The Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine has announced a medical research platform to study astronauts’ health and performance during commercial spaceflights.

The program, called EXPAND (Enhancing eXploration Platforms and Analog Definition), will collect data from multiple flights and keep it in a centralized database in order to improve the health of astronauts and find new innovations for use at home on Earth.

The first mission to collect data for EXPAND is the three-day-long orbital Inspiration4 mission, set to launch September 15. 

“This groundbreaking research model is only possible because everyone – scientists, commercial spaceflight companies, and passengers — recognizes the importance of space health research, and what we can learn by working together,” Dr. Emmanuel Urquieta, TRISH’s chief medical officer, said in a statement.

WHY IT MATTERS

Spaceflight poses unique challenges for the human body. The EXPAND research program aims to address a variety of health needs that could arise from long space missions. It will focus on early detection and treatment of illnesses, protection from radiation, mental healthcare and the difficulty working with a small team in close environments.

“The space environment causes rapid body changes. This can help us understand how we humans react to and overcome stress. Ensuring that space explorers remain healthy pushes us to invent new approaches for early detection and prevention of medical conditions,” TRISH executive director Dorit Donoviel said in a statement.

“Studying a broad range of people in space increases our knowledge of human biology. TRISH’s EXPAND program will leverage opportunities with commercial spaceflight providers and their willing crew to open up new research horizons.”

The research could also benefit those of us stuck planetside. During the Inspiriation4 mission, the crew will test miniaturized medical capabilities that could one day be used back home. 

Some of astronauts’ healthcare challenges also exist for many communities on Earth, particularly for those who live in remote or rural areas without easy access to providers. 

“When you look at this population, you're looking at the extremes of human physiology, and you're looking at a very isolated, very small environment,” said Urquieta in an interview in late August. “So pretty much everything on Earth that resembles those conditions, especially places that are isolated, they don’t have ready access to a medical facility –remote areas in the world, but also in the U.S.”

THE LARGER TREND

Research on the physical and mental effects of spaceflight will become more important as humans embark on longer missions to the Moon and Mars.

“Shorter commercial space flights like Inspiration4 have similarities to early NASA Artemis missions,” Jimmy Wu, TRISH’s senior biomedical engineer, said in a statement. “This allows TRISH an opportunity to test new health and performance technologies for future NASA astronauts.”