Bioserve Space Technologies

ISS National Lab spotlights CU ��ý�� space leader

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:01:15 +0000

ISS National Lab spotlights CU ��ý�� space leader Jeff Zehnder Mon, 02/09/2026 - 15:01

Louis Stodieck is honored in the 2025 annual report of the International Space Station National Laboratory.

The ISS National Lab operates the United States research facilities aboard the orbiting space station through a cooperative agreement with NASA.

Stodieck is being recognized following his retirement in summer 2025.

He is an expert in space flight experimentation and a research professor emeritus in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences with more than 50 years in space life sciences research.

Stodieck has been a part of dozens research payloads carried into low Earth orbit aboard the Space Shuttle, Mir, and ISS, as part of BioServe Space Technologies, a campus research center.

He served at BioServe from its founding in 1987 in a number of capacities, including 20 years as its director.

"Under his leadership, BioServe increased its payload cadence from two to nearly 20 complex payloads per year. Stodieck also contributed to the development of BioServe’s permanent hardware on the ISS, including incubators, microscopes, and cold storage systems for astronaut food and medications." - ISS National Lab Annual Report

Read the tribute at the ISS National Lab website...

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Leading hands-on Earth research planning for life on Mars

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:59:38 +0000

Leading hands-on Earth research planning for life on Mars Jeff Zehnder Tue, 01/20/2026 - 09:59

Jeff Zehnder

Above: Members of a crew rotation outside the MDRS habitat prior to the mission start.
Header Image: Two crew members navigating on EVA under conflicting information. One crew member (left) holds a map and compass, while the other (right) holds a digital heading indicator.

A crew of astronauts wearing spacesuits look out across the reddish horizon, the rock formations unfamiliar, with no trails to guide them and incomplete maps. They are lost, once again, on Mars.

Human exploration of the red planet will present unique challenges, and a team of ��ý�� researchers are studying real-world human decision-making for Mars through a unique, Earth-based experience.

“When humans land on Mars, poor decisions can lead to loss of the mission and loss of life,” said PhD student Erin Richardson. “This work here on Earth is studying how to best design and support astronaut teams so they can be effective.”

Mars on Earth

Welcome to the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS), an analog astronaut research facility in the remote Utah desert. Operated by the Mars Society, the center gives scientists and engineers the opportunity to conduct complex experiments in a simulation space habitat.

Using MRDS, Richardson and Postdoctoral Scholar Aaron Allred, both from the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, and Cara Spencer, a PhD student in computer science, are leading a major study on team function – and dysfunction – in isolated and extreme environments.

“Our team is looking at cognitive security. How do we protect people’s ability in the face of information threats like mis- and dis-information and how do teams make decisions based on incomplete information in extreme environments,” Allred said.

Astronaut Experiments

They designed a series of experiments and recruited 18 mock astronauts to live and work at MDRS under conditions that will match actual life on Mars. That included close quarters, little privacy, a requirement to wear spacesuit simulators when leaving the habitat, and lengthy communication delays – up to 40 minutes, when speaking to Mission Control.

A crew member on an EVA looking out across the landscape.

“Decision making of teams in extreme environments is understudied. There has been some work looking at other extreme, isolated environments, like submarine crews and Antarctic teams, but what is novel in our work is the ability to run replicable experimental trials,” Richardson said.

By splitting participants into separate groups and pairings, experimental trials could be repeated to see if results varied.

Although university research involving human subjects often relies on undergraduate volunteers, for this project, the team was able to recruit working scientists and engineers worldwide.

“We had almost 600 applicants,” Richardson said. “MDRS is very well known, and people want to go there. We had a goal of assembling crews that were as close in education, operational experience, and age to real astronauts as possible.”

Once selected, the 18 astronauts were split into three groups of six, with each spending a week at MDRS in late fall.

Navigation Challenges

Once the crews were on site, they took part in outdoor navigation challenges that focused on human response when dealing with incomplete and conflicting information.

“In one experiment, one person had a map, one had GPS, and we always gave one of them incorrect information,” Allred said. “The teammates had to work together to solve where to go. Doing it as extra vehicular activities (EVAs) where they’re wearing a spacesuit outdoors also imposes a time pressure and gives perceived stakes, based on how long the life support system has before it runs out.”

Allred, Richardson, and Spencer.

