Category Archives: Space Station

Out in the desert in Arizona, "analog astronauts" gathered this weekend for an annual conference in a giant, futuristic habitat called Biosphere 2.

The event, called the Analog Astronaut Conference, is an annual meetup showcasing the work of "analog astronauts," or researchers who have completed simulated space missions, living and working in habitats on Earth that mimic expected living conditions in destinations like Mars or the moon.

The event took place from May 6 to May 8 at Biosphere 2, an immense research facility in Oracle, Arizona that, in the early 1990s, housed an experiment in which a team of "Biospherians" lived in the habitat for two years.

Video: 'Spaceship Earth' tells story of 8 'visionaries' in Biosphere 2 - Trailer

But don't worry the conference didn't lock the participants in for two years. Instead, those in attendance got a peek into what the habitat is really like; Biosphere 2 houses a number of human-created biomes including a rainforest, a coral reef, manufactured ocean and more.

The speakers for the event included astronaut (as well as analog astronaut) Sian Proctor, who flew with SpaceX's private Inspiration4 orbital mission; architect Leszek Orzechowski, who created the LunAres Research Station, an analog habitat in Poland; space engineer Sahba El-Shawa; exploratory space artist Richelle Gribble; filmmaker and researcher Kai Staats and more.

The event's keynote speaker was author Frank White, who is best known for his 1987 book "The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution." White coined the term "the overview effect," which is used to describe the psychological shift that humans experience when viewing Earth from space.

Explore a full list of speakers here.

In addition to panels and speakers, the event also included art and music at the event as well as stargazing with Proctor.The event also included a screening of the Space.com documentary about senior writer Chelsea Gohd's adventures as an analog astronaut titled: "Chelsea Goes to Mars."

Disclosure: Author Chelsea Gohd participated in the planning of the Analog Astronaut Conference and is an analog astronaut, having completed an analog Mars mission in 2020 alongside other team members who helped to plan this event. Gohd is listed as a speaker for the event but, having contracted COVID-19, she was not a speaker.

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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'Analog astronauts' assemble in Biosphere 2 bubble to talk simulated space missions - Space.com

Space Coast residents had a chance to wake up Thursday to the 18th orbital launch of the year from Cape Canaveral, as a SpaceX Falcon 9 topped with 53 Starlink internet satellites lifted off just before sunrise.

With at least five more launches expected this month, Space Florida President and CEO Frank DiBello said Wednesday that local launch facilities might handle more than 40 additional launches before the end of 2022 from private companies, NASA and U.S. Space Force.

We're likely to see 60, 61, 62 launches this year, DiBello said during a conference call with the Space Florida Board of Directors.

That, to me, is really significant in terms of the investments that we've made over time, thanks to the board and to our partnership with (the Florida Department of Transportation) and to the support that we've had from the Legislature to investing in infrastructure that supports the increased capability that we have, DiBello added.

Hours before Thursdays launch, SpaceXs Dragon Endurance spacecraft, carrying three NASA astronauts and a European Space Agency mission specialist, splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico off Tampa Bay. The Dragons return wrapped up a 176-day expedition to the International Space Station that began with one of the 31 rockets that reached orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASAs neighboring Kennedy Space Center in 2021.

Since the start of 2022, launches from licensed sites tied to Space Florida, the states aerospace-arm, have put about 250 tons of equipment and supplies into space. Last year, Space Florida facilities accounted for about 370 tons of materials put into space, including 1,730 satellites.

We could conceivably in the first four months of this year --- having done 250 (tons) --- we could easily see 550 to 600 tons to orbit this year, which is a big boost in our lift capacity, DiBello said.

Meanwhile, with nearly 700 satellites launched so far this year, including the 53 that went up Thursday, DiBello said the cape is ahead of the 2021 pace, which ended 30 percent higher than in 2020.

We see a decade where between (50,000) and 100,000 satellites are going to be launched by 2030, DiBello said. And we want to try to capture a lion's share of those out of Florida. Again, what's driving the growth in the industry is our insatiable demand for bandwidth that all of us have. We feed that market regardless of the device that we're using.

Space Florida is also looking to focus on capturing a piece of an emerging market that services the space economy, by developing the capabilities to send robots and people into space to extend satellite life, move crews, conduct research and manufacturing and undertake the removal of space debris.

We're really looking at this industry, DiBello said. Forecasts are for this to be between $15 (billion) and $20 billion (in economic impact) by the end of the decade. And that's not insignificant.

