Author: María Alejandra Corzo Zamora M.D, MScSpace Physiology & Analogue Space Missions Lead - InnovaSpace Spanish Hub Misiones Espaciales Análogas.., término que a primera vista para algunos es extraño, para otros es una gran oportunidad de ciencia. La primera vez que vi este término fue durante mi maestría en Fisiología y Salud Espacial en King’s College London, en la cual diferentes docentes y estudios los tenían como referencia para investigación en ciencias espaciales y desde ese momento me enamoré de este campo. Pero que son las Misiones Espaciales Análogas?? Bueno, estas misiones son operaciones espaciales realizadas en la Tierra en escenarios naturales o artificiales adecuados para simular entornos o escenarios espaciales, los cuales se realizan para realizar pruebas de equipos, estandarizar procedimientos de tripulaciones espaciales y también permiten desarrollar estudios en diversas áreas del conocimiento como son la Biología, medicina, ingeniería biomédica, robótica, comunicaciones, y otros tipos de ingeniería entre otras. El planeamiento de una misión espacial requiere de diferentes componentes que deben ser milimétricamente estandarizados en tierra para lograr el éxito de la misión en el espacio, en este campo, las misiones espaciales análogas juegan un papel importante en la estandarización y entrenamiento de las personas involucradas en la misma. Las misiones espaciales análogas datan desde la planeación de las misiones Apolo de NASA en la cual, cráteres de meteoritos y faldas de volcanes fueron utilizados para las pruebas de trajes espaciales y rovers que participaron en la misión; así como los astronautas seleccionados recibieron su entrenamiento en comunicaciones, procedimientos para recolección de muestras geológicas, supervivencia, adaptación a sistemas de emergencia de vehículos y su operación. Astronautas del Apollo 11 Edwin (Buzz) Aldrin (izquierda) and Neil A. Armstrong, en entrenamiento de procedimiento para la recolección de muestras geológicas en la Luna para el primer aterrizaje Lunar en las Montañas de Quitman en Texas. En esta mission utilizaron herramientas especialmente diseñadas para la mission. (NASA). Imagen tomada de Smithsonian Magazine en: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/going-moon-apollo-11-astronauts-trained-these-five-sites-180972452/ Desde entonces, estas misiones son de vital importancia para los programas espaciales y para todas aquellas organizaciones, instituciones, universidades entre otros que desean realizar investigación y desarrollo en ciencias espaciales. Entre las aplicaciones más utilizadas encontramos el estudio de los factores humanos en el espacio, los cuales se relacionan con respuestas comportamentales y fisiológicas al confinamiento, la interacción entre comunicaciones de la tripulación con el centro de mando remoto y el desarrollo de aplicaciones a distancia para el apoyo de la tripulación y manejo de emergencias. Entre los escenarios naturales utilizados para estas misiones son los desiertos, los cuales poseen características únicas como acceso, cambios extremos de temperatura día y noche, vientos y su gran similitud con las imágenes topográficas de Marte, ejemplo de su uso se encuentra la estación del desierto de UTAH por el Mars Society y misiones temporales realizadas por el Foro Austriaco Espacial en desierto de Rio tinto en España, norte del Sahara en Marruecos y la región de Dophar en Oman. En Latinoamérica se han realizado misiones en el desierto de Atacama en Chile, en el desierto de la Tatacoa en Colombia entre otros desiertos. De igual manera, la Antártida, al ser un continente poco poblado y de difícil acceso se convierte en otro escenario muy atractivo para el desarrollo de misiones análogas espaciales, es así como una estación permanente en la cual se ha desarrollado diferentes aplicaciones espaciales y estudios biomédicos es la estación Concordia operada por Italia y Francia. El mundo de las misiones espaciales análogas es muy amplio y fascinante, así como el mismo espacio, otros escenarios incluyen cuevas, selvas, faldas de volcanes y el fondo del océano, hasta escenarios en hangares en la ciudad, los cuales proveen similitudes con el espacio dependiendo del objetivo que se busque en cada misión.