Subjects completed daily surveys on their experience and wore sensors to track their body’s physiological response, including a functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) device to monitor brain function in real time. Team dynamics, alertness, and fatigue were also tracked.

“We’re still analyzing the data, but anecdotally, one crew stayed up super late their last night and in all three of their final EVAs they followed the wrong source of information. Fatigue is unavoidable, but measuring its impact allows us to better support operators,” Richardson said.

Research Impact

As they digest the data collected, the team is excited about the potential impact of the research.

“This was an incredible opportunity to go out there and conduct experiments where there are more stressors than you can do in a laboratory while enforcing controlled experimental design in a space analog. We want to set a baseline of scientific understanding that can aid development of technological countermeasures,” Allred said.

The principal investigator for the grant is Research Professor Leanne Hirshfield in the Institute of Cognitive Science, who also advises Spencer. Allred and Richardson are advised by Allie Hayman, an Associate Professor in Smead Aerospace.

More Photos

The MDRS habitat at dusk.

Two crew members ready for EVA wearing communications headsets and microphones, GoPro cameras, wireless lapel microphones, and location trackers.

Inside the habitat practicing ultrasound imaging skills on a cardiac phantom. Small ultrasound devices like these are ideal for constrained spaceflight missions.

The Perseverance rover departing for an EVA.

A crew of astronauts wearing spacesuits look out across the reddish horizon, the rock formations unfamiliar, with no trails to guide them and incomplete maps. They are lost, once again, on Mars...

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Virtual reality headsets could help astronauts mitigate motion sickness

Jeff Zehnder — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:41:56 +0000

Virtual reality headsets could help astronauts mitigate motion sickness Jeff Zehnder Wed, 10/22/2025 - 13:41

Astronauts generally can't look out the window like you might in a car—a "virtual window" could instead serve that purpose.

When learning about the effects of spaceflight on human health, you typically will hear about the dangers of radiation, bone density loss and changes in eyesight. While these long-term risks are important, a less frequently discussed concern is motion sickness.

As a child, one of us (Taylor) was highly prone to motion sickness – whether in the backseat of a car, sitting on a train or riding a bus. At the time, she considered it a cruel twist of fate, but as an adult – and a scientist to boot – Taylor can tell you with confidence that it was entirely her fault.

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Retiring after 50 years in space life sciences

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 15:10:04 +0000

Retiring after 50 years in space life sciences Jeff Zehnder Mon, 08/25/2025 - 09:10

Jeff Zehnder

Header: Stodieck and a group of students under Space Shuttle Endeavour prior to the STS-118 launch.
Above: Stodieck loading Fluid Processing Apparati for an orbital experiment.

Louis Stodieck is stepping back from bioastronautics after nearly five decades at the leading edge of research.

A three-time graduate of the ��ý��, Stodieck (AeroEngr BS’79, MS’81, PhD’85) has spent almost his entire career on the Front Range, but his work is literally out of this world. He has been part of BioServe Space Technologies on campus since it was founded in 1987. The center recently celebrated its 100th orbital payload launch to space.

“The launches never become ordinary,” said Stodieck, a professor emeritus in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. “Our first launch was an extreme learning curve; you can’t even imagine getting to it, having something on the space shuttle and getting launched.”

Stodieck grew up on a ranch in northern Nevada. His two older brothers would become electrical engineers. Stodieck was drawn to space.

“Aerospace was very much my priority. Back then there was no online. You had to go to the library to pick up catalogs to figure out which schools had aerospace programs,” Stodieck said.

He applied to CU ��ý�� in part for the quality of the engineering program and also for Colorado’s outdoor opportunities.

After finishing his undergraduate degree, he considered going into industry, but the allure of research was strong, and an aerospace faculty member, Marvin Luttges, had funding to take him on as a graduate student.

“The work was more biomedical engineering related. I loved physiology and biology. They complemented my more traditional engineering training,” he said.

At that time, space payloads were almost exclusively the domain of NASA, but in 1987, that changed.

“Congress required NASA to create centers for the commercial development of space and to accept commercial payloads. There was almost no one in the agency that supported it. Commercial payloads were a four-letter word,” he said.

Luttges submitted a proposal to start a center at CU ��ý��, which would become BioServe. Stodieck, who had been completing a postdoc at the University of British Columbia, was drawn back to Colorado to join the team.