Among the more-anticipated launches this year is the uncrewed Artemis I, now expected in August, which would mark the first integrated test of NASAs deep-space exploration systems: the Orion spacecraft, Space Launch System rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center. Orion is planned to travel 280,000 miles from Earth, beyond the orbit of the Moon.

Also in August, the Psyche asteroid explorer is expected to be sent to a region between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket.

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Cape Canaveral is gearing up for a busy year of space launches - WUSF News

Dmitry Rogozin is the head of Russia's space agency Roscosmos.Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images

Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin claimed NATO countries could be quickly destroyed in a nuclear war.

The space agency leader said Russia could destroy the countries in "half an hour."

In the same Telegram post, he urged his country not to wage a nuclear war, however.

The head of Russian space agency Roscomos has claimed his country could quickly destroy NATO countries if a nuclear war took place.

Dmitry Rogozin, who has made many outlandish and provocative comments in recent months, shared the message in Russian on his Telegram channel on Sunday.

Rogozin claimed that the destruction could happen in 30 minutes, "but we must not allow it, since the consequences of an exchange of nuclear strikes will affect the state of our Earth," he added.

Rogozin also wrote in his Telegram post: "NATO is waging war against us. It has not declared it, but it doesn't change anything. Now it's obvious to everyone."

His comments do not align with the stance of NATO, which posted a statement on its website in April, saying that the organization "condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine which is an independent, peaceful and democratic country, and a close NATO partner."

It continued: "The Alliance calls on President Putin to stop this war immediately, withdraw all his forces from Ukraine without conditions and engage in genuine diplomacy."

In February, Russian president Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear deterrent forces on high alert amid the sweeping sanctions the US and EU have imposed on it.

Rogozin has previously said Roscosmos would leave the International Space Station and that the decision had already been affirmed. He also criticized the litany of Western economic sanctions imposed on Russia.

"I believe that the restoration of normal relations between partners in the International Space Station and other joint projects is possible only with the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions," he tweeted in April.

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Since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, the US along with the European Union and the UK have ramped up sanctions against Moscow, Putin, and many individuals in the leader's inner circle.

Rogozin added in his Telegram message that the war, which Putin called a "special military operation," had gone "far beyond its original meaning and geography," and called it "a war for the truth and the right of Russia to exist as a single and independent state."

Scholars, however, have debunked Russia's many attempts at justifying the war, including Putin's claim that he aimed to "denazify" Ukraine.

They told NPR that Putin's language was offensive and factually wrong. One of the experts, Laura Jockusch, said: "There is no 'genocide,' not even an 'ethnic cleansing' perpetrated by the Ukraine against ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers in the Ukraine. It is a fiction that is used by Putin to justify his war of aggression on the Ukraine."

Jockush added in her email to NPR that using the word "denazification" was also "a reminder that the term 'Nazi' has become a generic term for 'absolute evil' that is completely disconnected from its original historical meaning and context."

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Russia's space agency chief claimed his nation could destroy NATO countries in 'half an hour' during a nuclear war - Yahoo News

May 4 (Reuters) - The third long-duration team of astronauts launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA safely departed the orbiting outpost early on Thursday to begin their descent back to Earth, capping a six-month science mission.

The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying three U.S. NASA astronauts and a German astronaut from the European Space Agency undocked from the ISS at 1:20 a.m. EDT (0520 GMT) to embark on a return flight expected to last about 23 hours.

Live video showing the capsule drifting away from the station as the two vehicles soared high over Australia was shown on a NASA webcast.

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Wearing helmeted white-and-black spacesuits, the four astronauts were seen strapped into the crew cabin shortly before the spacecraft separated from the space station, orbiting some 250 miles (400 km) above the Earth.

A series of several brief rocket thrusts then autonomously pushed the capsule safely clear of the ISS and lowered its orbit to line up the spacecraft for later atmospheric re-entry and splashdown.

If all goes smoothly, the Crew Dragon craft, dubbed Endurance, will parachute into the sea off the coast of Florida at 12:43 a.m. EDT on Friday (0443 GMT).

The Endurance crew, consisting of American astronauts Tom Marshburn, 61, Raja Chari, 44 and Kayla Barron, 34, along with ESA crewmate Matthias Maurer, 52, arrived at the space station on Nov. 11.

Their departure came about a week after they welcomed their replacement team aboard the station, also currently home to three Russian cosmonauts on a long-term mission. One of those cosmonauts, Oleg Artemyev, assumed command of the ISS from Marshburn in a handover before Thursday's undocking, NASA said.