Si eres amante de estas ciencias, te invito a seguir los blogs en InnovaSpace, donde encontrarás otros datos sobre misiones espaciales análogas y otros temas de las ciencias espaciales. Nos vemos próximamente!!!! InnovaSpace is pleased to welcome Dr Stijn Thoolen to tell us more about life at the Concordia Research Station in the Antarctic, an extreme environment where temperatures can fall below −80 °C (−112 °F) in the winter months. As an ESA-sponsored medical research doctor, Stijn will remain at the Franco-Italian research station for 13 months - definitely not an activity for the faint hearted! Dr Stijn ThoolenMedical Research Doctor, Concordia Research Station, Antarctica 75 ° 05’59 “S; 123 ° 19’56” E. I will spend 13 months of my life at these coordinates from November onwards. Far away from my girlfriend, my family and friends, from everything that I know and have loved for the past 28 years. A small 1700 km away from the South Pole, situated on a 3270-high ice sheet, with 40% less oxygen than at sea level (the atmosphere is thinner at the poles), a humidity lower than in the Sahara, average temperatures of –30°C in summer and –65°C in winter, four months without any ray of sunshine (is this lunchtime, or should I go to bed already?) and without possibility of evacuation for nine months, the Franco-Italian research station Concordia on Dome C in Antarctica sounds more like a base on another planet. Every year the European Space Agency sends a ‘hivernaut’ (a winter version of an astronaut?) to this abandoned outpost at the bottom of our globe to perform biomedical experiments on the crew, in preparation for missions to the Moon, Mars and who knows what’s next. This year it’s my turn, and those 13 months are starting to get awfully close… I hear you ask: why (…would you do that for God’s sake)? “In our history it was some horde of furry little mammals who hid from the dinosaurs, colonized the treetops and later scampered down to domesticate fire, invent writing, construct observatories and launch space vehicles” – Carl Sagan I sometimes ask myself that question as well, but you can imagine that the answer is as obvious as the undertaking itself. Maybe we should start with a short self-evaluation: Self-evaluation is not something we often do. At least, I was never good at it. When everything goes according to plan, and everyone around you screams how wonderful it is that “little Stijn wants to become a surgeon!”, you aren’t really encouraged to take a critical look at yourself, right? But sometimes a shock (or two) helps to adjust a bit. A lesson in humility perhaps. For me, that first shock came about five years ago. I had said “yes” a little too much, a good friend died, my parents divorced, and with about ten suitcases of mental luggage I left for a research internship in Boston, USA, during my medical studies. In such a new environment, full with material to reflect on, things became a little more relative. I realised that nothing is as obvious as it seems, that some things might actually be bigger than us (the Universe, God, the flying spaghetti monster, you choose), and, even better, how beautiful and special it is that we are able to witness all that (I know this sounds dull, but I dare you to try with your eyes fixed on a bright, starry sky). Adam J CrellinGraduate Medical Student, Oxford University; Analog Astronaut, Austrian Space Forum While attending the 2019 European Mars Conference in London this week at the Institute of Physics, we had the pleasure of witnessing the graduation ceremony of the next cohort of newly qualified Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) analog astronauts, who will take part in next years' AMADEE20 Mars analog mission in Israel. Analog astronauts are people who have been trained to test equipment and conduct activities under simulated space conditions, and they play an important role in preparing for future Moon and Mars missions. We liked so much the graduation speech given by analog astronaut Adam Crellin that we asked if we could publish it here on the InnovaSpace website to inspire all the young would-be astronauts out there - dream big! "I would like to open by saying not only how much of an honour it is to speak on behalf of my classmates and the Austrian Space Forum today, but also to stand in front of you all as a newly qualified analog astronaut. I am especially proud to be speaking at a European-wide conference in the UK, organised by the recently reformed Mars Society UK.