It was rough going at first.

“We were trying to promote industry getting involved in the space program, and the first question from companies was always, ‘Well, why would I want to do that?’ Today, there’s much more interest,” he said.

In those early years, BioServe was sending up one or two payloads annually. Today they launch nearly 15 payloads each year, ranging from studies of cell cultures and bacteria to pharmaceutical research. BioServe has also developed permanent hardware used on the International Space Station, including incubators, microscopes and refrigerators to store astronaut food and medications.

Stodieck at Cape Canaveral for a shuttle launch.

Their budget is approximately $5 million each year, funding generated from work with universities and businesses worldwide. If an organization wants to do life science research in space, BioServe can make it happen. The Mayo Clinic, Goodyear, Sanofi Pasteur, and the Aerospace Corporation have all worked with them to develop experiments.

As years passed, Stodieck’s responsibilities at BioServe increased; in 1995 he was promoted from research associate to assistant research professor. In 1999, he was asked to lead the entire center, a position he would hold for 20 years.

He faced particular challenges in 2006 when NASA ended funding for the commercial space program. It was no longer an issue of the agency not trusting commercial providers, they had proven their worth; it was simply a change in leadership priorities.

“At that time, there were 16 centers like ours. After 2006, almost all of them closed. That transition was extremely difficult. We navigated it because we were determined to do so. We strongly felt our program should continue, along with key champions inside NASA,” he said.

In 2019, Stodieck stepped back from the director role to become BioServe’s chief scientist, a role that focused entirely on research. It was an attempt at a phased retirement. Stodieck anticipated he would continue working for another two to three years. It has now been six.

“The last few years all of the work has been with human cells, tissues and lab on a chip systems. This is an area that has potential to treat cancer, blood disorders, autoimmune issues. That’s all really exciting and it’s hard to step away,” Stodieck said.

Although he is now retired, Stodieck is not slowing down. Both he and his wife enjoy traveling and the Colorado lifestyle, including hiking and climbing. They recently went rafting in the Grand Canyon with their two adult daughters.

“I don’t ever see sitting around very long,” he said. “It’s time to see what’s next.”

Louis Stodieck is stepping back from bioastronautics after nearly five decades at the leading edge of research. A three-time graduate of the ��ý��, Stodieck has spent almost...

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CU ��ý�� establishes Colorado Space Policy Center

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:34:37 +0000

CU ��ý�� establishes Colorado Space Policy Center Jeff Zehnder Tue, 06/24/2025 - 14:34

The ��ý�� has established the Colorado Space Policy Center—positioning itself as a new resource on the forefront of an evolving landscape in national and global space exploration.

The center is designed for original research; discussion and debate on space policy issues; and educational programming. The work of the center will address advances in space science and technology, the role of government, the growth of commercial space, increases in global entrants and civilian-military interactions within the space sphere.

The center will seek to tie together entities within the university that involve space science, engineering, exploration, law and business in the aerospace context.

CU ��ý��’s Research & Innovation Office, Office of the Provost, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Engineering and Applied Science and Leeds School of Business represent key partners in the launch of the CSPC.

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Students Begin Final Year of Study Toward MD/MS Dual Degree in Aerospace Engineering

Jeff Zehnder — Thu, 29 May 2025 16:09:22 +0000

Students Begin Final Year of Study Toward MD/MS Dual Degree in Aerospace Engineering Jeff Zehnder Thu, 05/29/2025 - 10:09

Over the next several years, astronauts, engineers, and now doctors will prepare to push the boundaries of human space exploration with missions to Mars. To help accomplish this technological feat, the University of Colorado seized an opportunity and developed the first MD/MS dual degree program focused on the intersection of medicine and aerospace engineering, with the goal of solving unique complications that could arise during journeys to the moon and Mars.

The five-year program was developed by the University of Colorado School of Medicine and the Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences on the CU ��ý�� campus. This dual degree in medicine and aerospace engineering has an emphasis in bioastronautics and awards both an MD and an MS degree upon completion of the integrated curriculum.

“It's tailored specifically to human health and space flight, to help translate between human physiology factors and engineering system factors,” says Arian Anderson, MD, assistant professor of emergency medicine and director of the dual degree MD/MS program in medicine and aerospace engineering. “We’re focused on how to integrate these pieces for human missions to the Moon and Mars, space flight, and more.”

