the research of space

ISS Research Program

NASA’s Physical Sciences Research Program at the International Space Station (ISS) has conducted striking fundamental and applied research leading to improved space systems and new, advantageous products on Earth.

International Space Station Environments, Power and Research

NASA’s experiments in the various disciplines of physical science, reveal how physical systems respond to the near absence of gravity. They also reveal how other forces that on Earth are small compared to gravity, can dominate system behavior in space. The International Space Station (ISS) is an orbiting laboratory that provides an ideal facility to conduct long-duration experiments in the near absence of gravity and allows continuous and interactive research similar to Earth-based laboratories. This enables scientists to pursue innovations and discoveries not currently achievable by other means. NASA’s Physical Sciences Research Program also benefits from collaborations with several of the ISS international partners—Europe, Russia, Japan, and Canada—and foreign governments with space programs, such as France, Germany and Italy. The scale of this research enterprise promises new possibilities in the physical sciences, some of which are already being realized both in the form of innovations for space exploration and in new ways to improve the quality of life on Earth.

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Motivations for space activity

• Major milestones
• Significant milestones in space exploration
• Tsiolkovsky
• Other space pioneers
• United States
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• Preparing for spaceflight
• The first satellites
• International participation
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• International space endurance records
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• Risks and benefits
• Selecting people for spaceflights
• Biomedical, psychological, and sociological aspects
• Solar and space physics
• Solar system exploration
• Exploring the universe
• Microgravity research
• Observing Earth
• Meteorology
• Positioning, navigation, and timing
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• Satellite telecommunications
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• Commercial space transportation
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• Issues for the future
• Crewed spaceflights, 1960–69
• Crewed spaceflights, 1970–79
• Crewed spaceflights, 1980–89
• Crewed spaceflights, 1990–99
• Crewed spaceflights, 2000–09
• Crewed spaceflights, 2010–2019
• Crewed spaceflights, 2020–

space exploration

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space exploration , investigation, by means of crewed and uncrewed spacecraft , of the reaches of the universe beyond Earth ’s atmosphere and the use of the information so gained to increase knowledge of the cosmos and benefit humanity. A complete list of all crewed spaceflights, with details on each mission’s accomplishments and crew, is available in the section Chronology of crewed spaceflights .

Humans have always looked at the heavens and wondered about the nature of the objects seen in the night sky. With the development of rockets and the advances in electronics and other technologies in the 20th century, it became possible to send machines and animals and then people above Earth’s atmosphere into outer space . Well before technology made these achievements possible, however, space exploration had already captured the minds of many people, not only aircraft pilots and scientists but also writers and artists. The strong hold that space travel has always had on the imagination may well explain why professional astronauts and laypeople alike consent at their great peril, in the words of Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff (1979), to sit “on top of an enormous Roman candle, such as a Redstone, Atlas , Titan or Saturn rocket , and wait for someone to light the fuse.” It perhaps also explains why space exploration has been a common and enduring theme in literature and art. As centuries of speculative fiction in books and more recently in films make clear, “one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind” was taken by the human spirit many times and in many ways before Neil Armstrong stamped humankind’s first footprint on the Moon .

Achieving spaceflight enabled humans to begin to explore the solar system and the rest of the universe, to understand the many objects and phenomena that are better observed from a space perspective, and to use for human benefit the resources and attributes of the space environment . All of these activities—discovery, scientific understanding, and the application of that understanding to serve human purposes—are elements of space exploration . (For a general discussion of spacecraft , launch considerations, flight trajectories, and navigation , docking, and recovery procedures, see spaceflight .)

Overview of recent space achievements

Although the possibility of exploring space has long excited people in many walks of life, for most of the latter 20th century and into the early 21st century, only national governments could afford the very high costs of launching people and machines into space. This reality meant that space exploration had to serve very broad interests, and it indeed has done so in a variety of ways. Government space programs have increased knowledge, served as indicators of national prestige and power, enhanced national security and military strength, and provided significant benefits to the general public. In areas where the private sector could profit from activities in space, most notably the use of satellites as telecommunication relays, commercial space activity has flourished without government funding. In the early 21st century, entrepreneurs believed that there were several other areas of commercial potential in space, most notably privately funded space travel.

In the years after World War II , governments assumed a leading role in the support of research that increased fundamental knowledge about nature, a role that earlier had been played by universities, private foundations, and other nongovernmental supporters. This change came for two reasons. First, the need for complex equipment to carry out many scientific experiments and for the large teams of researchers to use that equipment led to costs that only governments could afford. Second, governments were willing to take on this responsibility because of the belief that fundamental research would produce new knowledge essential to the health, the security, and the quality of life of their citizens. Thus, when scientists sought government support for early space experiments, it was forthcoming. Since the start of space efforts in the United States , the Soviet Union , and Europe , national governments have given high priority to the support of science done in and from space. From modest beginnings, space science has expanded under government support to include multibillion-dollar exploratory missions in the solar system. Examples of such efforts include the development of the Curiosity Mars rover, the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moons, and the development of major space-based astronomical observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope .

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1957 used the fact that his country had been first to launch a satellite as evidence of the technological power of the Soviet Union and of the superiority of communism . He repeated these claims after Yuri Gagarin ’s orbital flight in 1961. Although U.S. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower had decided not to compete for prestige with the Soviet Union in a space race, his successor, John F. Kennedy , had a different view. On April 20, 1961, in the aftermath of the Gagarin flight, he asked his advisers to identify a “space program which promises dramatic results in which we could win.” The response came in a May 8, 1961, memorandum recommending that the United States commit to sending people to the Moon , because “dramatic achievements in space…symbolize the technological power and organizing capacity of a nation” and because the ensuing prestige would be “part of the battle along the fluid front of the cold war.” From 1961 until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, competition between the United States and the Soviet Union was a major influence on the pace and content of their space programs. Other countries also viewed having a successful space program as an important indicator of national strength.

Even before the first satellite was launched, U.S. leaders recognized that the ability to observe military activities around the world from space would be an asset to national security. Following on the success of its photoreconnaissance satellites, which began operation in 1960, the United States built increasingly complex observation and electronic-intercept intelligence satellites. The Soviet Union also quickly developed an array of intelligence satellites, and later a few other countries instituted their own satellite observation programs. Intelligence-gathering satellites have been used to verify arms-control agreements, provide warnings of military threats, and identify targets during military operations, among other uses.

In addition to providing security benefits, satellites offered military forces the potential for improved communications, weather observation, navigation, timing, and position location. This led to significant government funding for military space programs in the United States and the Soviet Union. Although the advantages and disadvantages of stationing force-delivery weapons in space have been debated, as of the early 21st century, such weapons had not been deployed , nor had space-based antisatellite systems—that is, systems that can attack or interfere with orbiting satellites. The stationing of weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies is prohibited by international law .