Earlier in April, a separate all-private astronaut crew launched by SpaceX to the space station under contract for the Houston-based company Axiom Space left the orbiting laboratory, concluding two weeks in orbit.

The NASA-ESA team flying home on Thursday was officially designated "Crew 3," the third full-fledged long-duration group of astronauts that SpaceX has launched to the space station for the U.S. space agency.

They will be carrying some 550 pounds of cargo with them on their flight back to Earth.

SpaceX, the California-based company founded in 2002 by Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of electric carmarker Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) who recently clinched a deal to buy social media platform Twitter (TWTR.N), has launched a total of seven human spaceflights over the past two years.

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Reporting by Steve Gorman from Los Angeles; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Stephen Coates

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Four-astronaut team departs International Space Station on flight back to Earth - Reuters.com

Russia has confirmed it will pull out of the International Space Station (ISS), perhaps as soon as two years from now, because of the sanctions imposed on it after its invasion of Ukraine, according to news reports.

"The decision has already been made, we are not obliged to talk about it publicly," Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of the federal Roscosmos space agency, told the state-owned Rossiya-24 TV channel on Saturday (April 30), according to the independent Russian news agency TASS.

Rogozin didn't say when Russia's involvement in the ISS project will come to an end, although he affirmed it would give at least a year's notice "in accordance with our obligations."

Russian space analysts have already noted that Russia never agreed to extend its involvement in the ISS beyond 2024; the U.S. space agency NASA and the other international partners now want the project extended to at least 2030.

Rogozin, an experienced politician with close ties to Russian president Vladimir Putin, has a history of making blustery statements.

He posted on Twitter on Feb. 24 the day after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine that any international sanctions on Russia imposed over the Ukrainian invasion would "destroy" the partnership between NASA and Roscosmos that keeps the space station operating and aloft.

And he reaffirmed those comments last month, tweeting that normal relations between the ISS partners could only be restored after "the complete and unconditional lifting of illegal sanctions."

Related: Russia's Ukraine invasion could imperil international science

The first modules of the International Space Station were boosted into orbit in 1998, and expected to last just 15 years.

The space station's mission has since been extended, although maintenance problems especially on the Russian half of the space station have increased in recent years; and experts have warned that some of the ISS modules are getting old, NBC News reported.

The U.S. and Russia are the major partners on the ISS project, which was initiated after they cooperated on the last stages of the Mir space station in the 1990s, according to NASA.

Historically, the U.S. has mainly been responsible for providing life support for the up to 10 people who lived aboard the ISS at any one time, and Russia has mainly been responsible for keeping the ISS in orbit, with regular blasts from the engines of the Soyuz spacecraft docked there.

Russia also controlled access to the ISS for several years because only its Soyuz flew there after the U.S Space Shuttle ended operations in 2011; but the advent of new passenger-carrying spacecraft like the SpaceX Dragon means that's no longer the case.

Space experts have also noted that NASA is now testing its ability to keep the ISS in orbit with blasts from the engines of the Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which is manufactured and launched by the U.S. aerospace company Northrop Grumman meaning that Russia's involvement in the ISS might no longer be needed.

Rogozin's latest comments seem to imply that Russia could soon give notice and start its pullout from the ISS project.

But activities on the space station have been relatively normal since he made his initial comments, including the arrival of three Russian cosmonauts in mid-March, Live Science sister site Space.com reported.

TASS also reported comments Rogozin had made a day earlier than his television interview, which seemed to suggest that any decision on the fate of the ISS project wasn't yet final.

"A decision regarding the ISS future will depend to a great extent on the developing situation both in Russia and around it," he told the news agency in an interview on Friday, April 29.

He also said Roscosmos proposals for cooperation on the ISS project after 2024 had been sent to the Russian government and President Putin.

And in another story on TASS dated the same day, Rogozin said that Russia would begin to test "one-orbit" flights to the ISS by Soyuz spacecraft in 2023 and 2024 a trip that usually requires the spacecraft to make at least four Earth orbits.

That schedule, too, doesn't seem to fit well with assertions that the demise of Russia's involvement in the ISS project is imminent.

Either way, Russia already has advanced plans to build a successor space station to the ISS, according to Space.com.

The first module, being built by the Energia corporation, would cost at least $5 billion and could go into orbit as soon as 2025.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Russia will pull out of the International Space Station, space agency chief confirms - Livescience.com

This is reminiscent of going down slide on the playground and then immediately getting back in line to go down again. Except in space.