The degree encompasses content and methods across several areas, including the full curricula of a medical doctorate and a master’s degree in aerospace engineering, as well as analog simulations, conferences, and mentoring focused on rotations at organizations such as NASA and commercial spaceflight companies. Emphasis on the human element of spaceflight and its interaction with complex technologies is at the core of the mission.

“We can test engineering systems to failure, but human beings can behave in atypical ways, and we need to make sure that we understand how those physiologic and behavioral changes occur so that we can support them the best we can,” Anderson says.

The genesis of a unique program

During his time as a clinical researcher at NASA, Anderson spent a lot of time translating between medicine and engineering and saw firsthand the barriers to understanding the lexicon and principles of engineering. This eventually led him and his colleagues to create the one-of-a-kind dual degree program.

The first step in the collaboration was a graduate-level course, “Medicine in Space and Surface Environments,” at CU ��ý��, which includes a trip to the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah. The participants in the course experience a simulated space walk and other extravehicular activities. Upon seeing the popularity of the course, CU faculty from ��ý�� and Anschutz decided to expand the opportunity, leveraging Colorado’s geographic location and industry position as a hub of engineering.

“Our goal is to understand, from a foundational perspective, how medicine and engineering fit together, so that someday they play a big role in government or commercial space flight,” Anderson explains. “The graduates of this program can do research, or academics, or go on to be clinicians for astronauts. Many of them want to use these principles to forge a new path and pioneer some of the innovations that are necessary to make these big dreams a reality.”

The new program aligns seamlessly with the pioneering work being accomplished across the CU system. The Department of Emergency Medicine conducts research and provides medical support for areas with extreme climate conditions and high-altitude environments and is at the forefront of military medicine.

“I’ve long been interested in wilderness and austere medicine environments where resources are limited and adaptability is essential,” says Linde Bischak, one of the students beginning the final year of the dual degree. “Space medicine felt like a natural extension of that interest. After all, space is arguably the most extreme resource-limited environment we can explore.”

First class of students reaches milestone

Currently, seven students are pursuing the MD/MS degree, and interviews are in progress for the next cohort of students. The inaugural group of students will begin their final year of medical school and start applying for residencies for the summer of 2026.

Final-year student Eric Sallinger joined the program in search of ways to use his background in computer science to develop new digital technologies in medicine. Both he and Bischak expressed how working with a diverse group of people in the bioastronautics and medical fields has broadened their perspectives and expanded their understanding of how to solve complex problems. “I’m excited for the future of doctors and engineers collaborating to solve problems that we can't solve alone,” Sallinger says.

Anderson says the degrees can be applied to a variety of careers across the industry, including policymaking, research, or even leadership roles in aerospace organizations. The scope of knowledge covered by the curriculum offers a solid foundation for any path graduates may take. Bischak plans to pursue a career in emergency medicine, while Sallinger will be applying for psychiatry residency programs.

“Our goal is not to make astronauts; it’s to make thinkers,” Anderson says of the program. “It’s exciting to see these students connecting the dots in a way that nobody has before.”

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Research in space, helping people on Earth: BioServe marks 100th orbital launch

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 20:28:51 +0000

Research in space, helping people on Earth: BioServe marks 100th orbital launch Jeff Zehnder Mon, 04/21/2025 - 14:28

Louis Stodieck remembers the first time he saw a space shuttle blast off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. In April 1991, Stodieck, an aerospace engineer, was the associate director of BioServe Space Technologies, a research center at the ��ý��.

He had helped to design a set of test tubes that would, among other things, not spill the moment they reached space. Stodieck handed the test tubes off to a NASA crew, then watched as his work lifted away from a launchpad aboard the space shuttle Atlantis.

“I never get tired of launches,” said Stodieck, who served as BioServe’s director from 1999 to 2019 and is now its chief scientist. “The sound reaches you seconds after the launch because you’re a few miles away. When it hits you, it’s this low vibration, and you just feel it.”

BioServe founder Marvin Luttges in 1989. (Credit: BioServe)

The BioServe team poses for a photo in 1996. (Credit: BioServe)

A test tube designed for space by BioServe. (Credit: BioServe)

BioServe, which was founded in 1987, works with scientists at companies and research institutions around the world to conduct life science experiments in space.

