Polaris Dawn Mission

Principal Investigator: Stuart George, Ph.D.
University of Houston

While on Earth, the Van Allen Belts protect humans from harmful space radiation. But in space, astronauts aren’t protected as much and are exposed to increased radiation levels. Exposure to this radiation may impact every tissue in the body and affect performance during the mission and health later in life. Dr. Stuart George and his team will collect and analyze radiation measurements on Polaris Dawn. The goal of the of the radiation monitoring is to gain a better understanding of the space radiation environment above the surface of Earth.  Polaris Dawn will travel to a 500km orbit, over 310 miles, above the Earth and the greatest distance from Earth since the Apollo missions. The Polaris Dawn mission radiation environment will be distinctly different from that of the International Space Station. The data collected by the team will also provide context for other radiosensitive experiments flying on future Polaris missions.

Why is this important?

The Polaris Dawn mission's unique, high-altitude orbit will expose the crew to a different radiation profile than a trip to the International Space Station. This provides a unique opportunity to study the radiation exposure astronauts will receive and how that may inform future experiments to increase their accuracy and also future mission planning which could be designed to avoid excessive exposure.

Principal Investigator: John Shepherd, Ph.D.
University of Hawaii

How does the body change in space? While the shape is just one aspect, it’s important to monitor for changes in muscle and fat volume during spaceflight. Dr. John Shepherd and his team at the University of Hawaii will provide astronauts with a comprehensive body composition assessment to evaluate muscle loss and fat accumulation associated with inactivity and exposure to microgravity. Dr. Shepherd and his lab’s overall approach is to recalibrate 4-compartment body composition models using 3D optical body scanning and bioimpedance analysis measures for space conditions where hydration and body fluid distributions are altered. The team’s long-term vision is to integrate in-flight body composition models with dietary, pharmacological, and physical activity interventions to reduce the likely hood of health events 

Why is this important?

This project could provide a new way to passively monitor astronaut body composition and associated health impacts using 3D scans and bioimpedance. If successful, the technology could alert crew to significant change in the body, such as muscle loss or other health risks.

Principal Investigator: Mathias Basner, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.
University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

When you go to space, you’ll likely experience a multitude of different stressors or things that could change your cognitive function and behavior. Dr. Mathias Basner and his team at the University of Pennsylvania will collect cognitive and physiological data on crew behavior and performance before launch, during the mission, and after landing on Earth. Dr. Basner’s team will analyze and submit the data to TRISH EXPAND commercial spaceflight participant database, for future research use by the scientific community. 

Why is this important?

This project tracks the crew’s performance in the cognitive domains relevant for spaceflight (including memory, abstraction, spatial orientation, emotion recognition, risk decision making, and sustained attention) throughout the mission. This data will be combined with mood, environmental and physiological data to better understand the impact of spaceflight on the mind and ultimately performance of the crew.

Principal Investigator: Ashot Sargsyan, M.D. 
KBR

During space exploration missions, the crew must be prepared to diagnose and treat themselves as medical issues arise. Intelligent medical imagining tools could help non-physician astronauts perform diagnostic quality imaging independent of instructions from experts back on Earth. During the mission, the Polaris Dawn crew will use the handheld ultrasound system Butterfly IQ+ to collect medical-grade images and these data points: urinary bladder function in microgravity and major vein/fluid status evaluation (with the potential to measure venous bubble detection after cabin pressure reduction, pending operational constraints). This data will document changes inside the body in zero gravity and assess the training and skills required, using a highly portable and easy-to-use ultrasound device. 

Why is this important?

The images and medical data collected add new knowledge to the TRISH EXPAND database. In addition, the successful image capture by non-clinicians mimics what future astronauts may need to prepare to do on a mission to Mars. Advancing this technology could be useful for people on Earth, especially those in rural communities with limited access to advanced medical imaging and skilled medical personnel.