Heres what it looks like on board the International Space Station when thrusters fire for an orbital reboost. While it seems like the astronauts are moving inside the station, in in reality it is the Space Station that is moving around them. And in actuality, the acceleration doesnt happen this fast the video is sped up eight times. But it still looks like fun!

The data for the acceleration rate/change for this particular burn was not available, but for a previous burn with a duration of 12 minutes, 17 seconds had a Delta-V of 1.34 meters/second.

The crew seen here is Expedition 66, which includes NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Thomas Marshburn Kayla Barron and Mark Vande Hei ; ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Matthias Maurer; Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov.

The astronauts are obviously enjoying the experience. It must feel somewhat similar to when a car or airplane accelerates it feels like you are being pushed back into the seat, when in reality, the seat is being pushed into you by the acceleration of the vehicle.

The ISS usually orbits about 400 km (250 miles) above the Earth. But the effects of atmospheric drag can cause the station to lose as much as 100 meters a day in altitude. Therefore, regular reboosts are required, usually about once a month. Theres no real schedule of when a reboost is done, as the density of Earths atmosphere at those altitudes constantly changes, depending on how much energy is being fed into it by the Sun. Therefore, the orbital decay rate is not a constant. But the ISS orbits decays faster than other satellites at a similar altitude due to its massive size and surface area.

Reboosts are also done to optimize the ISSs orbital position for future visiting vehicles arriving at the station. This particular reboost was performed in March 2022 using Russias ISS Progress 79 cargo craft. By firing its engines for several minutes, the station was put at the proper altitude for an arriving Soyuz for the new crew members that arrived in March. crew ship orbit rendezvous and landing operations.

NASA says that all ISS propulsion is provided by the Russian Segment and Russian cargo spacecraft. Propulsion is used for station reboost, attitude control, debris avoidance maneuvers (as well as eventual deorbit operations) are handled by the Russian Segment and Progress cargo craft. The U.S. gyroscopes provide day-to-day attitude control or controlling the orientation of the station. Russian thrusters are used for attitude control during dynamic events like spacecraft dockings and provide attitude control recovery when the gyroscopes reach their control limits.

Northrop Grummans Cygnus is the only U.S. commercial spacecraft currently available to provide reboosts, although it is still currently in testing mode. The first Cygnus capable to performing reboosts arrived at the ISS in February 2022.

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Watch What Happens to Astronauts When the International Space Station Gets an Orbital Reboost - Universe Today

Last week, four Italian olive oils were sent into orbit on the International Space Station (ISS), and they are now flying at an altitude of approximately 400kilometers above Earth.

They were brought into space by the European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who returned to the ISS for her second mission, Minerva.

This year, Samantha Cristoforettis return to the International Space Station, obtained through our negotiations with the ESA in the last few years, underlines, also symbolically, the importance our country has been giving to space activities for some time, said Giorgio Saccoccia, the president of the Italian Space Agency (ASI).

I wish good luck and all the best in her work to Samantha for her new and extraordinary adventure, he added.

As amission specialist, Cristoforetti took on the role of USOS Lead, responsible for operations within the United States Orbital Segment of the ISS for the duration of the mission.

Moreover, during her time in orbit, she will conduct numerous experiments, covering different sectors of medicine and nutrition, including six experiments set up by ASI.

Among these, the EVOO project is focused on balanced nutrition. It studies the impact of space environment conditions on the physio-chemical, nutritional and microbiological characteristics of extra virgin olive oil, with aspecific focus on its reactions to microgravity and radiations.

Furthermore, part of the oils is intended for the preparation of the so-called bonus food, which indicates the specialties, prepared and packaged on the ground, that each astronaut can choose to bring with them to supplement the provided standard diet.

All the members of the crew will benefit from the quality choices of Cristoforetti and find on their spatial table four monovarietals: aCarolea, Itrana, Moraiolo and aCoratina.

The sensory profiles and pairing suggestions are indicated on their labels: Carolea is recommended for fish, Itrana with salads, Moraiolo on the meat and Coratina to enhance the most intense flavors.

The project is the result of an agreement between the Italian Space Agency and the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), with the collaboration of Coldiretti and Unaprol, the Italian association of olive oil producers, which selected the high-quality extra virgin olive oils from different regions.