Today, Stodieck and his colleagues are celebrating a new milestone: BioServe’s 100th launch into orbit.

On Monday, April 21, a SpaceX Dragon capsule lifted off from a similar pad in Florida en route to the International Space Station (ISS). It carried equipment belonging to three research projects, or “payloads,” developed by BioServe. They include several colonies containing billions of bacteria and algae.

“This launch is an amazing milestone,” said Stefanie Countryman, the current director of BioServe. “It exemplifies the hard work of everybody at BioServe, not just our engineers and researchers, but also our students.”

The center has come a long way since that first launch, NASA’s STS-37 mission, in 1991.

Researchers at the center have since sent a wide range of living things into orbit. They include single-celled organisms but also ants, silkworms, mice and an intrepid “spidernaut” named Nefertiti. (An 18-year-old student from Egypt proposed studying whether Nefertiti, a jumping spider, could adjust her hunting techniques in space, which she did). But BioServe has also kept one foot planted on the ground. The center’s research has generated new insights into human medical conditions like bone loss and cancer—and could even lead to facilities in the not-so-distant future that orbit Earth while making human stem cells.

“Space gives us an opportunity to look at organisms in new ways, including how they may express genes differently than they do on Earth,” Countryman said.

Single-celled astronauts

David Klaus, professor at the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, was a graduate student at CU ��ý�� when BioServe’s first launch took off. From 1985 to 1990, he worked as a shuttle launch controller at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and in Mission Control in Houston. Klaus is set to retire this spring and sees the 100th BioServe launch as a “bookend” on his career.

In those early days, BioServe’s work largely revolved around one challenge of conducting science from hundreds of miles above Earth—open liquids and space don’t mix.

“It’s not like taking two test tubes in a lab on Earth and mixing them together,” Klaus said. “With our early payloads, we were really just trying to figure out how we could manipulate biological fluids in a space environment and get some initial experimental results.”

BioServe began as a 5-year grant from NASA under founder Marvin Luttges, a professor of aerospace engineering sciences at CU ��ý��. Klaus explained that the center’s space test tubes include up to four sealed chambers. If you push down on a plunger, you can mix the fluids in those chambers one by one, all without exposing them to the air. BioServe has since sent thousands of its test tubes into space, and the basic design remains largely the same.

The team’s early research also revealed something surprising: BioServe scientists discovered that bacteria tend to grow better in space than they do on Earth—perhaps because they’re not being squished down by gravity. A handful of experiments showed that such bacteria could even be transformed into living factories for making anti-cancer drugs.

Astronaut Jessica Meir uses a microscope supplied by BioServe aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

A lab 250 miles up

In the decades that followed, BioServe’s scientific equipment wound up on NASA’s four space shuttles, the Russian space station Mir and, eventually, the ISS, which entered into orbit in 1998.

Today, astronauts on the ISS can peer through a microscope flight certified and launched by BioServe and grow cell cultures in four incubators called Space Automated Bioproduct Lab (SABL) 1, 2, 3 and 4. BioServe even supplied the refrigerator where humans on the ISS store their food. On the ground, the center runs a mission operation and control center on the CU ��ý�� campus. There, BioServe staff talk to astronauts in real time on a giant screen.

“We’re replicating the sorts of biological labs that you can find at CU ��ý�� in space,” said Tobias Niederwieser, a research associate at BioServe.

Astronaut Alexander Gerst loads biological cultures into a SABL incubator on the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

Adeline Loesch assembles space "petri dishes" containing biological organisms in a lab on the CU ��ý�� campus. (Credit: Adeline Loesch)

The center has also collaborated with dozens of space agencies, universities and private companies over its history. On the current launch, for example, a company called Sophie’s Bionutrients based in the Netherlands contracted with the center to examine how algae produce proteins in space—which the company hopes will lead to new kinds of algae-based meat substitutes.

The center’s most lasting contribution to science, however, may be its students. Over the years, hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students at CU ��ý�� have worked for BioServe. Many have gone on to jobs at NASA and private space companies.

They include Adeline Loesch, a senior studying atmospheric and oceanic sciences at CU ��ý��. She started working at BioServe between her freshman and sophomore years. These days, she does a little bit of everything for the center: She helps to build the hardware for experiments, assembles them for flight and sits in the operations center as astronauts carry out the research.

