Copernical Team
Feeling confinement in the gut: Microbiome alterations common in astronauts
Crew members who took part in the Mars500 experiment showed significant changes in their gut microbiota from their 520 days in confinement, according to a new study by scientists at Université de Montreal and McGill University.
The study, published today in the Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal and funded by the Canadian Space Agency, analyzed data from fecal samples of six crew members from Russia, Europe and China.
The crew lived in a completely sealed habitat in Moscow from June 2010 to November 2011 to simulate a manned mission to Mars, which international space agencies hope to make in the 2030s. Their confinement was the longest ever conducted with humans under controlled conditions.
The goal: to test the impact of living cut off from the world on the physiological and psychological health. In the end, all six crew members emerged with major alterations in their body mass, muscle strength and other indicators, previous studies have shown.
The discovery of microbiome alterations represents a missing link between these symptoms and deepens scientists' understanding of how well astronauts will be able to work in and recover from long-duration spaceflight, as well as how humans generally interact with their habitats.
Week in images: 19 - 23 April 2021
Week in images: 19 - 23 April 2021
Discover our week through the lens
ESA-backed autonomous driving lab set for Italy
Central Italy – already home to an ambitious national autonomous driving research initiative – will be the site of the ESA-backed P-CARS laboratory, intended to certify positioning devices for use within driverless cars.
Radar satellites can better protect against bushfires and floods
New research led by Curtin University has revealed how radar satellites can improve the ability to detect, monitor, prepare for and withstand natural disasters in Australia including bushfires, floods and earthquakes.
The research used Synthetic Aperture Radar data obtained by the European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellite, amongst others, to evaluate Australia-specific case studies. DLR develops an unmanned stratospheric aircraft
Earth observation and global communications - these two terms immediately bring satellites to mind. Constructing these satellites and placing them in orbit is costly and, at the end of their missions, their remains are sometimes left behind to become space debris. Aircraft or helicopters, however, are also not ideal for these tasks.
Their deployment is limited by factors of time and locat Astronaut Kate Rubins: Fresh food in space is rare, desired
Astronaut Kate Rubins, who returned from a mission almost a week ago, has urged more research into growing produce while in orbit.
"We don't get a lot of fresh food in space and so, you know, it's pretty funny to get very excited about a spinach salad, but I think that's the best thing in the world," Rubins said during a phone press conference with reporters Wednesday from Johnson Space Rocket to lift space station core moves to launch tower
The Long March 5B carrier rocket which will launch the core capsule of China's space station was moved on Friday morning to the launch tower at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in the southernmost island province of Hainan, according to the China Manned Space Agency.
The agency said in a brief statement that the rocket with the core capsule inside will begin pre-launch examinations. M-42 will measure radiation on the Moon
A long-term stay on the Moon would subject the human body to a high level of radiation, as radiation in space is generally many times stronger than it is on Earth. Before humans return to the Moon, the German Aerospace Center will send a small measuring device, the M-42 radiation detector, to Lacus Mortis to record radiation levels on the surface. It will travel there on board the commercial Per Ozmens' SNC Launches Sierra Space, an independent commercial space company
Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security leader, announced the creation of Sierra Space, a new commercial space company. The new company's "space-as-a-service" business model will leverage cutting-edge technologies, such as Dream Chaser spaceplanes and expandable LIFE habitats, within the fast-growing new space economy, which is projected to grow to $1.4T by 20 The science of spin as asteroseismologists confirm older stars rotate faster than expected
Stars spin faster than expected as they age according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Birmingham which uses asteroseismology to shed new light on this emerging theory.
All stars, like the Sun, are born spinning. As they grow older, their spin slows down due to magnetic winds in a process called 'magnetic braking'. Research published in 2016 by scientists at Carnegie O 