Governments realized early on that the ability to observe Earth from space could provide significant benefits to the general public apart from security and military uses. The first application to be pursued was the development of satellites for assisting in weather forecasting . A second application involved remote observation of land and sea surfaces to gather imagery and other data of value in crop forecasting, resource management, environmental monitoring, and other applications. The U.S., the Soviet Union, Europe, and China also developed their own satellite-based global positioning systems , originally for military purposes, that could pinpoint a user’s exact location, help in navigating from one point to another, and provide very precise time signals. These satellites quickly found numerous civilian uses in such areas as personal navigation, surveying and cartography, geology, air-traffic control , and the operation of information-transfer networks. They illustrate a reality that has remained constant for a half century—as space capabilities are developed, they often can be used for both military and civilian purposes.

Another space application that began under government sponsorship but quickly moved into the private sector is the relay of voice, video, and data via orbiting satellites. Satellite telecommunications has developed into a multibillion-dollar business and is the one clearly successful area of commercial space activity. A related, but economically much smaller, commercial space business is the provision of launches for private and government satellites. In 2004 a privately financed venture sent a piloted spacecraft, SpaceShipOne , to the lower edge of space for three brief suborbital flights. Although it was technically a much less challenging achievement than carrying humans into orbit, its success was seen as an important step toward opening up space to commercial travel and eventually to tourism . More than 15 years after SpaceShipOne reached space, several firms began to carry out such suborbital flights. Companies have arisen that also use satellite imagery to provide data for business about economic trends . Suggestions have been made that in the future other areas of space activity, including using resources found on the Moon and near-Earth asteroids and the capture of solar energy to provide electric power on Earth , could become successful businesses.

Most space activities have been pursued because they serve some utilitarian purpose, whether increasing knowledge, adding to national power, or making a profit . Nevertheless, there remains a powerful underlying sense that it is important for humans to explore space for its own sake, “to see what is there.” Although the only voyages that humans have made away from the near vicinity of Earth—the Apollo flights to the Moon—were motivated by Cold War competition, there have been recurrent calls for humans to return to the Moon, travel to Mars, and visit other locations in the solar system and beyond. Until humans resume such journeys of exploration, robotic spacecraft will continue to serve in their stead to explore the solar system and probe the mysteries of the universe.

Why explore space?

Why should we explore space? Why should money, time and effort be spent researching something with apparently so few benefits? Why should resources be spent on space rather than on conditions and people on Earth?

Perhaps the best answer lies in our history. What made our ancestors move from the trees onto the plains? Did a wider distribution of our species offer a better chance of survival?

Nearly all successful civilisations have been willing to explore. In exploring, the dangers of surrounding areas may be identified and prepared for. Without knowledge, these dangers have the ability to harm us. With knowledge, their effects or consequences may be lessened.

While many resources are spent on what seems a small return, the exploration of space allows new resources to be created. Resources translate into success at survival. Resources may be more than physical assets.

Knowledge or techniques acquired in exploring or preparing to explore always filter from the developers to the general population.

Techniques may be medical applications, such as new drugs or ways of living to increase the quantity or the quality of time lived. Techniques may be social, allowing the people in a society to better understand those within or outside that culture.

ESA’s space programme is a strategic asset. ESA does what individual European nations cannot do on their own.

Scientists from European nations can function at world-class level in their specialist fields, in co-operation rather than competition.

By studying alien worlds, such as Venus, Mars or Saturn’s moon Titan, we can place our own world in context. ESA’s exploration of the Solar System is focused on understanding the Earth’s relationship with the other planets, essential stepping stones for exploring the wider Universe.

While space may hold many wonders and explanations of how the universe was formed or how it works, it also holds dangers. The chance of a large asteroid or comet hitting the Earth is small. But given time, it will happen.

Some explanations for extinctions and evolution include strikes by asteroids or comets. Our technology is reaching the point where we can detect such a threat and might be able to do something about it.

The dangers exist and knowledge can allow us as a species to survive. Without the ability to reach out across space, the chance to save ourselves might not exist.

Earth is the only planet known to sustain life, but our ability to adapt could eventually allow us to inhabit other planets and moons.

Our lifestyles would be different, but human life and cultures have adapted in the past and surely could in the future. Space allows us to expand and succeed.

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The 10 biggest space science stories of 2021

The universe revealed more of its secrets this year, and new missions will further explore our solar system and beyond.

The year 2021 was one of major scientific expansion. Thanks to a variety of exploratory missions and their cutting-edge instruments, astronomers have been able to peer into the cosmos like never before.

Researchers have turned the Earth into a giant telescope to view powerful jets from a black hole. Solar system surveys have revealed new moons and massive comets previously lurking undetected by scientists. The sun has also been a main attraction for research as it reawakens from its recent slumber.

Here's our look back at the 10 biggest space stories of 2021.

1. Discovery of Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein

Two researchers unexpectedly discovered the largest-known comet to date .

Graduate student Pedro Bernardinelli was looking through Dark Energy Survey data to find objects that live beyond Neptune's orbit when he noticed an object significantly farther from the sun than the objects he planned to study. He asked his advisor, cosmologist Gary Bernstein, to have a look. 

They had actually detected a comet that is much larger than any of the ones known so far to science: It may be 10 times wider and 1,000 times more massive than a typical comet.

On top of that, this comet has not swung around the sun since the hominid ancestor Lucy walked on the Earth approximately 3 million years ago. 

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Their finding was officially designated a comet on June 23, 2021 and named Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein after its discoverers.

In a big sweep of scientific luck, astronomers will only have to wait a decade to see this comet approach the sun. Comets come from very far away, originating from one of the outermost regions of the solar system known as the Oort Cloud . Comets journey through our cosmic neighborhood in long elliptical orbits and can take thousands of years to complete one trip around the sun. 

Scientists should be able to get a more accurate reading of Comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein's size and composition when the comet makes its closest to Earth in the year 2031, although it will still be beyond Saturn's average orbit when it swings nearby. 

2. Amateur astronomer discovers a new moon around Jupiter

A previously-unknown moon has been detected around the largest planet in the solar system.

Jupiter is a giant, so it gravitationally attracts many objects into its vicinity. Earth has one major moon, Mars has two: but Jupiter boasts at least 79 moons, and there may be dozens or hundreds more of them that astronomers have yet to identify.

The latest discovery was made by amateur astronomer Kai Ly, who found evidence of this Jovian moon in a data set from 2003 that had been collected by researchers using the 3.6-meter Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) on Mauna Kea. Ly they confirmed the moon was likely bound to Jupiter's gravity using data from another telescope called Subaru. 

The new moon, called EJc0061, belongs to the Carme group of Jovian moons. They orbit in the opposite direction of Jupiter's rotation at an extreme tilt relative to Jupiter's orbital plane.

3. NASA will return to Venus this decade

Mars is a popular target for space agencies, but Earth's other neighbor has been garnering more attention recently. 

