Axiom Space and its partners, including the European Space Agency (ESA), have unveiled some of the groundbreaking scientific research that will be conducted during its Axiom-3 mission.
The launch will take place in January 2024 on top of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will take the Axiom-3 crew – including Commander Michael López-Alegría, pilot Walter Villadei and mission specialists Alper Gezeravci and Marcus Wandt – to the International Space Station (ISS) in the Dragon spacecraft.
Once there, the Axiom-3 team will spend fourteen days docked with the ISS, using the microgravity of low Earth orbit to conduct experiments and technology demonstrations in a range of scientific disciplines, including human health, medicine, cell biology, materials and even gastronomy.
One of the main focuses of this research will be facilitating longer-duration human space missions and even their habitability room.
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How does Axiom-3 advance materials, robotics and artificial intelligence?
Axiom-3 will see further research into robotic assets that can be used for space exploration and ultimately building infrastructure on planets and planets. asteroids through the ESA project Multi-Avatar and Robots Collaborating with Intuitive Interface (Surface Avatar).
The applications of this experiment do not have to wait until we start building infrastructure on the moon MarsBut the results can also benefit science on Earth, such as in Arctic exploration, search and rescue techniques in disaster areas and undersea maintenance.
When it comes to microgravity construction mechanisms, future space missions will require not only builders, but also revolutionary building materials. The Innovative Research on Novel Space Alloys (UYNA) mission aims to test new medium-entropy and high-entropy alloys, characterized by their high strength, toughness and resistance to corrosion. These alloys could be used to build infrastructure in space and beyond, according to scientists Soil in the aerospace, automotive, energy and medical industries.
The services of the Italian Space Operations Center (ISOC) for the ISS experiment carried out during the two-week ISS mission focus on space safety through the development of catalogs and algorithms that can improve real-time space awareness. ISOC will use systems already on the ISS to process the data needed to help the space station avoid collisions with objects in low Earth orbit.
Turkey’s Vokalkord experiment on Axiom-3 will continue the development of an artificial intelligence system that can detect more than 70 types of diseases by analyzing audio of speaking and coughing sounds. Testing this system in microgravity will validate Vokalkord as a system that can be used to remotely monitor the health of astronauts.
“Our astronaut [Alper Gezeravci] will bring not only experiments to space, but the hopes and dreams of our entire nation,” said Ömer Atas, project manager of TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute at the press conference, explaining the importance of this mission.
Human health in space
One of the main themes of Axion-3’s previous missions has been its commercial projects Axiom-1 And Axiom-2, aims to advance our understanding of human health in space. With Ax-3 this will continue.
Among the projects that will push the boundaries of this research are experiments led by the Italian Air Force (ItAF) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI), such as an experiment that will look at the vascular health and reactivity of astronauts before, during and after the operation. space flight.
This experiment will take measurements from the Axiom-3 crew, after which the results will be compared with measurements from non-orbital flight crews to better understand how the vascular system – made up of the blood vessels that carry blood – changes during space missions. This is knowledge that will undoubtedly benefit future long-duration human spaceflight missions, whenever they occur.
Another Italian-led health project that will be carried out during the Axiom-3 mission is the study of amyloid beta proteins (Aβ), which disrupt the normal folding of proteins and are linked to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. The scientists behind this mission want to see how microgravity can disrupt the normal folding and unfolding of proteins in the body; such abnormalities can lead to the formation and aggregation of misfolded proteins. This could help determine whether astronauts on long-duration space missions are at greater risk for neurodegeneration.
The ESA will study the loss of bone density due to long periods in space and look for traces of gases that astronauts are exposed to during missions on the ISS. These gases would likely be present during other future space missions.
However, it won’t just be physical health that the Axiom-3 mission will collect important data about. An ESA experiment conducted during the crew’s two-year stay on the ISS will investigate the impact of architectural environments on astronauts’ psychology, including their cognitive skills. performance levels, stress levels and stress recovery rates. The experiment will determine whether these factors are different in isolated space environments than in isolated environments here on Earth.
“ESA is very excited about this mission and us about working with Axiom space is truly a great opportunity to broaden our access to space and especially to the ISS, with which we already have a great heritage,” said Julia Weis, ISS Utilization Planning and Integration team leader. “So this is a great example of how the ISS can be used as a testing ground for future space exploration activities.”
Bringing advances in human healthcare to Earth
The science conducted during the Axiom-3 mission will have several important applications in human health here on Earth, including for the treatment of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
“The Sanford Stem Cell Institute’s ongoing Cancer in Leo project is studying tumor organoids in microgravity with the goal of identifying early warning signs of cancer to predict and prevent this disease and accelerate the potential for developing new cancer therapies for patients here on Earth,” explains Jana Stoudemire, Axiom Space Director of In-Space Manufacturing.
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Stoudemire also explained that the Axiom-3 mission will continue the work of the Cosmic Brain Organoids project associated with the National Stem Cell Foundation. This project studies small 3D aggregates of neural cells that can be used to monitor the development of the human nervous system and its degeneration, called ‘brain organoids’.
Brain organoids studied as part of the Axiom-3 mission will be derived from the stem cells of patients with Parkinson’s disease and primary progressive multiple sclerosis to uncover new cellular pathways that could ultimately help us better understand neurodegenerative diseases on Earth and to treat, according to Stoudemire.
“Through these partnerships, we are working to create diverse and robust new markets in the commercial space economy that will generate significant economic and social benefits around the world,” Stoudemire concluded.