Space tourism is leading to new space research | TechCrunch Minute

Thanks to space tourism we're about to Get a lot more data about what happens To the human body in space last week the Science journal Nature published a Package of 44 papers about Aerospace Medicine and space biology beyond the Specific findings of each paper what was Really noteworthy was the fact that they Included data from the all civilian crew Of the inspiration 4 in September 2021 My colleague Arya wrote a piece arguing That this release is a sign that were at The beginning of a Renaissance for human Space flight research including research About what happens to our bodies in Space now I'll admit that when I saw This headline I immediately flashback to Old science fiction movies where human Beings get thrown into the vacuum of Space and their eyes bulge out and their Bodies explode it's been 30 years but I'm still kind of traumatized but what Happened to Arnold Schwarzenegger in Total Recall anyway I mention all that Just to say that that's not what's being Studied here if only because I'm not Aware of any scientists who are just Hurling human bodies into vacuum to see What happens instead this is more about The day-to-day reality of what things Like increased radiation and zero Gravity might do to us it's not that we Don't have any data about this already Obviously astronauts have been going to

Space for decades and some of them are Staying at the inter ational space Station for months or years which is a Lot longer than the 3-day inspiration For Mission but it's worth studying the Impact of a much briefer stay in space And to get data from people who aren't Professional astronauts after all those Astronauts tend to be drawn from a Pretty narrow band of humanity usually White and male and usually scoring the Top percentile physically and Cognitively if someone like me who's not Quite in that top percentile goes to Space things would probably go a little Differently in fact the biggest Breakthrough here might just be the fact That four private individuals were able To collect all this data about Themselves while while in Flight D Donaville who's one of the research Paper co-authors and also the executive Director of a NASA Institute focused on Human safety and space told us that no One was really sure if private Individuals would be able to Successfully collect all this data so if You're lucky Andor Rich enough to become A space tourist in the next decade or so You might be asked to perform similar Research in fact Dr donaville published An article in science arguing that you Have an obligation to do so she wrote Quote the taxpayers paid for all those

Space capabilities that have now enabled You to go to space so you owe the Taxpayers the research oh and if you are Thinking about that trip to space I Should mention that this latest batch of Data suggests that these short-term Trips do not pose a significant health Risk so that's good hi will be hosting Tomorrow