Axiom astronauts set to observe lightning, study age-related cells
Astronauts on the privately funded Axiom Space mission will spend more than 100 hours conducting research during their eight days on the International Space Station.
Houston-based Axiom Space announced Wednesday that its crew will spend their time studying cells linked to age-related diseases, manufacturing optical lenses in microgravity and observing lightning from above the clouds, among many other projects.
The four-person crew is scheduled to launch in February via a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule. Axiom contracted their ride into space. It is also training the astronauts, planning their mission and helping prepare the crew members to conduct their research and manufacturing initiatives.
“These missions allow us to expand opportunities for humantended research in orbit,” Christian Maender, Axiom’s director of in-space manufacturing and research, said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle.
He said Ax-1 is a “pathfinder mission” as the company develops its own commercial space station, which will create even more research and manufacturing opportunities. The first module of Axiom’s space station is set to launch in 2024, followed by modules that would provide additional areas for housing, research and manufacturing.
“We really want to put people in space to enable the research and in-space manufacturing potentials that you can create,” Maender said.
The Ax-1 mission launching to the International Space Station in February consists of American real estate and technology entrepreneur Larry Connor, Canadian investor Mark Pathy, Israeli impact investor Eytan Stibbe and former NASA astronaut and Axiom vice president Michael López-Alegría.
López-Alegría is the mission’s commander. The other three each paid $55 million to be on the flight.
Connor will spend his time on the space station conducting research for Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, two institutions where the Ohio native has previously funded research.
One of his projects will be taking senescent cells into space. These cells have stopped dividing, and they’re linked to multiple agerelated diseases. Since space accelerates the pace of aging, Connor and his partners will be looking to see if these cells behave differently in microgravity.
Pathy is participating in 12 scientific research projects in partnership with six Canadian universities. This includes research to unravel the mysteries around chronic pain and sleep disturbances that can occur during space travel.
He is also working with two startups to demonstrate their technologies in space. This includes demonstrating two-way holoportation between Pathy and a person on Earth. Both individuals will wear augmented reality lenses that show a three-dimensional image of the other person. For Pathy, it will feel like the other person is with him on the International Space Station while they talk.
This technology could help astronauts’ mental health by better connecting them with family. It could also give flight surgeons face-to-face conversations with patients in orbit, and it could allow Earth-bound technicians to get a better view of the problem that an astronaut is working in space.
“It’s a really neat technology,” Maender said.
Stibbe is working on a wide variety of projects from across Israel. These include studying upper atmospheric lightning from the space station and wearing a vest that could protect astronauts during solar flares and other events that increase radiation.
He will also make optical lenses that could be used in telescopes or sensors. To do this, Stibbe will place a liquid polymer inside a spherical frame and then use a UV light to harden the material. This could be an easier way to make lenses because it doesn’t require grinding and polishing surfaces into the desired shape.
“We applaud the Ax-1 crew’s commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap,” Michael Suffredini, president and CEO of Axiom Space, said in a news release. “We’re confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making space’s potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time.”