Published By: Soham Halder

From Microgravity to Medical Marvels: Groundbreaking Experiments by Polaris Dawn Crew Explained

Traveling highest altitude in 50 years to first-ever spacewalk, the mission is one giant leap for science.

The cosmic adventures of SpaceX's history-making Polaris Dawn mission's four-member crew (Jared Isaacman, Scott Poteet, Sarah Gillis and Anna Menon) concluded with their succesful return to the Earth, splashing down at the coast of Dry Tortugas, Florida on September 15. Well, the ‘conclusion’ is yet to come as the crew conducted over 40 experiments in just 5 days and the data will be analyzed in coming days. In this article, we will focus on these novel experiments conducted by Polaris Dawn crew.

Body Profiling during Spaceflight:

The crew members conducted several tests for NASA-funded TRISH (Translational Research Institute for Health) including measurements of blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, and temperature before, during and after spaceflight.

(Credit - X/@SpaceX)

Weightlessness Countermeasurement:

During Spaceflight, weightlessness leads to loss of bones and muscles. From the urine sample of crew members, individual loss of bones and muscles will be measured. Eventually, this research will help in targeted weightlessness counteract. Also, a cutting-edge high-resolution CT scan of bone density and structure in wrists and ankles were analyzed.

Blood Flow Restriction:

Generally, Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) helps patients to prevent muscle and bone loss after surgery. This improves the speed of rehabilitation. As bone and muscle loss are common during space travel, the Polaris Dawn crew examined how BFR alter blood flow in space using advanced ultrasound and smart watches.

Experiment to Prevent SANS:

Astronauts often experience Spaceflight Associated Neuroocular Syndrome (SANS) due to increased intracranial pressure. The crew used non-invasive automated pupillometers to calculate intracranial pressure in spaceflight.

(Credit - X/@PolarisProgram)

Analyzing Impact of Spaceflight on Posture:

The ear is a crucial organ for maintaining body posture. Do ears operate synchronously in space? To check that, the crew members used tablet computers for analyzing motion sickness susceptibility.

Telemedicine:

Not all astronauts are trained physicians. The astronauts will need to be self-reliant during missions. To achieve that, state-of-the-art miniaturized, intelligent ultrasound were used by the crew members to scan and collect medical-grade real-time images.

Space Radiology:

In life-threatening conditions, astronauts need access to X-ray imaging of brain, heart, and lungs. The space environment has extremely high levels of radiation. In one novel approach, the crew members tested in-flight, X-ray radiographs in space using natural radiation.

(Credit - X/@SpaceX)

Biobank:

As spaceflight is gradually becoming accessible to a broader range of humanity, there is an urgent need to characterize the impact of spaceflight on human body at the extreme genetic level. Thus, biological samples were collected from four astronauts before, during, and after the mission. The samples are stored as a Biobank, which will be made available future research.

Medication Processing:

As blood flow gets altered in space, the medicine processing inside the body is expected to change. The astronauts used doppler ultrasonography of the liver and kidneys to calculate blood flow and how medication is processed in the body.

ONS Ultrasound:

To understand the impact of space atmosphere on eye, the crew used a novel 3-D ultrasound device to understand the changes in eyes under microgravity. The data will help researchers for both short- as well as long-duration space travel.

(Credit - X/@PolarisProgram)

Analyzing Spaceflight-related Anemia:

Astronauts experience anemia soon after returning from space as space enhances death of red blood cells. Through cutting-edge technologies, the blood sample of four crew members will be used for elucidating key mechanisms behind spaceflight-related anemia.

Cognition:

Using Garmin smartwatch and novel single-electrode sensors, the cognition parameters like memory, abstraction, emotion recognition, risk decision making, sustained attention and spatial orientation were tested.

Glucose Monitoring, Brain MRI & CPR:

As diabetes is increasing the globally, the impact of spaceflight on blood sugar was also tested. Using portable MRI (Hyperfine), the brain images of Polaris Dawn crew were captured. The life-saving Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) was also tested for the first time in space.

(Credit - X/@PolarisProgram)

Sarah Gillis performed “Rey's Theme” from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” alongside orchestras on earth in real time. Meanwhile, it was a test for in-space connectivity of SpaceX's Starlink.

“Our team will take the crew’s survey data and combine it with information gathered from sensors on the spacecraft. This will allow us to link crews’ reported experiences and health outcomes with the spacecraft’s dynamics and landing loads,” said Preston Greenhalgh, an injury biomechanist at NASA.

“Information gathered from Polaris Dawn will give us critical insights to help NASA plan for deeper space travel to the Moon and Mars,” said Jancy McPhee, associate chief scientist for human research at NASA.