Principal Investigator: Mark Shelhamer, Sc.D.
Johns Hopkins University

Motion sickness is commonly experienced in spaceflight, both upon entering space and after returning to Earth. However, there is a lot of individual variability both to the degree of motion sickness and how long it lasts. Motion sickness, nausea, and other disorienting effects are not only an inconvenience for the individual but may have significant performance impacts and could result in injuries to the crew particularly at landing. Dr. Shelhamer, of Johns Hopkins, will study how commercial spaceflight astronauts’ inner ears and eyes sense and respond to motion before and immediately after spaceflight) He will also determine if this data can be used to predict who will get motion sickness in spaceflight. The tests are non-invasive and easy to administer via a tablet computer pre- and post-spaceflight. 

Why is this important?

This technique may potentially predict who will get motion sickness from spaceflight so that measures to prevent or minimize the effects of motion sickness and disorientation can be used, improving the spaceflight experience and safety. This knowledge could also lead to future developments to prevent or treat motion sickness for people on Earth.

Principal Investigator: Richard Gibbs, Ph.D.
Baylor College of Medicine

As spaceflight becomes available to a broader range of humanity, there is an opportunity to characterize how spaceflight affects the human body at the genomic level. To achieve that, biological specimens are collected from commercial astronauts before, during, and after the mission. The samples are held in a secure Biobank and will be made available to researchers. This characterization effort focuses on gold-standard genetic analyses, allowing us to document the human adaptation to spaceflight at the most biologically fundamental level. This study will enhance clinically actionable assays both in the pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine fields, pushing the boundaries of what we know about the effects of space on the human body.

Why is this important? Pre-, in-, and post-flight biological comparisons can yield critical insights into the impact of space travel on human health. These comparisons can also be valuable for advancing health care on Earth by revealing how the body strategically uses alterations in gene expression to cope with extreme environmental stressors. This platform could help increase diagnostic capabilities in low resource and isolated communities, since the sample collection and processing need to be nimble and easy to implement. Insights from this characterization studies in addition to the psychological, physiological, and environmental data could help us identify molecular pathways associated with resilience. The BioBank repository and omics analysis database can be used for future longitudinal studies as humans continue to explore space.

TRISH

This project collects Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS)-related ocular images and vision function data during ground phases of the mission, closely following NASA’s protocols. As SANS is one of NASA’s top long duration human spaceflight risks, the data collected in this project will create a companion dataset from a diverse population, comparable to NASA’s existing SANS-related datasets collected on government astronauts.

Why is this important?

It’s important for all commercial astronauts to have the opportunity to contribute to important data collection efforts to increase the knowledge of how a diverse population of humans respond to spaceflight exposure. As the number of people journeying to space is still relatively few, TRISH researchers are aligning how and what they study, so that data from these civilian astronauts will be comparable to what NASA collects.

TRISH

TRISH has implemented a set of standardized research questionnaires for the crew, to collect data on their sleep, personality, health history, team dynamics, and immune-related symptoms. These questionnaires are part of TRISH Essential Measures, which provide contextual information for other Polaris Dawn projects.

Why is this important? These additional contextual and qualitative data points paint a more robust picture of human health and performance in space. They will become part of TRISH’s EXPAND research database, available to future scientists exploring space health.

• Sleep - It's common for astronauts to experience poor sleep quality in space, resulting from stress and disrupted circadian rhythms. This survey will capture the crew's individual sleep experience and quality to provide contextual data that will aid researchers in studying and improving astronaut sleep.
• Personality - Space exploration is both physically and psychologically challenging. Yet the success of a space mission requires close cooperation and crew cohesion. This questionnaire investigates the personality traits that make a crew and their mission successful. 
• Health - Working with civilian astronauts allows researchers to study the health history and habits of new and diverse spaceflight participants. This questionnaire collects additional data points for investigators looking for new health and safety protections for astronauts. 
• Immune - Existing evidence suggests that the spaceflight environment impairs immune system function in space travelers. In a series of research questions, scientists will collect historical data on the crew's immune-related symptoms increasing the wealth of medical data for researchers.