In the fall, Loesch will start work in spacecraft and satellite flight operations for Lockheed Martin in Colorado.

“My favorite is watching the projects come full circle during the operations,” Loesch said. “Watching the research being done in real time by astronauts in space is the coolest thing ever.”

Making humans healthier from space

In the end, BioServe’s research in space doesn’t stay in space.

Roughly 24 years ago, for example, Stodieck and his colleagues designed a specialized habitat for mice to live on the ISS. His team’s research has revealed new clues to why mammals lose bone mass when they leave Earth. Those insights, in turn, helped to inspire new kinds of medications for osteoporosis in people.

Niederwieser, meanwhile, is tackling what may be an even more ambitious goal—he and his colleagues are growing human hematopoietic stem cells in space. Doctors often transplant these cells into people to treat cancers like leukemia and lymphoma.

But they’re also tricky and expensive to make on Earth. In a few early experiments, Niederwieser and his colleagues discovered that stem cells, like bacteria, may grow more freely in space. Later this year, his team plans to transport a facility for producing stem cells en masse to the ISS.

That could lead to a new vision for space—one in which stations in orbit around Earth produce various treatments for human illnesses, then send them back to patients on the ground.

“Humans have been on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years and have evolved with only one gravity,” Stodieck said. “It’s really been a privilege to understand how organisms work in another environment.”

Stodieck didn’t travel to Florida for Monday’s launch, but Klaus was there to see SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket roar off the launchpad. Before he left, he was feeling wistful about seeing his old stomping grounds again.

“I'm looking forward to going down there and reminiscing a little bit,” Klaus said. “I’ll drive around and look at the base—a little 40-year flashback to where my career started.”

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CNN discusses CU ��ý�� research on Fram2 space mission

Jeff Zehnder — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:00:31 +0000

CNN discusses CU ��ý�� research on Fram2 space mission Jeff Zehnder Tue, 04/01/2025 - 10:00

Torin Clark was interviewed for a feature piece on the Fram2 space mission launching Monday night.

The article discusses the all-civilian astronauts and research slated for the mission, including work on motion sickness being by led Clark.

Clark is an associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences and an expert on astronaut biomedical and cognitive issues.

He spearheaded similar work on the Polaris Dawn mission last fall.

Read the full piece at CNN...

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Aerospace engineers to study motion sickness in space

Jeff Zehnder — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 14:35:07 +0000

Aerospace engineers to study motion sickness in space Jeff Zehnder Mon, 03/24/2025 - 08:35

Don’t tell Neil Armstrong, but giant leaps for mankind may leave astronauts feeling a little queasy.

In a new experiment, aerospace engineers at the ��ý�� will work with astronauts to study how people experience motion sickness when they travel to space—with an eye toward reducing these sometimes debilitating symptoms.

The research is part of the first-of-its-kind Fram2 mission, a human spaceflight mission that will orbit Earth from above its poles to explore these regions in new ways. The mission’s four-person crew will spend 3-5 days on-orbit aboard SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. It’s targeted to launch March 31 on a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.

Torin Clark, associate professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences at CU ��ý��, explained that motion sickness in space is a common problem—although not necessarily one that many early astronauts talked about. An estimated 60-80% of space explorers have experienced at least some nausea during their first few days away from Earth. Astronaut Frank Borman, for example, vomited less than 24 hours into the Apollo 8 mission to the moon, creating a mess for him and his crewmates to clean up.

As the space tourism industry ramps up, those bouts of queasiness could become a more urgent issue.

Torin Clark

“In the past, most astronauts have been carefully selected by NASA, including many military pilots,” said Clark, who’s leading the motion sickness experiment for CU ��ý��. “We don’t know much about how the general public will respond to these gravity transitions.”

Clark and his colleagues simulate those dynamics in experiments on the CU ��ý�� campus. The researchers, for example, spin volunteers in circles on a centrifuge machine the size of a room. They also put test subjects in a device called a “sled” that slides back and forth to mimic how a space capsule might bob in the ocean upon its return to Earth.