In 2020, researchers announced that they had detected traces of phosphine in Venus' atmosphere. It is a possible biosignature gas, and the news certainly reawakened interest in the planet. 

In early June 2021, NASA announced it will launch two missions to Venus by 2030. One mission, called DAVINCI+ (short for Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging, Plus) will descend through the planet's atmosphere to learn about how it has changed over time. The other mission, VERITAS (Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy) will attempt to map the planet's terrain from orbit like never before. 

Venus has been visited by robotic probes, but NASA has not launched a dedicated mission to the planet since 1989. 

The interest in Martian exploration may be one reason why Venus has been neglected in recent decades, but the second planet from the sun is also a challenging place to study. Although it may have once been a balmy world with oceans and rivers, a runaway greenhouse effect took hold of Venus around 700 million years ago and now the planet's surface is hot enough to melt lead.

4. The sun is reawakening

The sun was experiencing a quiet time in its roughly decade-long cycle, but it is now exiting that phase.

The sun has had very little activity in recent years, but the star's surface is now erupting in powerful events that spew out charged particles towards Earth. In early November, for instance, a series of solar outbursts triggered a large geomagnetic storm on our planet. 

This eruption is known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME. It's essentially a billion-ton cloud of solar material with magnetic fields, and when this bubble pops, it blasts a stream of energetic particles out into the solar system. If this material heads in the direction of Earth, it interacts with our planet's own magnetic field and causes disturbances. These can include ethereal displays of auroras near Earth's poles, but can also include satellite disruptions and energy losses.

5. James Webb Space Telescope flies into space

A whole new era of space science began on Christmas Day 2021 with the successful launch of the world's next major telescope. 

NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency are collaborating on the $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), a project more than three decades in the making. Space telescopes take a long time to plan and assemble: The vision for this particular spacecraft began before its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope, had even launched into Earth orbit.

Whereas Hubble orbits a few hundred miles from Earth's surface, JWST is heading to an observational perch located about a million miles from our planet. The telescope began its journey towards this spot, called the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 2 (L2), on Dec. 25, 2021 at 7:20 a.m. EST (1220 GMT) when an Ariane 5 rocket launched the precious payload from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

The telescope will help astronomers answer questions about the evolution of the universe and provide a deeper understanding about the objects found in our very own solar system.

6. Event Horizon Telescope takes high-resolution image of black hole jet

In July 2021, the novel project behind the world's first photo of a black hole published an image of a powerful jet blasting off from one of these supermassive objects. 

The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a global collaboration of eight observatories that work together to create one Earth-sized telescope. The end result is a resolution that is 16 times sharper and an image that is 10 times more accurate than what was possible before. 

Scientists used EHT's incredible abilities to observe a powerful jet being ejected by the supermassive black hole at the center of the Centaurus A galaxy, one of the brightest objects in the night sky. The galaxy's black hole is so large that it has the mass of 55 million suns.

7. Scientists spot the closest-known black hole to Earth

Just 1,500 light-years from Earth lies the closest-known black hole to Earth, now called " The Unicorn ." 

Tiny black holes are hard to spot, but scientists managed to find this one when they noticed strange behavior from its companion star, a red giant. Researchers observed its light shifting in intensity, which suggested to them that another object was tugging on the star.

This black hole is super-lightweight at just three solar masses. Its location in the constellation Monoceros ("the unicorn") and its rarity have inspired this black hole's name.

8. Earth's second 'moon' flies off into space

An object dropped into Earth's orbit like a second moon, and this year, it made its final close approach of our planet. 

It is classified as a "minimoon," or temporary satellite. But it's no stray space rock — the object, known as 2020 SO, is a leftover fragment of a 1960s rocket booster from the American Surveyor moon missions. 

On Feb. 2, 2021, 2020 SO reached 58% of the way between Earth and the moon, roughly 140,000 miles (220,000 kilometers) from our planet. It was the minimoon's final approach, but not its closest trip to Earth. It achieved its shortest distance to our planet a few months prior, on Dec. 1, 2020. 

It has since drifted off into space and away from Earth's orbit, never to return.

9. Parker Solar Probe travels through the sun's atmosphere

This year, NASA's sun-kissing spacecraft swam within a structure that's only visible during total solar eclipses and was able to measure exactly where the star's "point of no return" is located.

The Parker Solar Probe has been zooming through the inner solar system to make close approaches to the sun for the past three years, and it is designed to help scientists learn about what creates the solar wind, a sea of charged particles that flow out of the sun and can affect Earth in many ways.

The spacecraft stepped into the sun's outer atmosphere, known as the corona , during its eight solar flyby. The April 28 maneuver supplied the data that confirmed the exact location of the Alfvén critical surface: the point where the solar wind flows away from the sun, never to return.

The probe managed to get as low as 15 solar radii, or 8.1 million miles (13 million km) from the sun's surface. It was there that it passed through a huge structure called a pseudostreamer, which can be seen from Earth when the moon blocks the light from the sun's disk during a solar eclipse . In a statement about the discovery, NASA officials described that part of the trip as "flying into the eye of a storm." 

10. Perseverance begins studying rocks on Mars

Last but not least, this year marked the arrival of NASA's Perseverance rover on Mars. 

The mission has been working hard to find traces of ancient Martian life since it reached the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021. Engineers have equipped Perseverance with powerful cameras to help the mission team decide what rocks are worth investigating. 

One of Perseverance's most charming findings has been " Harbor Seal Rock ," a curiously-shaped feature that was probably carved out by the Martian wind over many years. Perseverance has also obtained several rock samples this year, which will be collected by the space agency for analysis at some point in the future.

Perseverance is taking its observations from the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater, which was home to a river delta and a deep lake billions of years ago. 

Follow Doris Elin Urrutia on Twitter @salazar_elin. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Doris is a science journalist and Space.com contributor. She received a B.A. in Sociology and Communications at Fordham University in New York City. Her first work was published in collaboration with London Mining Network, where her love of science writing was born. Her passion for astronomy started as a kid when she helped her sister build a model solar system in the Bronx. She got her first shot at astronomy writing as a Space.com editorial intern and continues to write about all things cosmic for the website. Doris has also written about microscopic plant life for Scientific American’s website and about whale calls for their print magazine. She has also written about ancient humans for Inverse, with stories ranging from how to recreate Pompeii’s cuisine to how to map the Polynesian expansion through genomics. She currently shares her home with two rabbits. Follow her on twitter at @salazar_elin.

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• Published: 14 September 2021

Open science in space

Nature Medicine volume  27 ,  page 1485 ( 2021 ) Cite this article

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Scientific and medical research conducted in space can bring benefits for all humankind, but this will require commercial space flight companies to embrace open data principles.

The recent lift off of two billionaires on their respective private spacecraft was not quite the giant leap seen in 1969, but has still been heralded as the start of a new golden era of space flight. Astronomers have observed the stars for millennia, but modern space research is interdisciplinary, and includes life sciences and medicine. For people on Earth to benefit from space science, data from research in space must be open, regardless of the interests of commercial companies .