In classrooms across the UK, and even the world, children are being asked by their primary school teachers, the existential question of ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’. Some of these children, fascinated by space, will say they want to be an astronaut. Children often continue this hope as they grow older, perhaps keeping it a bit quieter, guarding it a bit more closely. Later, they then discover that there are a huge range of diverse opportunities in space, and that astronauts are one small cog in a large machine. A machine that contains astronauts who plant flags; plant experts who grow astrocrops; astronomers who study the universe and its laws; lawyers who write legislation through careful engineering; engineers who build spacecraft that rock; and, well, for those who like rocks, there is geology as well as countless other professions." Ben HammondMSc Space Physiology & Health; Human Performance Intern, McLaren Applied Technologies With international space agencies and the real-life Tony Stark (Elon Musk) making huge advances in rocket technology, it is likely that within the next couple of decades humankind will touch down on Mars. However, this is only half the battle. The gravity on Mars is roughly one third as strong as Earth’s. You may be thinking “great, everything will require less effort”, and you’d be right, however, there is a huge caveat to that. As we’ve found from the results of time spent in space (the longest continuous period being 14.4 months), when people are exposed to levels of gravity lower than that on Earth, losses in muscle and bone occur; predominantly, in muscles which we continually use to walk and maintain our posture. You may have heard the expression ‘use it or lose it’ - hugely applicable here. These losses can increase astronauts’ risk of injury when returning to Earth by leaving them very weak and fragile. A return mission to Mars will take around 3 YEARS to complete, mainly because of the wait for the two planets to be close enough in proximity again to allow a relatively short journey home. That’s around 12 months in microgravity and around 26 months in Martian gravity. Now, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that, based on the numbers, the outlook for muscle retention isn’t great. That being said, we‘re still pretty uninformed about the extent to which living on Mars will stimulate our muscles. Mary UpritchardInnovaSpace Admin Director With another year now drawn to a close, I thought it would be interesting to look back on the two very successful InnovaSpace Kids2Mars events that took place in 2018 involving questions asked by children to crew members of Mars analogue missions, one with the MDRS Crew 185 in the Utah desert and the other with the Austrian Space Forum’s AMADEE-18 mission in the Dhofar desert in Oman. In summary, 53 children from 33 different countries from around the world had the opportunity to ask anything they wanted about travelling to and life on Mars, and very interesting answers came back from analogue astronauts and crew members who spent their time isolated in desert regions, especially chosen for their similarities to the planet Mars. Analogue astronauts on this type of mission in general have little spare time, as they are involved in many research activities, so we knew we could not bombard them with a mountain of questions. This in fact also linked well with our aims for the Kids2Mars project, which was to involve children from as many different countries as possible – quantity of countries rather than quantity of questions. With our tagline of Space Without Borders, this aspect was of prime importance, so an end result of 33 countries was very satisfying, especially so considering the diverse range of nations involved, such as Bolivia, Bulgaria, Iceland, Mongolia and Nepal. In fact, we had questions coming from countries in 6 of the 7 continents, just missing out on Antarctica, which for obvious reasons is a little more difficult! It was interesting to hear how the name of the planet Mars, named after the Roman god of war, was pronounced in the various languages. Certainly, the sound of the word was the same or very similar to the English pronunciation in the majority of cases, however, there were a few exceptions, such as from China, Japan, Nepal, Libya and Indian Tamil. We have extracted the word Mars, where mentioned, from all of the children’s questions and with the invaluable help of our two collaborators from Italy, Fabio Pinna and Mario Mollo, created a short video – we hope you like it! One thing that has become obvious from all the Kids2Mars activities we have conducted is how much the subject of space and space travel arouses curiosity, and how much the young people involved in the lectures and creative pursuits have done so with great enthusiasm and interest. In our view, this is exactly why outreach activities linked to Mars or the Moon or astronauts, in fact anything involving space, can be used as a tool to capture the attention and interest of children, motivating them to give more consideration to the STEM areas of education. Although the adults of today are laying and securing the foundations of human life in space, it is our children who will build on this to become the Space Generation, and perhaps in time, even future Mars colonisers!
Roberto FanganielloInnovaSpace Scientific & Strategic Consultant. On November 21st and 22nd, 2018 I had the pleasure of visiting the laboratory of Prof. Nandu Goswami, at the Medical University of Graz, in Austria. Nandu is an Associate Professor at the university, interim head of the Division of Physiology and Head of the Gravitational Physiology and Medicine research unit. The main areas of study of his research group are cardiovascular physiology, cerebral auto-regulation and space/gravitational physiology, especially using Earth-based models of space flight. Cardiovascular alterations encountered during space missions, such as a reduction in central venous pressure, cardiac atrophy and decreased vascular responsiveness to standing are major concerns for astronauts during and after spaceflight. On Earth, the ageing process is also linked to physiological deconditioning of the cardiovascular system, which creates a parallel with the changes in human physiology secondary to weightlessness exposure. At the Gravitational Physiology and Medicine research unit, bed rest studies are used as a ground-based simulation of microgravity to further understand the effects of deconditioning, both for the elderly on Earth and astronauts in space. This is also an area of special interest for InnovaSpace Advisor Joan Vernikos, who conducted similar research at NASA for many years and has published scientific articles and books on the topic. InnovaSpace congratulates Nandu for his work, which is a very interesting area of research and can be seen as a good example of technological and knowledge transfer from space to Earth. Together with the InnovaSpace team, I hope we can one day collaborate with Prof. Goswami and his group in Graz. Mary UpritchardAdmin Director, InnovaSpace A really exciting week lies ahead for the Aerospace Medicine and Rehabilitation Laboratory team of researchers from Northumbria University in Newcastle, UK. Led by Professor Nick Caplan, the team will take part in a partial-gravity parabolic flight campaign organised by the European Space Agency, the problem under investigation being one that affects many astronauts when they spend time in the microgravity of space – back pain. It is well known that astronauts increase in height during their missions, usually between 3-5 cm. While under the influence of the gravity on Earth, the spine is compressed, rather like a spring being pushed down. Remove that force of gravity and the spring will expand and stretch, and this is what is thought to happen in space – the force of gravity is removed and so the vertebrae that make up the spine stretch out, and hence the increase in height and discomfort as connecting ligaments and support muscles extend. Over time spent in reduced gravity, research has demonstrated these muscles that connect the bones of the spine together shrink and weaken, particularly those in the lower back, as they are less required in space.