Proper nutrition of astronauts is avery important health issue aboard the ISS, said Coldiretti in apress release. The extra virgin olive oils that we selected with Unaprol for the project share ahigh content of natural antioxidants, which are essential for those who, like astronauts, are subjected to conditions of intense psychophysical stress.

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Italian EVOO Reaches the International Space Station - Olive Oil Times

A recent video from the International Space Station has captured an alarming view of California's intense drought. Although Northern California received some late-season snow in April, nearly all of the state remains under significant drought conditions. At the start of last month, it was revealed that the Sierra Nevada snowpack had hit one of its lowest levels for the end of the winter in 70 years. The snowpack is the source of 30% of California's water supply.

The video posted to Twitter was taken on Friday, April 29, and shows the dwindling snowpack from the International Space Station. Just how much snow is in Northern California and The Sierra Mountains? Not all that much."

According to KTLA, data from the U.S. Drought Monitor released on April 26 showed that over 95% of California was classified under severe or extreme drought, which is an increase from the 66% recorded in February. While an April storm did bring a decent amount of precipitation to the state, it wasn't enough. The National Weather Service reported that the storm brought double the amount of rain seen in January, February, and March combined.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California declared a water shortage emergency, placing outdoor watering restrictions on several counties in the area as they continue to navigate the severe drought conditions.

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VIDEO: California's Drought Is Visible From The International Space Station - On Air with Ryan Seacrest

The International Space Station (ISS) is a very important, yet often forgotten, part of U.S. research efforts. Its also recently been found to be quite valuable to manufacturers, thanks in large part to the ongoing efforts of Congress and outside organizations.

As a part of those efforts, Congress andthe Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)have teamed up to try and get manufacturers interested in using their ISS lab to research manufacturing in space, bring new innovation back to earth and ultimately build a better world for us all.

With as many trips as rockets are making, its not going to be too far into the future that you can make products in space and bring them back to install, said ChristineKretz, vice president of programs and partnerships at the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory, who spoke to attendees at AEMs Annual Conference last fall.

According to Kretz, the ISS is in the sky because of U.S. tax dollars, to make Earths economy better, and to provide access to research opportunities. NASA and Congress have displayed great interest in commercial work in space and a low-orbit economy. There are different conditions in space, like sustained microgravity, that could be conducive to higher quality products being made there. Not so far in the future, it is quite possible that the U.S. will have a low-orbit economy or, at the very least, possess the ability to make certain products exclusively in space.

The ISS has been floating around in space for more than decades so, one cant help but wonder -- Why has this opportunity only recently been made?

Things are really coming into confluence in space, explained Kretz. Prior to this year, the U.S still had to take our astronauts to Russia to put them into space.

Now that the U.S. can send rockets up to the ISS from its home turf, its become far easier to take trips to and from the station. In addition, there is much more equipment onboard now than there was in the past. In the beginning, the station had a camera and a microscope; 21 years later it has a ton of hardware, and plans are in place for a bigger and better space station in the future. Lastly, the amount of funding has increased. Within CASIS, there are 245 venture capital organizations watching what's going in and out of the station, as well as looking for investment opportunities.

NASA and Congress have recently extended use of the ISS until 2030 to allow for additional research and manufacturing opportunities. In addition, Congress has several grants for projects that focus on key areas, such as sustainability or the reduction of carbon usage.

There are many perks to using the ISS for research, as all of the tools one would need are already onboard. Hewlett-Packard and IBM have provided supercomputers for other companies to use, with a huge amount of data available to use and analyze. In addition, while other satellites do collect and store data, the ISS has more room for varying types of that data. As an example, one satellite could provide data on a singular area of interest, while the ISS has all of the information one may need in a singular place.

We have a vantage point looking down on our planet 24/7, rotating the earth every 90 minutes and collecting a huge amount of data, explained Kretz. With different kinds of sensors, we collect different kinds of data, whether it be data on methane gas pockets, plastics in the oceans, and different kinds of things. The sensors collect the data, and then it is available to you. So, you can ask for that data, or ask for a different kind of data that you want to be included.

There are plenty of opportunities for manufacturers to get involved. Additive manufacturing is currently happening on the ISS, printing materials such as ceramic, plastic and cell tissue, among others. With the thin layer deposition in space being 10 times higher quality than that on Earth, there is less of a chance for things to get in the way of that deposition, and there is no sedimentation and far fewer bubbles. Products like semiconductors, medical implants, solar panels and consumer electronics could all be manufactured in space one day -- potentially helping to alleviate issues such as the shortage of semiconductors.

