergraduate researcher at Harvard College. "Our findings were consistent with previous studies that focus on the issue of sleep continuity. We found significant decreases in sleep efficiency during spaceflight despite similar times in bed."

Piltch said scientists need to understand how sleep is affected by spaceflight to better equip astronauts for success on long-duration flights, like a trip to Mars or the Moon. He noted that the research also has implications for sleep on Earth.

"The significant sleep changes induced by the extreme environmental conditions of spaceflight can magnify and help reveal similar, though potentially less noticeable, changes that are induced by the more moderate conditions of Earth," he said. "Our results support other studies indicating that sleep architecture can adapt to different environments. Also, the sleep deficits that our subjects were facing while working around the clock in a high-pressure environment provide further evidence for the danger of stress and shift-work schedules for humans anywhere."

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New clues to predict the risks astronauts will face from space radiation on long missions

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA, aims to send human missions to Mars in the 2030s. But scientists are still trying to learn more about the potential cancer risks for astronauts due to radiation exposure. Cancer risk from galactic cosmic radiation exposure is considered a potential "showstopper" for a manned mission to Mars.

A team led by researchers at Colorado State University used a novel approach to test assumptions in a model used by NASA to predict these health risks. The NASA model predicts that astronauts will have more than a three percent risk of dying of cancer from the radiation exposures they will receive on a Mars mission. That level of risk exceeds what is considered acceptable.

The study, "Genomic mapping in outbred mice reveals overlap in genetic susceptibility for HZE ion- and gamma-ray-induced tumors," was published April 15 in Science Advances.

Radiation exposure in space is 'exotic'

When astronauts are sent into space, they are exposed to a type of radiation that is "pretty exotic, compared to radiation on earth," said Michael Weil, senior author of the study and a professor in the Department of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at CSU. The radiation comes from two sources: the sun and from supernovas.

Scientists know very little about these types of radiation and their effects on humans, because exposure on earth is very limited, said Weil.

"The radiation type we're most concerned about are HZE ions or heavy ions," he added. "When you're in space, there is nothing to deflect this type of radiation. Some of these heavy ions will punch through a spacecraft hull, so when you send astronauts into space, you're exposing them to these types of radiation."

This radiation can damage molecules, cells and tissues, with the potential for cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders.

Previous studies of radiation risks have used health data from survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. While those studies have provided some insight, Weil said the data poses a number of problems for real-world application, including comparing a wartime Japanese population to a peacetime U.S. population.

The type of radiation is also different, and has different effects. During the atomic bombings, people received radiation exposures instantaneously. But astronauts bound for Mars would be exposed to radiation continuously over three years.

Models mimicked genetically diverse humans

For the study, Weil and first author Dr. Elijah Edmondson, a veterinary pathologist and researcher based at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Maryland, used a unique stock of genetically diverse mice, mimicking a human population.

Mice were divided into three groups with the first group receiving no radiation exposure and the other two receiving varying levels of exposure.

Edmondson, who conducted the research while completing a veterinary residency in pathology at CSU, said that for this type of research project, genetic variability is crucial.

"Humans are very genetically diverse," he explained. "You want to model that when it's appropriate and feasible to do so."

Weil said although the research team saw different tumor types, similar to humans, but the heavy ions did not cause any unique types of cancer. They also saw differences by sex.

In humans, women are more susceptible to radiation-induced cancers than men; one of the main reasons is that women live longer, allowing sufficient time for cancer to develop. In assessing the cancer risk between male and female mice in the study, scientists said the findings parallel human data.

Edmondson said the study validates the NASA model to measure cancer risks for humans from space radiation.

NASA continuously updates its risk assessment model, said Weil, and has done so based on work that was previously done at CSU.

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