Houston space health nonprofit launches first experiments onboard Blue Origin mission
all aboard
Houston's Translational Research Institute for Space Health, or TRISH, conducted cutting-edge research onboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket that launched Friday, November 22.
The NS-28 mission sent private astronauts on an 11-minute suborbital journey past the recognized boundary of space known as the Kármán line, according to Blue Origin's website. While on board, astronauts wore a medical-grade BioButton device, known as a BioIntelliSense, that monitored vital signs and biometric readings.
The findings will add to TRISH's Enhancing eXploration Platforms and ANalog Definition, or EXPAND, program and were the first data sets captured from a suborbital flight.
“This initiative enables TRISH to further our research in space medicine by collecting valuable human health data,” Jimmy Wu, TRISH deputy director and chief engineer and assistant professor at Baylor, said in a statement. “New data from suborbital flights builds our understanding of how the human body responds to spaceflight. This holistic view is key in keeping humans healthy and safe in space.”
The experiments were also TRISH's first on a Blue Origin mission.
TRISH, which is part of BCM’s Center for Space Medicine with partners Caltech and MIT, has launched experiments on numerous space missions to date, with each contributing to its EXPAND platform, which compiles research on human health while in space.
In January, TRISH launched six experiments onboard Houston-based Axiom Space's third private astronaut mission to the International Space Station, known as Ax-3. Prior to that, it also sent experiments on board the Ax-2 in May 2023. The research considered topics ranging from changes in astronauts memory before and after space travel to sleep and motor skills.
TRISH also launched experiments onboard SpaceX's Polaris Dawn mission this fall and on the Inspiration4 all-civilian mission to orbit in 2021.
TRISH published its findings from the Inspiration4 mission in the journal Nature this summer. The study showed that "short-duration missions do not pose a significant health risk" to humans onboard. Read more about the team's findings here.
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