The Fram2 mission represents an opportunity to explore motion sickness in a real space environment. The mission gets its name from the Fram ship, which was built in the late 1800s and helped to carry early Norwegian explorers like Roald Amundsen and Otto Sverdrup to the planet’s polar regions. The Fram2 crew consists of Mission Commander Chun Wang, Vehicle Commander Jannicke Mikkelsen, Mission Pilot Rabea Rogge, and Mission Specialist and Medical Officer Eric Philips.

Throughout the mission, the crew members will perform a series of exercises at regular intervals. They will tilt their heads side to side and forward and back four times, motions that can stimulate symptoms of motion sickness. The crew will then fill out surveys, which Clark and his colleagues will analyze back on Earth to gauge how motion sickness evolves as humans spend time in space.

“We want to quantify the dynamics of space motion sickness: When does it start? How soon does it go back down?” Clark said. “We also want to understand how astronauts experience motion sickness when they come back to Earth because some research suggests that it might be worse than in space.”

Clark led a similar experiment during the Polaris Dawn mission, which launched last year with a four-person crew, including CU ��ý�� alumna Sarah Gillis. Eventually, Clark and his colleagues hope to inform strategies for preventing motion sickness in space. That might include improved procedures for administering anti-nausea medications or training exercises that astronauts can do on the ground to prepare for the rigors of space.

“This issue may not be as big of a deal for going to Mars because symptoms will dissipate over long-duration missions,” Clark said. “But for shorter, commercial missions, it can make people feel pretty crummy.”

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CUriosity: Can humans handle the stress of traveling to Mars?

Jeff Zehnder — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 21:42:12 +0000

CUriosity: Can humans handle the stress of traveling to Mars? Jeff Zehnder Wed, 11/13/2024 - 14:42

In CUriosity, experts across the CU ��ý�� campus answer pressing questions about humans, our planet and the universe beyond.

This week, Katya Arquilla, assistant professor in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, looks into the question: “Can humans handle the stress of traveling to Mars?”

NASA astronaut Suni Williams aboard the International Space Station in October 2024. (Credit: NASA)

In June, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams boarded the International Space Station (ISS), expecting a week-long stay in orbit. Now, they won’t return to Earth until February after a series of technical issues plagued the Boeing Starliner space capsule they rode into space on.

If spending eight months on the ISS, which measures just 5,000 square feet, sounds like a recipe for frayed nerves, it may very well be. That’s according to Arquilla, an engineer who has studied how long space journeys can affect the mental health of humans.

“On long-duration space missions, there are many stressors that create the potential for negative mental health effects,” she said. “From data taken in research facilities in extreme environments on Earth, like Antarctica, we have seen symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress.”

A future mission to Mars, however, could be a lot more than eight months, potentially as much as three years. Which raises the question: Can humans handle that much time in space?

Arquilla thinks so, but there are caveats.

“It will be a big challenge,” she said. “There’s a lot we don’t know because we haven’t sent people to Mars before. They won’t be able to look down and see the Earth the way they can on the International Space Station.”

In previous research, Arquilla and her colleagues explored the mental health consequences of that kind of isolation through an unlikely event here on Earth—the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, millions of Americans were suddenly cooped up in their homes with the threat of a major disease hanging over their heads. The researchers conducted a survey and observed that people with military training or other experience in stressful environments tended to be more productive during the pandemic than others. But those experienced individuals didn’t appear to maintain their mental health better than less experienced people.

Arquilla noted that simply being aware of your own body, and knowing when stress sets in, can help. She has partnered with Laura Devendorf, a researcher at CU ��ý��’s ATLAS Institute, to assist people in doing that kind of monitoring. The team integrated sensors into comfortable textiles that track electrocardiogram (ECG) signals coming from wearers’ hearts.

“Maybe I'm an astronaut on a mission and I'm tracking my own signals, and I see that my heartrate starts to go up,” Arquilla said. “I could decide based on that that I should take a break for a couple of hours.”

This research won’t just help astronauts. Arquilla is also exploring how similar technologies could give people on the ground tools to detect and manage symptoms of mental health changes in high-stress environments. That might include wilderness expeditions, remote research facilities and military deployments.

She’s glad to see people talking more about mental health, both on Earth and in space.

“We all, after the pandemic, understand the importance of mental health a lot more than we did maybe 10 years ago,” she said. “Being able to recognize that it's okay to not feel at 100% all the time, and being able to give people the tools they need to articulate what is wrong, is really important.”

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