Topic
Physiological effects of spaceflight on human crews and the clinical management of them in orbit.
Oklahoma State and UT Health researchers report that cells kept near iron-ion-struck cells, though never hit themselves, went on to form tumors in mice. If that holds in people, a Mars crew's risk lies mostly in the 97% of cells iron ions miss.
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NASA's Crew-12, four astronauts from NASA, ESA and Roscosmos, is due back from the space station in early October. The agency's look back sets out what the crew's experiments in drug crystallisation, bone repair and quantum physics were built to test.
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University of Copenhagen researchers found blood signs of gut bacteria fermenting more protein in 52 ISS astronauts within weeks of reaching orbit. The team suspects slower digestion and says Mars crews may need countermeasures, though blood chemistry alone cannot confirm the cause.
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NASA and ESA will coordinate blood draws from Crew-13 astronauts in a joint clotting study, one of six human studies on the mission. The study asks why weightlessness disturbs venous blood flow in some astronauts but not others, and answering that depends on how many crew take part.
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Alexandra Zidovska's group at NYU built a rotating stage that cancels most of the fluid flow such rigs create, then compared cells under simulated weightlessness, under strong flow, and untouched for 24 hours.
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A Circulation study co-led by UT Southwestern measured astronaut hearts during six-month station missions, the window earlier work left blank, and reports the early shrinkage stayed inside what Mars-level gravity would demand.
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Twenty female mice spent 42 days on the International Space Station, conceived after landing, and produced two further generations with fewer litters, smaller litters and lower ovarian hormone levels. Their own litters were only slightly small.
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A Circulation study followed cardiac structure through full six-month missions using ultrasound the crews ran themselves. Because every astronaut completed the prescribed exercise, it cannot separate the countermeasure from the adaptation.
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MinXray's portable unit flew on the private Fram2 mission in March 2025, and radiologists on the ground called the crew's images clear enough to diagnose from. The report appeared in Radiology in July 2026.
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A first-of-its-kind study of four fliers reports the vaginal community moving while the oral one mostly held still, which is enough to justify a bigger orbital experiment and not enough to tell a flight surgeon what to sample.
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A NASA-backed study of 52 ISS crew members found gut bacteria switching to protein fermentation within weeks of launch, producing compounds the authors tie to kidney and cognitive harm.
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