Urbana, Ill. (WAND) — University of Illinois researchers are set to begin a study on how astronauts can stay fit while in space.
Marni Boppart is a kinesiology and community health professor working alongside neuroscience and engineering professors to help maintain the health of astronauts while in space.
“The astronauts work really hard in space to exercise, to maintain their muscle and bone mass but still there is deterioration. This is particularly important right now because the new spaceship, the Orion, is very small in comparison to the international space station and so there’s not a lot of room for exercise equipment and so we need to really come up with some type of alternative strategy,” said Boppart.
This multi-interdisciplinary group of researchers will soon begin work on looking at ways to use blood compounds generated by human exercise and see if they can distill a man-made alternative to offer a tool for dealing with the issue of muscle loss in space for astronauts. The team is gathered at the Freer Hall physical testing site where the test subjects will work out under the studies parameters. From left: Professors Joon Kong, Nick Burd, Marni Boppart, Justin Rhodes and Jonathan Sweedler.
While the study is intended for astronauts, their hope is to have others benefit from the findings as well.
“Our main target here are astronauts in space with this particular project but what we really hope for is to see that this strategy can be used in other populations such as those that are older, older adults that maybe have undergone bed rest for a long period of times," said Boppart.
More information about the The Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology can be found here.
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