In this Vlog, Dr Lucas Rehnberg, InnovaSpace SGen Hub Coordinator talks about his experience working at the Mission Support Centre in Innsbruck, Austria, providing remote assistance and monitoring to the analog astronauts and crew of the AMADEE18 Mars simulation mission, based in the Dhofar desert in Oman. Blog written by Tanja Lehmann, Electrical Test Engineer The end of last year (5th Dec 2017) was very special as it saw the successful testing on a parabolic flight of the MIRIAM-2 (Main Inflated Reentry Into the Atmosphere Mission) technology, part of the ARCHIMEDES (Aerial Robot Carrying High resolution Imaging, Magnetometer Experiment and Direct Environmental Sensors) project of the Mars Society Deutschland e.V. MIRIAM-2 is due to be launched into space on a sounding rocket in the autumn of 2019 from Kiruna/Sweden to test the equipment and observe its re-entry behaviour through measurement instruments in the balloon instrument pod. The long term goal is to one day send the probe with its folded balloon (also known as a ballute) to Mars, where the balloon should deploy and inflate, creating drag and slowing the probe as it descends, giving time for measurements to be taken during atmospheric entry. Like any new technology, rigorous testing is essential to ensure it is capable of the task for which it was designed – so how can you test whether a balloon will deploy in the microgravity of space when you are on planet Earth? The answer is to simulate, as near as possible, the weightless environment that will be encountered in space, and on this occasion the solution lies in the use of a parabolic flight. Each parabola undertaken by the pilots of the specially adapted aircraft gives a zero gravity period of around 22 seconds, a period in which experiments can be conducted, and each flight carries out around 31 parabolas. Blog written by Dr. Lucas Rehnberg, InnovaSpace SGen Hub Coordinator In the build up to the AMADEE-18 mission in Oman in February 2018, the Austrian Space Forum is in the thick of preparation with the leadership team and the analogue astronauts (AA) undergoing intensive training. But not only this, the Austrian Space Forum, with all the excitement surrounding AMADEE-18, organised an additional weekend of training for the volunteers that are so eager to take part; this came in the form of Analog Mission Basic Training (AMBT) for AMADEE-18. I myself got caught up in this and am honoured to have taken part in this training to join fellow Mars pioneers and space enthusiasts on this endeavour to help pave the way for a future mission to Mars. The training weekend recently took place in the beautiful city of Innsbruck, Austria, just before the opening of the Christmas markets. In this quiet city surrounded by the Alps, an international group of young scientists with a shared passion for space gathered for training. What struck me immediately was the range of nations and backgrounds of all the volunteers that were involved. There were undergraduate science students, psychologists, IT experts, doctors and space engineers, to name a few. And these individuals came from across Europe and even as far as Oman to be a part of this mission. True to its mission goals, the Austrian Space Forum, with projects like AMADEE-18, is providing outreach and opportunities for young professionals and students to engage in space life sciences by providing hands on experience. The gathering of this group of volunteers shows how space has this universal appeal, able to be cross-generations and truly be multi-disciplinary. Lead by its President, Dr. Gernot Grömer, and the leadership team, we began our training in earnest. This training had been a fairly new innovation of the Austrian Space Forum, born from years of experience of conducting these analogue missions. With technology and software evolving so rapidly, it is easy to see how between missions individuals would need to re-validate or completely learn new skills and familiarise themselves with the latest changes in order to run a safe and efficient analogue mission. To this end, this training was developed in order to set a new standard of training for the volunteers and participants in these analogue missions. |
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