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Risks for upcoming human space trips are revealed by ISS experiments

To investigate how space radiation affects mouse embryonic stem cells, an international research team ran a protracted experiment on board the International Space Station. Their research will help scientists make a more accurate assessment of the hazards and benefits of space radiation for upcoming manned space missions.


On August 18, 2022, the team published the results of their research in the journal Heliyon.


By sending frozen mouse embryonic stem cells to the International Space Station, subjecting them to space radiation for more than four years, and measuring the biological effect by looking at chromosome aberrations, the team was able to directly quantify the biological impact of space radiation. Results of their study demonstrate for the first time that the true biological influence of space radiation is in close agreement with earlier predictions based on the physical measurement of space radiation.


Now that regular people may go in space, the likelihood of lengthy manned missions to distant planets like the Moon and Mars is growing. However, space radiation continues to be a barrier to manned exploration. In-depth research has been done by scientists to quantify the physical doses of space radiation and better understand how it affects the human body.


Given that space radiation is made up of numerous types of particles with various energies and that astronauts are continuously exposed to low-dose rates of radiation, the results of the majority of research conducted up until this point on Earth rather than in space suffered as a result. On Earth, the space environment cannot be perfectly simulated.


Takashi Morita, a professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan University, stated that "our study aims to address the shortcomings of previous ground-based experiments by performing a direct quantitative measurement of the biological effect of space radiation on the International Space Station and comparing this real biological effect with physical estimates in the ground-based experiments." "The results reduce uncertainties in risk evaluations of human space flight missions,"


About 1,500 cryotubes containing extremely radiosensitive mouse embryonic stem cells were manufactured by the researchers and launched into orbit. Their study took seven years to complete before it was launched, four years to complete after it was launched, and five years to analyse the results. Professor Morita added, "It was challenging to design the experiment and interpret the data, but we successfully acquired quantitative results linked to space radiation, satisfying our initial purpose.


The scientists intend to advance their research in the future. Since human cells are considerably better suited for evaluating human risk and it is simpler to detect chromosome abnormalities, Professor Morita said, "We are exploring employing human embryonic stem cells rather than mouse embryonic stem cells in future study." Future studies might also include launching individual mice or other experimental animals to analyze their chromosome aberrations in space. "Such experiments in deep space can further contribute to reducing uncertainties in risk assessments of prolonged human journeys and stays in space," concluded Professor Morita.

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