Space flight is one of humanity’s greatest achievements and has a unique ability to amaze and inspire future generations of mathematicians, scientists, engineers and doctors. Indeed, an increasing number of astronauts are medically or scientifically trained, including virologist Kate Rubin, astrophysicist, engineer and physician David Saint-Jacques, and Serena Auñón-Chancellor, board-certified in internal and aerospace medicine. Medical research in space has two goals: to enable people to travel safely in low Earth orbit, to the Moon, and then to Mars and back; and to improve health on Earth through discoveries made in space.

Several aspects of human biology are uniquely affected by the conditions and exposures of space travel. Microgravity, radiation and isolation each take their toll on the human body and mind. Muscle volume and bone mass both decrease during time in microgravity, with astronauts losing around 1% of their bone density each month. At 0.38 g , the gravity on Mars may be enough to regenerate bone cells lost during the 7-month trip. If not, a ticket to Mars may be one-way, or vertebrae could be crushed during re-entry to Earth. Cosmic rays regularly pass through astronauts, causing blinding flashes when traveling through the eye, and leading to an increased risk of cancer and cataracts. With no electromagnetic field on Mars to divert harmful radiation, people may need to live underground. The eye is also affected by microgravity, leading to far-sightedness in many astronauts.

Space science can also offer insights on aspects of human health on Earth. Everyone who has lived through lockdowns knows the mental-health effects of isolation. Space agencies have such extensive experience in dealing with isolation that they have assisted with crises on Earth, providing support, for example, to the 33 trapped Chilean miners in 2010, as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic . A voyage that goes boldly to Mars may need a ship’s counselor.

Space research could also provide a model for sustainable living on Earth, such as how to deal with water shortages (Scott Kelly drank 730 litres of his own recycled sweat and urine ), use of telemedicine in remote communities, and 3D printing of organs and medical supplies. The geographic information system (GIS) has been used to map the deforestation of the Amazon, track outbreaks of infectious diseases, including COVID-19, and identify remote villages for polio vaccinations. Digital image processing , which was invented to enhance pictures of the Moon, is used on images from CT and MRI scans, and forms an essential part of medical diagnostics. Vibration platforms , originally developed by the USSR for cosmonaut training, are now used to treat muscle atrophy and osteoporosis in older people

Supply trips for the International Space Station (ISS) are provided by commercial companies, as part of a growing number of public private partnerships, and bring new experiments for the astronauts. In August, the crew of the ISS received a 3D printer, cardiac muscle cells, a new CO 2 removal system or ‘scrubber’, and some slime mold.

The cardiac muscle cells will be used to model the skeletal muscle disorder sarcopenia , which can lead to falls and functional decline, particularly in older people. Sarcopenia is also seen in astronauts, and so researchers hope that microgravity will have a similar effect on myocytes in vitro, and allow the development of a myotube model for pre-clinical drug screening. With no currently approved treatments, this would benefit people in space and on Earth.

The CO 2 scrubber traps carbon dioxide from the spacecraft atmosphere in a mineral known as zeolite, with the CO 2 then either vented or converted into water — technology that could be used in closed environments on Earth, as well as for removing greenhouse gases . The slime mold is in orbit for education and inspiration, as part of a French school’s science project.

Any trip into space should not just inspire, but should also tangibly benefit all humanity. The principles of open science should be embraced by commercial space flight companies. Proprietary information is unavoidable, especially with regards to propulsion systems, but scientific research conducted on space stations, whether publically or privately operated , should be published and widely disseminated.

The greatest benefit will come if health data from all space tourists and astronauts are stored, with their consent, in electronic health records in a single database or trusted research environment, so that the space science community can access and analyze the data. As the number of people in space increases, this unique dataset will be an invaluable tool for further understanding and mitigating the effects of space flight on the human body. As with all health data, diversity is also key and is currently lacking, notwithstanding China and India’s space ambitions, the ESA’s parastronaut feasibility project, and NASA’s Artemis mission. This increased diversity is late but welcome.

Scientific and medical research in space has been an exemplar of international cooperation and openness. Companies have an important role for innovation and for reducing costs, but without data sharing, important scientific advances will have a limited effect and a narrow benefit. As the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin, said, Earth is “too small for conflict and just big enough for cooperation”. Cooperation, and not conflict, should also embody space science.

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Since the first astronauts spent time in space, scientists have known that space travel affects the human body in strange ways. Muscle and bone mass decrease; telomeres, the protective end caps on chromosomes, shorten; and the risk of conditions usually associated with old age, such as cancers, cataracts and cardiovascular disease, ticks up.

Why the human body should decline faster in space is still largely a mystery, but one that researchers are tackling with increasing urgency as civilian space travel becomes more feasible.

Their discoveries could not only allow future space travelers to stay healthier and journey farther, but also treat a variety of ailments in Earth-bound humans.

In a recent study that involved sending muscle samples to the International Space Station, some 250 miles above Earth, researchers from Stanford Medicine found that the lack of gravity in space impairs the normal regenerative ability of skeletal muscle.

The samples were grown from muscle cells donated by healthy volunteers on scaffolds of collagen to resemble the bundled structure of muscle fibers. They spent seven days growing in space, then were frozen until their return to Earth.

The researchers found intriguing similarities between muscle that had spent a week in microgravity (gravity aboard the International Space Station is about 0.1% of gravity on Earth) and muscle in older adults with sarcopenia, a muscle-wasting condition that develops over decades.

The impaired regeneration could contribute to why astronauts' muscles weaken even with regular exercise.

"Microgravity is almost like an accelerated disease-forming platform and environment," said Ngan Huang , PhD, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery and senior author of the study published recently in Stem Cell Reports . "It's important to understand how microgravity is affecting different tissues in the body, with skeletal muscle being one of the most essential ones because of how much of it we have in our bodies."

Most of the aging effects astronauts experience in space, such as muscle and bone loss, can reverse once they return home.

Huang's team also tested drugs that partially prevented these impairments in the muscle samples, which could benefit terrestrial seniors and space travelers -- perhaps even senior space travelers -- alike.

Markers of aging

"It's difficult to do clinical research on aging, because you cannot tell the FDA that you've come up with a drug that can prolong life by five to 10 years -- it's very difficult to design that trial for logistical reasons," said Joseph Wu , MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, the Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor and professor of medicine and of radiology.

Instead, researchers focus on specific markers associated with aging, such as cognitive decline, walking distance or sarcopenia, Wu said. Space provides a unique opportunity to study these markers on a shorter timeline.

His lab is separately investigating microgravity's impact on the heart and has sent three batches of samples to the International Space Station: heart muscle cells in 2016, 3D-structured heart tissue in 2020 and heart organoids (simplified mini-organs made up of different cell types) last year.