The resources are there. Now it's up to manufacturers to take the next step and explore this opportunity. The ISS is truly valuable and exciting initiative. And now that NASA and Congress have extended the lifecycle of the ISS, it's even more important to take advantage of it. In the future, the U.S. economy could look very different than it is right now, and manufacturers would be wise to consider all of the options in front of them.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Annual Conference delivers a single place for members to gather with their peers to examine what this transformational decade will mean for their organization and the equipment manufacturing industry. For more information, visitaem.org./annual.

For more news and information regarding issues important to equipment manufacturers,subscribetothe AEM Industry Advisor.

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Space: a New Frontier for Manufacturing and Research - Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM)

OHSU researchers compared before and after brain images of International Space Station astronauts prior to launch and again when they returned. (Getty Images)

Long-duration space flight alters fluid-filled spaces along veins and arteries in the brain, according to new research from Oregon Health & Science University and scientists across the country.

The study published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

Juan Piantino, M.D. (OHSU)

These findings have important implications as we continue space exploration, said senior author Juan Piantino, M.D., assistant professor of pediatrics (neurology) in the OHSU School of Medicine. It also forces you to think about some basic fundamental questions of science and how life evolved here on Earth.

The research involved imaging the brains of 15 astronauts before and after extended tours of duty on the International Space Station.

Researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure perivascular space or the space around blood vessels in the brains of astronauts prior to their launch and again immediately after their return. They also took MRI measurements again at one, three and six months after they had returned. Astronauts images were compared with those taken of the same perivascular space in the brains of 16 Earth-bound control subjects.

Comparing before and after images, they found an increase in the perivascular spaces within the brains of first-time astronauts, but no difference among astronauts who previously served aboard the space station orbiting earth.

Experienced astronauts may have reached some kind of homeostasis, Piantino said.

In all cases, scientists found no problems with balance or visual memories that might suggest neurological deficits among astronauts, despite the differences measured in the perivascular spaces of their brains.

In comparing a large group of deidentified astronauts, the study is amongthe first to comparatively assess an important aspect of brain health in space.

Human physiology is based on the fact that life evolved over millions of years while tethered to Earths gravitational pull. Unbound by the forces of gravity, the normal flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain is altered in space.

We all adapted to use gravity in our favor, Piantino said. Nature didnt put our brains in our feet it put them high up. Once you remove gravity from the equation, what does that do to human physiology?

Researchers decided to find out by measuring perivascular spaces, where cerebrospinal fluid flows in the brain.

These spaces are integral to a natural system of brain cleansing that occurs during sleep. Known as the glymphatic system, this brain-wide network clears metabolic proteins that would otherwise build up in the brain. Scientists say this system seems to perform optimally during deep sleep.

The perivascular spaces measured in the brain amount to the underlying hardware of the glymphatic system. Enlargement of these spaces occurs in aging, and also has been associated with the development of dementia.

Researchers used a technique developed in the laboratory of co-author Lisa C. Silbert, M.D., M.C.R., professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine, to measure changes in these perivascular spaces through MRI scans.

Piantino said the study could be valuable in helping to diagnose and treat Earth-bound disorders involving cerebrospinal fluid, such as hydrocephalus.

These findings not only help to understand fundamental changes that happen during space flight, but also for people on Earth who suffer from diseases that affect circulation of cerebrospinal fluid, Piantino said.

In addition to Piantino and Silbert, co-authors included first authors Kathleen E. Hupfeld and Sutton B. Richmond of the University of Florida; Heather R. McGregor and Rachael D. Seidler of the University of Florida; Daniel L. Schwartz and Madison N. Luther of OHSU; Nichole E. Beltran, Igor S. Kofman, Yiri E. De Dios and Ajitkumar P. Mulavara of PBR in Houston; Roy F. Riascos of the University of Texas Health Science Center; Scott J. Wood and Jacob J. Bloomberg of NASA; and Jeffrey J. Iliff of the University of Washington School of Medicine and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System.

The research was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, grant NNX11AR02G; the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, award NCC 9-58; the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, grants DGE-1315138 and DGE-1842473; the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, grant T32-NS082128; the National Institute on Aging fellowship 1F99AG068440 and grant awards R01AG056712, P30AG008017 and P30AG066518; and the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, grant K23HL150217-01.

The co-authors also thank all of the astronauts who volunteered their time, without whom this project would not have been possible.

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New study reveals the effect of extended space flight on astronauts' brains - OHSU News