MUSC space medicine program launching brain, sleep studies aboard SpaceX mission By Tom Corwin 14 hrs ago A radical new orbit over the Earth's poles by a SpaceX mission is also an opportunity for a space medicine expert in South Carolina to study crucial health effects on the crew.
The FRAM2 flight, scheduled to launch late March 31, will transit over the Earth's polar regions for the first time, according to SpaceX, and will be the hub of 22 research studies, including two from an expert at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Dr. Mark Rosenberg, director of the Aerospace and Performance Neurology Program, will be studying the health impacts before, during and after orbit. The four astronauts on board are wearing Oura ring health sensors that, among other things, will be recording the impacts space flight has on their sleep.
The crew will, for the first time on landing, exit the capsule without assistance to gauge their ability to function right after a voyage, SpaceX said.
Rosenberg will immediately look at their brains using a special MRI to see the changes wrought by space. Much of what happens to the brain in microgravity, for instance, is still not well understood.
With the sleep study, MUSC is collecting baseline data and will be able to monitor the astronaut's sleep during the roughly five-day mission, and then see how long it takes them to return to normal after the flight, Rosenberg said.
"Sleep is the foundation for good health," he said. "If your sleep is disrupted, that's ultimately going to result in changes to your mood, changes in your cognition — just your ability to deal with operational stressors, which, of course, has implications as far as long-term crew health, especially as we look towards having longer and longer distances like lunar or Martian voyages."
What is also unique about the mission is the polar route, which potentially could expose the crew to greater levels of radiation than other circuits. That could have health impacts, as well, Rosenberg said.
One thing astronauts complain about is seeing something like "fireworks when they close their eyes," Rosenberg said. Why is not exactly clear. Some scientists think it is radiation acting on fluid in the eyes, others think the radiation may be exciting nerves there.
An increase in radiation "could potentially increase the risk that they're seeing some of these lights and colors when they close their eyes," he said. "If so, is this phenomenon playing a bigger role as far as sleep disruption or other kinds of just operational hazards?"
The mission also will provide quicker access to take images of the brain after the crew's return, potentially within a couple of hours, and that could prove valuable.
Space flight seems to have a couple of different effects on the brains of NASA astronauts. One is that it seems to shift the brain upward, causing crowding near the top of the crown, Rosenberg said. Another is that fluid-filled sacs in the brain expand, causing the ventricles responsible for supplying cerebrospinal fluid to expand, too.
Scientists have looked at these images before and after to try and understand the changes and whether they impact health consequences of space flight, like vision changes. But there has often been a delay in getting these images.
This flight represents a chance to get closer to understanding what happens up there, Rosenberg said.
"The closer in the timeframe we can get to them returning, the theoretical hope is that the closer we'll have to having a proxy of imaging them in orbit," he said.
SpaceX is targeting 9:46 p.m. for Falcon 9’s launch of Fram2 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Three additional launch opportunities are set for 11:20 p.m. followed by 12:53 a.m. and 2:26 a.m. April 1. If the launch is scrubbed, backup opportunities are at the same time April 1-2.
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