They've found that microgravity causes weakening of heart tissue, similar to that seen in patients with heart failure. They are analyzing the results from the 2023 launch , in which half the samples were treated with drugs to counter these effects.

Impaired regeneration

Huang's team found significant genetic changes in the skeletal muscle samples that had been to space, with over 100 genes upregulated and nearly 300 downregulated compared with identical samples kept on Earth. The changes indicated a shift toward more lipid and fatty acid metabolism and more inclination toward cell death. Certain muscle cells, known as myotubes, became shorter and thinner in microgravity.

These changes pointed to impaired regeneration and showed some similarities to sarcopenia, the muscle-wasting condition that affects 10% of people over the age of 60.

"It's believed that with every decade of life, you start losing some percentage of your muscle mass and gaining body fat," Huang said. "It becomes much more apparent in the later stages of life, over the age of 60."

Even Huang was surprised by how quickly these changes happened in space. "It's notable that in just seven days in microgravity, you see these profound effects," she said.

Some of the samples, infused with drugs known to promote regeneration (insulin-like growth factor-1 or 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibitor), were less impaired.

Ultimately, Huang, who is also a principal investigator at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, hopes to find ways to enhance muscle regeneration to heal traumatic muscle injuries, like those many veterans suffer in combat.

"When we have small muscle tears, which happen with exercise, or some type of mild injury, muscle is normally quite regenerative," she said. "The muscle itself harbors stem cells that turn into what we call muscle progenitor cells. And those cells give rise to new muscle."

But if a large chunk of muscle is destroyed in a traumatic injury, that muscle doesn't grow back.

The new study proves that space can be a valuable platform for testing therapies that boost muscle regeneration, Huang said.

Other space dangers

While it's not yet clear exactly how microgravity leads to these profound changes, what's certain is that all life on Earth evolved in the presence of gravity.

"It's one of the foundational stimuli that every life form is subjected to," Huang said. "It's not until we suddenly take it away that we realize it's so important."

Though Wu is confident that microgravity is the major factor in these studies, he said we can't ignore other challenges of space travel.

The stress of being launched into space then returning to Earth might affect the tissue samples, for example. And in space, cosmic radiation ­-- high-energy, charged particles produced by stars, including our sun -- can penetrate space capsules and cause damage. 

To isolate the effects of microgravity, Huang plans to try the same experiments in a device that simulates microgravity -- a random positioning machine that spins samples on two axes simultaneously, generating a sense of weightlessness.

(In fact, gravity at the relatively low altitude of the International Space Station is only slightly lower than on Earth's surface. The microgravity aboard the station is largely due to the velocity of its orbit around Earth, creating a constant sense of freefall.)

For humans to eventually embark on years-long journeys to distant planets, scientists are looking into hibernation, inspired by the ability of squirrels and bears to sleep through long winters without eating. Hibernating space travelers might be able to stall aging during a long trek.

"If you can address microgravity, cosmic radiation and hibernation, then you can imagine a future in which an astronaut or civilian can hop from one planet to another planet to another planet," Wu said.

Along the way, researchers could find ways to slow aging, treat radiation-induced toxicity in cancer patients or even allow terminally ill patients to hibernate until treatments are found.

"It sounds like science fiction," Wu said. "But 100 to 200 years from now, this could all be possible."

For more information

This story was originally published by Stanford Medicine SCOPE . 

The Nine Planets

What are the benefits of Space Research?

• What are the benefits of space research?
• Why do governments spend billions of taxpayers money on exploring the solar system and beyond?
• Aren’t there better things to spend money on?
• Shouldn’t our top scientists and engineers be doing better things?

Many people would say so. Certainly, there is a lot of hunger in the world. The money that has been spent on the Hubble Space Telescope, for instance, would certainly have made a big difference if it were spent instead on relieving poverty in a third world country.

Nevertheless, apart from extending our knowledge of what is out there-there are a number of significant benefits of space research. Here are a few (not necessarily in order of importance).

• Medical Research – many of the experiments that were done in the shuttle and other space stations have led to the development of new drugs and surgical techniques.
• Materials Technology – some of the new materials that have been developed have proved enormously useful in other fields, e.g. the super heat resistant tiles used on the space shuttle.
• Electronics – Because of the limited space inside a spacecraft, there has always been the desire to make electronic components smaller and smaller. This has led to the development of semiconductors and integrated circuits.
• Telecommunications – Satellite television, GPS and other communications across the globe would not have been possible were it not for space research.
• Environmental studies – From space, we can observe the Earth. We can study the surface of the Earth and its atmosphere. This can help us to understand and protect the Earth and its ecosystems.

Although the benefits above it is important that scientific research should not always be with profit in mind. Some research should be just for the sake of extending our knowledge if commercial benefits result from this then so be it. Astronomy is the oldest science. Since mankind could think it gazed up at the stars and wondered what is out there. It may be, in the distant future, that space travel will ultimately save mankind. We will journey out to find new worlds to colonise.

We will go boldly where no man has gone before.

Space Biology Program

The main objective of Space Biology research is to build a better understanding of how spaceflight affects living systems in spacecraft such as the International Space Station (ISS), or in ground-based experiments that mimic aspects of spaceflight, and to prepare for future human exploration missions far from Earth. The experiments we conduct on these platforms examine how plants, microbes, and animals adjust or adapt to living in space. We examine processes of metabolism, growth, stress response , physiology, and development. We study how organisms repair cellular damage and protect themselves from infection and disease in conditions of microgravity while being exposed to space radiation. And we do it across the spectrum of biological organization, from molecules to cells, from tissues and organs, and from systems to whole organisms to communities of microorganisms.

Our program’s core objectives include:

• Discovering how biological systems respond, acclimate and adapt to the space environment
• Developing integrated physiological models for biology in space
• Identifying the underlying mechanisms and networks that govern biological processes in the space environment
• Promoting open science through the GeneLab Data System  and  Life Sciences Data Archive
• Developing cutting-edge biological technologies to facilitate spaceflight research
• Developing mechanistic understanding to support human health in space
• Enabling the transfer of knowledge and technology to the understanding of life on Earth

Space Biology Science Plan (PDF)

Search the Space Station Research Explorer for Space Biology experiments

In addition to providing useful information on how living organisms adapt to spaceflight, the discoveries NASA researchers make in space have enormous implications for life on Earth. Space Biology's research into the virulence of pathogens in space, loss of bone density, and the changes in the growth of plants can impact the development of drugs that promote wound healing or tissue regeneration, treatments designed to counter osteoporosis on Earth, and high-tech fertilizers that increase crop yield.

Sign up to receive the Space Biology newsletter Access back issues of the Space Biology newsletter

Animal Biology

Life in space produces profound changes in biology. All organisms on Earth have adapted to perform under conditions of gravity, atmosphere, and cycles of light and darkness that have not changed in millions of years, conditions which are altered aboard spacecraft like the ISS. For example, while circling Earth at speeds of 17,130 miles an hour, crewmembers of the ISS experience sunrise and sunset 16 times a day! Simply put, terrestrial organisms are not designed for life in space.

