Inspiration4, an all-civilian commercial space mission that aims to launch in mid-September, will be conducting a variety of experiments to test the impact of spaceflight on the body.

SpaceX, the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine and researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine will collect environmental and biomedical data, as well as biological samples, from the four crew members before, during and after the flight.

The four-person crew will collect information on ECG activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and blood oxygen saturation, as well as data about noise and light levels in the cabin. 

They will also perform tests in an app to study cognitive performance, scan organ systems with an ultrasound device that uses artificial intelligence to guide non-clinicians, collect and test blood samples, and test balance and perception before and after the flight.

The data from the three-day orbital mission will be added to an open repository that others can use for their own research.

“The goal is to have a large database in the future with all of the commercial participants from all of the commercial providers. So then researchers can understand this very unique population,” said Dr. Emmanuel Urquieta, TRISH chief medical officer.

Inspiration4’s civilian crew includes Jared Isaacman, the founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, as well as a pilot; Hayley Arceneaux, a physician assistant at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital; Chris Sembroski, a data engineer and Air Force veteran; and Dr. Sian Proctor, a geoscientist and science communication specialist. 

“The crew of Inspiration4 is eager to use our mission to help make a better future for those who will launch in the years and decades to come,” Isaacman, commander of the Inspiration4 mission, said in a statement.

“In all of human history, fewer than 600 humans have reached space. We are proud that our flight will help influence all those who will travel after us and look forward to seeing how this mission will help shape the beginning of a new era for space exploration.”

WHY IT MATTERS 

The technology used in the mission could help those of us stuck on Earth, particularly people who live in remote or rural areas without easy access to healthcare. 

According to the 2019 Life in Rural America report, 26% of those surveyed said there was a time in the past few years where they needed healthcare, but didn’t get it. Of those, 23% said the provider was too far away, while 22% said they couldn’t get an appointment during the hours they were available.

Rural areas in the U.S. also face hospital closures that limit access. According to data from the University of North Carolina's Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, 138 rural hospitals in the U.S. have shut down since 2010.

“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. “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

Telehealth, virtual care and digital health have expanded here on Earth, but they’re crucial for astronauts, especially as NASA sets its sights on the long mission to Mars. 

"We send up very healthy people," Dr. Shannan Moynihan, deputy chief medical officer at the NASA Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, said during a panel at HIMSS21. "That's always the goal. (But) normal physiology is being put into an abnormal environment. It works well while you're up there, but when you come back, those adaptive changes are not always a positive thing."

The research is also important for the expansion of commercial spaceflight, Urquieta said. For now, most of the people who’ve flown to space have worked for agencies like NASA. They’ve trained for years, gone through multiple levels of screening and are overall “extremely, extremely healthy.”

But as spaceflight expands to civilians, more women, people from different demographic and ethnic backgrounds, and those who just aren’t as healthy as your average astronaut will have the opportunity to go to space.

Digital health tools and health tech could eventually allow researchers to understand the physical impact spaceflight will have on an individual level, Urquieta said.

“I think from a data perspective, at one point we will be able to have prediction and personalization of medicine, so we will understand the normal physiology of a person flying into space," he said. "And then you will be able to predict a medical condition even before it happens. And once it happens, you'd have a personalized treatment that is unique to that person.

“This is, I think, the future of spaceflight.”