ESA Astronaut 'Skinsuit' Could Soothe Zero-G Backaches in Space

This high-tech "skinsuit" for astronauts is a tailor-made overall with a bi-directional weave specially designed to counteract the lack of gravity to help avoid backaches. 

It squeezes the body from the shoulders to the feet with a similar force to that felt on Earth. 

Credit: NASA–Waldie

A new tight-fitting "skinsuit" could help astronauts combat the back problems that are a common consequence of long-term spaceflight, researchers say.

Astronauts have grown as much as 2.75 inches (7 centimeters) during space missions as their spines stretch out in microgravity conditions— a dramatic change that can cause significant pain, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.

Andreas Mogensen

The problems often continue back on Earth, as astronauts have a high chance of suffering a slipped disk while working themselves back into shape for terrestrial life.

ESA hopes the new skinsuit will make off-planet living much more comfortable by counteracting the lack of gravity.

The garment features a bi-directional weave that squeezes the body from the shoulders to the feet, mimicking the gravitational force felt on Earth.

This high-tech "skinsuit" for astronauts is a tailor-made overall with a bi-directional weave specially designed to counteract the lack of gravity. 

Here, the force the suit is producing is being measured at the feet with a computer using force transducers in the soles of the footwear. 

Credit: NASA–Waldie

"Getting the suit to fit correctly was challenging," Simon Evetts, medical projects and technology unit team lead at ESA's European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany, said in a statement.

Simon Evetts

"We needed to create a suit that is both tight-fitting but comfortable to wear, while creating the right amount of force in the right places."

ESA's Space Medicine Office is working with researchers from Kings College and University College in London and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to test out skinsuit prototypes, which are currently made of spandex.

The suit will get a flight test in 2015, when ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen wears it aboard the International Space Station, officials said.

Credit: Kings College London, Centre for Human Aerospace Physiological Sciences (CHAPS)

NASA's Zero-G carry Princeton University teachers: PPPL lets teachers hitch a ride

As part of a Princeton-sponsored team, Miller and Williams were flying at that moment on a NASA aircraft modified to simulate a reduced-gravity environment.

They were there to study how microgravity affected the movement of the pendulum, crafted from a softball, and the dynamics of the bubbles, all of which were contained in a clear plastic box.



PPPL team members Susan Franko of Gregory Elementary School in Trenton (left) and Patty Hillyer (center, in red T-shirt) of Matawan-Aberdeen Middle School in Cliffwood observe their experimental box on the zero-gravity flight.

The teachers had journeyed to NASA Johnson Space Center's Ellington Field in Houston to conduct experiments along with some 80 participants in NASA's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program July 22-29.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) sponsored six of the dozen teams, including one dubbed the "Space Cowboys" with Miller, Williams and four others. In total, PPPL sponsored about 40 participants, including teachers from various New Jersey school districts and researchers from the lab.

"Many of the teachers, for the first time, designed, built and performed an actual scientific experiment," said PPPL Science Education Program Head Andrew Zwicker, who rode the Zero-G aircraft twice with this year's K-12 educators. "They plan to use the experience, and the curricula they designed based upon their experiments, in their classrooms."

Princeton University - PPPL lets teachers hitch a ride on NASA's Zero-G

ESA Human Spaceflight and Exploration - New Zero Gravity training

A new way to fly experiments takes off tomorrow with the first campaign dedicated to research in ‘partial’ gravity. Scientists on Europe’s ‘Zero-G’ Airbus will experiment with gravity conditions like those on the Moon and Mars.

The Joint European Partial-g Parabolic Flight campaign is an unprecedented research mission organised jointly by ESA and the French and German space agencies, CNES and DLR.

The pilots will follow special parabolic paths to create Moon and Mars gravity conditions for at least 25 seconds each time. The final parabola will provide full weightlessness for the experiments.

Each flight can provide a total of up to 12 minutes of partial gravity inside the aircraft. The Airbus A300, owned by Novespace, will perform consecutive flights on the three days starting tomorrow from Mérignac-Bordeaux airport, France.

Thirteen European experiments selected by the three agencies will test the effects of partial gravity.

The scientists’ response to this new partial gravity opportunity has been enormous. “This is a unique campaign in the world, and we have received outstanding scientific proposals from all over Europe,” say the agencies’ project managers.

The science behind the flights
The experiments cover a wide range of research, such as biology, human physiology and physics, as well as technology demonstrations.

The goal is improve our knowledge about how systems react to different accelerations and where the level of sensitivity is.

“Lunar and martian reduced-gravity environments will provide scientists with additional data at different gravity levels,” explain the campaign’s managers.

The physical behaviour of bubbles, dust and granular packing will be closely monitored. Engineers will test technologies for the ExoMars robotic mission in martian gravity.

Plants and rats are also among the passengers, together with a video game console to be tested as a training device for balance control under reduced-gravity conditions.

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ESA: CNES Airbus Zero-G Parabolic Flights