The goal of the Space Biology Program in the animal biology area is to understand the basic mechanisms that animals use to adapt and/or acclimate to spaceflight and alterations in gravity in general. Animals are frequently used to model human disease as well as how humans respond to stressful stimuli. The most commonly used model organisms for which genomics are now well defined include vertebrate species, e.g., rodents, both rats and mice, and a variety of invertebrate species, e.g., nematodes and insects. NASA has used these model organisms extensively to evaluate biological spaceflight hazards, elucidate the fundamental mechanisms life uses to adapt to microgravity, and apply such knowledge to advance human exploration, and for societal benefits on Earth.

Read about a Behavior Analysis Study that shows mice adapt to spaceflight.

As we examine the impacts of spaceflight on animal biology and physiology, we ask the following questions:

• Do the effects of spaceflight level off over time, get worse, or get better?
• Are the effects of spaceflight exposure permanent or do they decrease and/or vanish with time upon return?
• Can we prevent adverse effects before they appear, or at least lessen their impact?
• What conditions are required for animals to live in space for years, come back to Earth, and remain healthy?

Cell and Molecular Biology

Cell and molecular biology research cuts across all science disciplines in Space Biology, from understanding how single-celled organisms, such as protozoa, bacteria, and fungi respond to the conditions of spaceflight, to how all of the various cells in a complex tissue or organ work together to help an organism as a whole acclimate to such a foreign environment. The overarching goal of Space Biology Cell and Molecular Biology research at NASA is to determine how the stresses of the spaceflight environment affect living systems at the basic cellular and molecular levels, using contemporary cell and molecular biology techniques and measures. This includes characterizing and identifying changes in gene and protein expression, DNA function and structure, cellular structure and morphology, and cell-to-cell communication.

As we examine the impacts of spaceflight on the cell biology and physiology, we ask the following:

• What are the underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms of the cells that are influenced by gravitational changes and the space environment?
• Does the space flight environment affect or influence cell and molecular functions causing tissue/organ dysfunction or disease states?
• Does the space environment affect cellular and molecular functions in a manner that impact tissue morphogenesis or development?

Microbiology

No Matter Where We Go, We Take Our Microbes

Everywhere we go, we take microorganisms with us, whether we want to or not. This is true even aboard the “clean” environment of the ISS, which is a closed environment. With a crew of astronauts on board, living, breathing, exercising, and sweating, the ISS is a breeding ground for microbes.

Microbes Can Be Both Friends and Foes

The effects of spaceflight on the biology of microorganisms and on microbial populations are largely unknown. In addition to posing a risk to astronaut health, bio-corrosive microorganisms that grow on metallic surfaces in spacecraft can damage both equipment and hardware. Unlike cruise ships on Earth which can be evacuated, emptied, and cleaned, problems that arise due to microbial contamination on long-duration spaceflight missions can only be resolved using tools and resources already present within the vessel. Understanding how microbial species grow and interact with each other in this environment is the first step in preparing for such a scenario.

While the presence of certain microbes can be problematic, it is also important to remember that many microbial species play important roles in Earth’s various ecosystems. For example, the symbiotic relationships that have evolved between plants and certain bacteria are vital in ensuring plants receive the nutrients they require to grow and flourish. Oxygen-producing cyanobacteria that live in terrestrial bodies of water help replenish Earth’s oxygen. Even the bacteria living within our digestive tracts play an important role in the digestion of our food and the proper absorption of nutrients. The presence of certain microbes may be important for the proper growth of some plants in space and may even be critical for the production of future bio-regenerative life support systems. It is therefore important to keep in mind that reaching an appropriate microbial equilibrium within a spacecraft may be vital for successful long-duration spaceflight missions.

As we examine the impacts of spaceflight on microorganisms, we ask the following:

• What underlying genetic, molecular and biochemical processes are influenced by the spaceflight environment?
• How does the spaceflight environment influence microbial reproduction, growth, and physiology?
• Does long-duration spaceflight alter normal rates of evolutionary change?
• What are the effects of spaceflight on microbial communities as they interact with other organisms to effect processes such as symbioses, biodegradation, nitrogen-fixation, etc.
• What are the mechanisms that effect changes, such as the altered virulence or altered drug resistance, observed in some organisms during spaceflight?

Plant Biology

Space Biology research helps us understand the fundamentals of plant growth by examining the very building blocks of plant life down to the molecular level: transcriptomics, genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. To compare the effects of microgravity conditions on plants, we also conduct experiments on Earth using gravity or simulated microgravity ground controls at the Kennedy Space Center. We conduct our research on the ISS in conditions of microgravity to help us understand how to support astronauts aboard the ISS and on their long journey to Mars.

Crop Rotation: Food Production in Space One of Space Biology’s major objectives is to understand how the spaceflight environment affects how plants grow and thrive. The basic research has allowed NASA scientists to grow edible plants in space that could be used as a source of fresh food by the crew on the ISS. Considering that every single thing that astronauts eat is freeze-dried and comes out of a shrink-wrapped package, being able to enjoy a fresh vegetable provides a healthy and much welcomed break from this routine. Already, edible romaine lettuce and cabbage has successfully been grown on the ISS. Soon, Mizuna and tomatoes will join the list of edible plants gown in space.

In the next year Space Biology will fly experiments to the ISS designed to test the growth of a variety of new plants its crew can eventually eat as they fly to the moon and Mars. To ensure the health of our astronauts, we’ll be examining the nutritional composition of plants grown in space and looking at the microbiome of plants in orbit. This work may eventually lead to the production of a sustainable source of healthy food on long-duration space flights, which will help astronauts get the nutrition they need.

As we examine the impacts of spaceflight on plant biology, we ask the following:

• How does gravity affect plant growth, development & metabolism (e.g. photosynthesis, re- production, lignin formation, plant defense mechanisms)?
• Does the spaceflight environment cause alterations in plant/microbe interactions?
• How can horticultural approaches for sustained production of edible crops in space be both improved and implemented (especially as related to water and nutrient provision in the root zone)?
• What are the effects of chronic exposure to cosmic radiation on plants?

How do plants sense and react to gravity and what are the molecular mechanisms involved?

Developmental, Reproductive and Evolutionary Biology

What happens to reproduction and the development of offspring across a lifespan and over multiple generations in space? What about differences in how males and females respond to the space environment? As we set our sights toward the exploration and colonization of Mars, these are the big questions that the Reproduction, Development, and Sex Differences Laboratory of the NASA Space Biosciences Research Branch strives to answer. Since no mammal has yet given birth in space, the answers we seek may not be seen for years.

