November 18, 2016.
Thursday, November 17, at 9:20 p.m. (Paris time), Thomas Pesquet took off from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, towards the International Space Station (ISS). A space journey that will advance medicine. That’s how.
Fight against osteoporosis
Thomas Pesquet’s space travel will be decisive in advancing medicine. During the six months, the French astronaut is expected to participate in 200 medical and biological experiments. These scientific experiments developed by the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (Inserm) should in particular help researchers better fight osteoporosis.
How is it possible ? ” As there is no gravity, each movement does not require any effort from them which means that they will lose muscle, bones », Explains Pierre Boutouyrie, researcher at Inserm, in the columns of 20 minutes. This is exactly what happens in patients with osteoporosis. By observing how astronauts regain their bone mass when they return to Earth, scientists hope they can develop new treatments.
Prevention of arterial aging
But that’s not all. This space travel could help researchers find solutions in the prevention of arterial aging ” insofar as some preliminary data shows that arterial stiffness increases by an equivalent of about 10 years during short space flights », Explain the Inserm researchers who supervise this work.
Finally, the astronauts will test a new model of remotely controllable ultrasound system from Earth. This new technique should make it possible to improve the care of patients in medical deserts. ” We do experiments and after that, it takes years to understand what type of innovation we have discovered », Explained the Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, at the microphone of Europe 1. We are therefore only at the beginning of the adventure.
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