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

• Student Opportunities

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Articles On: 2025, Albany, Europe, Labor Government Action, Geopolitical Disruptions, Global Supply Chains, China Power Balance, Peak China, South Korea, EU, Thailand, Southeast Asia, Indo-Pacific, and Space

This section collects opinion pieces from across the world commenting on the harms caused by the activities of the Chinese Communist Party and provides insight into the various solutions that experts and leaders suggest we pursue to protect our interests.

Rising dissent in China puts Xi Jinping's vision for 2025 at risk by William Pesek via Nikkei Asia on September 4, 2024

The Chinese Agent Inside Albany via Wall Street Journal on September 4, 2024

Watching China in Europe—September 2024 by Noah Barkin via GMF on September 4, 2024

China: The top 10 priorities for early Labour government action by Charles Parton via Council on Geostrategy on September 3, 2024

Four Geopolitical Disruptions and How to Exploit Them by Nadia Schadlow via Hudson on August 26, 2024

Global supply chains can’t skirt China rare earths crackdown via Financial Times on September 2, 2024

General's smile hints at changes in China power balance by Katsuji Nakazawa via Nikkei Asia on September 5, 2024

Organizing American Policy Around “Peak China” is a Bad Bet by Ryan Hass via China Leadership Monitor on September 1, 2024

If South Korea Goes Nuclear, So Will the World by Hal Brands via Bloomberg on August 28, 2024

The EU has a playbook to de-risk from China. Is it working? by Daniel S. Hamilton via Brookings Institution on September 3, 2024

Overcoming China’s dominance in gallium will not be easy via Financial Times on August 31, 2024

The Gulf of Thailand may be the next U.S.-China flashpoint by Derek Grossman via Nikkei Asia on September 2, 2024

America Is Losing Southeast Asia by Lynn Kuok via Foreign Affairs on September 3, 2024

Biden’s Record on China Leaves Big Problems for His Successor by Hal Brands via Bloomberg on September 2, 2024

What is an Italian Carrier Strike Group Doing in the Indo-pacific? by Alessio Patalano via War on the Rocks on August 29, 2024

The U.S. Navy’s Chief Supplier Is in Peril by Seth Cropsey via Wall Street Journal on September 3, 2024

White House thinks it's time to fix the insecure glue of the internet: Yup, BGP by Thomas Clauburn via Register on September 3, 2024

The Fight for Informational Freedom Is Moving to Space by Ilan Berman via Newsweek on September 4, 2024

View the discussion thread.

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Stanford University School of Medicine blog

How space became a place for the study of aging

Since the first astronauts spent time in space, scientists have known that space travel affects the human body in strange ways. Muscle and bone mass decrease; telomeres, the protective end caps on chromosomes, shorten; and the risk of conditions usually associated with old age, such as cancers, cataracts and cardiovascular disease, ticks up.

Why the human body should decline faster in space is still largely a mystery, but one that researchers are tackling with increasing urgency as civilian space travel becomes more feasible.

Their discoveries could not only allow future space travelers to stay healthier and journey farther, but also treat a variety of ailments in Earth-bound humans.

In a recent study that involved sending muscle samples to the International Space Station, some 250 miles above Earth, researchers from Stanford Medicine found that the lack of gravity in space impairs the normal regenerative ability of skeletal muscle.

The samples were grown from muscle cells donated by healthy volunteers on scaffolds of collagen to resemble the bundled structure of muscle fibers. They spent seven days growing in space, then were frozen until their return to Earth.

The researchers found intriguing similarities between muscle that had spent a week in microgravity (gravity aboard the International Space Station is about 0.1% of gravity on Earth) and muscle in older adults with sarcopenia, a muscle-wasting condition that develops over decades.

The impaired regeneration could contribute to why astronauts' muscles weaken even with regular exercise.

"Microgravity is almost like an accelerated disease-forming platform and environment," said Ngan Huang , PhD, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery and senior author of the study published recently in Stem Cell Reports . "It's important to understand how microgravity is affecting different tissues in the body, with skeletal muscle being one of the most essential ones because of how much of it we have in our bodies."

Most of the aging effects astronauts experience in space, such as muscle and bone loss, can reverse once they return home.

Huang's team also tested drugs that partially prevented these impairments in the muscle samples, which could benefit terrestrial seniors and space travelers -- perhaps even senior space travelers -- alike.

Markers of aging

"It's difficult to do clinical research on aging, because you cannot tell the FDA that you've come up with a drug that can prolong life by five to 10 years -- it's very difficult to design that trial for logistical reasons," said Joseph Wu , MD, PhD, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, the Simon H. Stertzer, MD, Professor and professor of medicine and of radiology.

Instead, researchers focus on specific markers associated with aging, such as cognitive decline, walking distance or sarcopenia, Wu said. Space provides a unique opportunity to study these markers on a shorter timeline.

His lab is separately investigating microgravity's impact on the heart and has sent three batches of samples to the International Space Station: heart muscle cells in 2016, 3D-structured heart tissue in 2020 and heart organoids (simplified mini-organs made up of different cell types) last year.

They've found that microgravity causes weakening of heart tissue, similar to that seen in patients with heart failure. They are analyzing the results from the 2023 launch , in which half the samples were treated with drugs to counter these effects.

Impaired regeneration

Huang's team found significant genetic changes in the skeletal muscle samples that had been to space, with over 100 genes upregulated and nearly 300 downregulated compared with identical samples kept on Earth. The changes indicated a shift toward more lipid and fatty acid metabolism and more inclination toward cell death. Certain muscle cells, known as myotubes, became shorter and thinner in microgravity.

These changes pointed to impaired regeneration and showed some similarities to sarcopenia, the muscle-wasting condition that affects 10% of people over the age of 60.

"It's believed that with every decade of life, you start losing some percentage of your muscle mass and gaining body fat," Huang said. "It becomes much more apparent in the later stages of life, over the age of 60."

Even Huang was surprised by how quickly these changes happened in space. "It's notable that in just seven days in microgravity, you see these profound effects," she said.

Some of the samples, infused with drugs known to promote regeneration (insulin-like growth factor-1 or 15-hydroxyprostaglandin dehydrogenase inhibitor), were less impaired.

Ultimately, Huang, who is also a principal investigator at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, hopes to find ways to enhance muscle regeneration to heal traumatic muscle injuries, like those many veterans suffer in combat.

"When we have small muscle tears, which happen with exercise, or some type of mild injury, muscle is normally quite regenerative," she said. "The muscle itself harbors stem cells that turn into what we call muscle progenitor cells. And those cells give rise to new muscle."

But if a large chunk of muscle is destroyed in a traumatic injury, that muscle doesn't grow back.

The new study proves that space can be a valuable platform for testing therapies that boost muscle regeneration, Huang said.

Other space dangers

While it's not yet clear exactly how microgravity leads to these profound changes, what's certain is that all life on Earth evolved in the presence of gravity.

"It's one of the foundational stimuli that every life form is subjected to," Huang said. "It's not until we suddenly take it away that we realize it's so important."

Though Wu is confident that microgravity is the major factor in these studies, he said we can't ignore other challenges of space travel.

The stress of being launched into space then returning to Earth might affect the tissue samples, for example. And in space, cosmic radiation ­ -- high-energy, charged particles produced by stars, including our sun -- can penetrate space capsules and cause damage. 

More on aging

• Massive biomolecular shifts occur in our 40s and 60s
• Stanford Medicine-led study finds way to predict which of our organs will fail first
• Stanford Medicine-led research identifies gene 'fingerprint' for brain aging

To isolate the effects of microgravity, Huang plans to try the same experiments in a device that simulates microgravity -- a random positioning machine that spins samples on two axes simultaneously, generating a sense of weightlessness.

(In fact, gravity at the relatively low altitude of the International Space Station is only slightly lower than on Earth's surface. The microgravity aboard the station is largely due to the velocity of its orbit around Earth, creating a constant sense of freefall.)

For humans to eventually embark on years-long journeys to distant planets, scientists are looking into hibernation, inspired by the ability of squirrels and bears to sleep through long winters without eating. Hibernating space travelers might be able to stall aging during a long trek.

If you can address microgravity, cosmic radiation and hibernation, then you can imagine a future in which an astronaut or civilian can hop from one planet to another planet to another planet. Joseph Wu

"If you can address microgravity, cosmic radiation and hibernation, then you can imagine a future in which an astronaut or civilian can hop from one planet to another planet to another planet," Wu said.

Along the way, researchers could find ways to slow aging, treat radiation-induced toxicity in cancer patients or even allow terminally ill patients to hibernate until treatments are found.

"It sounds like science fiction," Wu said. "But 100 to 200 years from now, this could all be possible."

Image: Adobe Shuttersock/ Maximusdn

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The research space: using career paths to predict the evolution of the research output of individuals, institutions, and nations

• Published: 17 September 2016
• Volume 109 , pages 1695–1709, ( 2016 )

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• Miguel R. Guevara   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-2319-5184 1 , 2 , 4 ,
• Dominik Hartmann 1 , 3 ,
• Manuel Aristarán 1 ,
• Marcelo Mendoza 4 &
• César A. Hidalgo 1  

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In recent years scholars have built maps of science by connecting the academic fields that cite each other, are cited together, or that cite a similar literature. But since scholars cannot always publish in the fields they cite, or that cite them, these science maps are only rough proxies for the potential of a scholar, organization, or country, to enter a new academic field. Here we use a large dataset of scholarly publications disambiguated at the individual level to create a map of science—or research space —where links connect pairs of fields based on the probability that an individual has published in both of them. We find that the research space is a significantly more accurate predictor of the fields that individuals and organizations will enter in the future than citation based science maps. At the country level, however, the research space and citations based science maps are equally accurate. These findings show that data on career trajectories—the set of fields that individuals have previously published in—provide more accurate predictors of future research output for more focalized units—such as individuals or organizations—than citation based science maps.

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Acknowledgments

M.G and C.H were supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT Media Lab Consortia and MIT Chile Seed Fund. M.G was supported by the Universidad de Playa Ancha, Chile (ING01-1516) and the Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Chile (PIIC). D.H was supported by the Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the EU 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technical Development: Connecting_EU!—PIOF-GA-2012-328828. M.M was supported by Basal Project FB-0821. C.H was supported by the Metaknowledge Network at the University of Chicago.

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Macro Connections, The MIT Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

Miguel R. Guevara, Dominik Hartmann, Manuel Aristarán & César A. Hidalgo

Department of Computer Science, Universidad de Playa Ancha, Valparaiso, Chile

Miguel R. Guevara

Chair for Economics of Innovation, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany

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Department of Informatics, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Santiago, Chile

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Guevara, M.R., Hartmann, D., Aristarán, M. et al. The research space: using career paths to predict the evolution of the research output of individuals, institutions, and nations. Scientometrics 109 , 1695–1709 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2125-9

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Received : 07 April 2016

Published : 17 September 2016

Issue Date : December 2016

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2125-9

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Christine e. giraldo, iss research & technology, freezing ice in space, planetary formation, orbital motion, astrophotography.

Science ideas are everywhere. Some of the greatest discoveries have come from tinkering and toying with new concepts and ideas. NASA astronaut Don Pettit is no stranger to inventing and discovering. During his previous missions, Pettit has contributed to advancements for human space exploration aboard the International Space Station resulting in several published scientific papers and breakthroughs.

Pettit, accompanied by cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin and Ivan Vagner, will launch to the orbiting laboratory in September 2024. In preparation for his fourth spaceflight , read about previous “science of opportunity” experiments Pettit performed during his free time with materials readily available to the crew or included in his personal kit.

Have you ever noticed a white bubble inside the ice in your ice tray at home? This is trapped air that accumulates in one area due to gravity. Pettit took this knowledge, access to a -90° Celsius freezer aboard the space station, and an open weekend to figure out how water freezes in microgravity compared to on Earth. This photo uses polarized light to show thin frozen water and the visible differences from the ice we typically freeze here on Earth, providing more insight into physics concepts in microgravity.

Microgravity affects even the most mundane tasks, like sipping your morning tea. Typically, crews drink beverages from a specially sealed bag with a straw. Using an overhead transparency film, Pettit invented the prototype of the Capillary Beverage , or Space Cup. The cup uses surface tension, wetting, and container shape to mimic the role of gravity in drinking on Earth , making drinking beverages in space easier to consume and showing how discoveries aboard station can be used to design new systems.

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Using materials that break into very small particles, such as table salt, sugar, and coffee, Pettit experimented to understand planetary formation. A crucial early step in planet formation is the aggregation or clumping of tiny particles, but scientists do not fully understand this process. Pettit placed different particulate mixtures in plastic bags, filled them with air, thoroughly shook the bags, and observed that the particles clumped within seconds due to what appears to be an electrostatic process. Studying the behavior of tiny particles in microgravity may provide valuable insight into how material composition, density, and turbulence play a role in planetary formation.

Knitting needles made of different materials arrived aboard station as personal crew items. Pettit electrically charged the needles by rubbing each one with paper. Then, he released charged water from a Teflon syringe and observed the water droplets orbit the knitting needle, demonstrating electrostatic orbits in microgravity . The study was later repeated in a simulation that included atmospheric drag, and the 3D motion accurately matched the orbits seen in the space station demonstration. These observations could be analogous to the behavior of charged particles in Earth’s magnetic field and prove useful in designing future spacecraft systems.

An innovative photographer, Pettit has used time exposure, multiple cameras, infrared, and other techniques to contribute breathtaking images of Earth and star trails from the space station’s unique viewpoint. These photos contribute to a database researchers use to understand Earth’s changing landscapes, and this imagery can inspire the public’s interest in human spaceflight.

Christine Giraldo International Space Station Research Communications Team NASA’s Johnson Space Center

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