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Russian space medicine still aims for Mars

By Dominic Phelan, Spaceflight magazine, January 2004

Moscow’s prestigious Institute for Bio-Medical Problems (IMBP) has kept cosmonauts healthy in orbit for decades and is now conducting research that could make flights to Mars within the next 30 years a reality.

Like many formerly “semi-secret” facilities in Russia the Institute is located behind anonymous gates in a Moscow suburb. Once inside however, the mantra of “international co-operation” can be heard everywhere.

Now that the major space powers are coming together because of the economic realities of the post-Cold War era, IBMP staff believe the political climate is such that their long-cherished dreams of manned Mars missions might soon be on the agenda.

Decades of knowledge

Since the beginning of the Space Age, Russia has invested heavily in “space medicine”. The Institute’s brief since the early days has been to keep Russian cosmonauts healthy, both before a flight and during their time in orbit. This responsibility included everything from the initial selection process, training, in-flight monitoring and aiding cosmonauts in any emergency situations.

They aim to make sure the human body keeps up with the technology, with pioneering research on the effects of “weightlessness” making sure it is medically possible for people to safely fly long-duration space flights when they are given the go-ahead.

The Institute is run by energetic 60-year-old director Anatolii Grigoriev, who speaks with the passion of a real “space convert”.

His own introduction to space medicine was auspicious – having been hired by Boris Yegorov, who became the first doctor in space when he flew on the first three-man flight in 1964.

Although the IBMP was founded on the orders of chief designer Sergei Korolev and academician Mstislav Keldysh, two of the most powerful men in the early space programme, Grigoriev realised he would only be working on the ground when the first “Doctor Cosmonaut” group was disbanded a few years later.

He believes the core of the Institute’s knowledge is based on experiments carried out on the cosmonauts aboard Mir. Now that the present crews aboard the ISS will be confined to limited six-month duration flights, the series of long-duration flights carried out on that station starting in the late 1980s might not be matched for another decade at least.

“Our institute is huge, with over 700 staff in 17 departments. We began to study the problems of man in space from the mid-1960s and obviously that is a huge amount of knowledge about how space effects the human body,” says Grigoriev.

“Although it is not possible to compare the present ISS with Mir because it isn’t finished yet, you must remember that in total we completed over 1500 medical experiments aboard Mir.”

Indeed one of Grigoriev’s team is uniquely qualified to study this mass of data gathered aboard Mir. Doctor Valerii Polyakov holds the record for the longest duration space mission himself – having spent over a year and a half in orbit.

Mini-Mission Control

“The secret to keeping people healthy in orbit is threefold: preventing their muscles from wasting away because of a lack of gravity to work against; monitoring the heart and making sure it stays healthy; and making sure the crew’s mental health doesn’t suffer because of the isolation,” stresses director Grigoriev.

To keep in constant contact with cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) the Institute has its own “mini-Mission Control.” Staff use this to monitor the comfort of the crew and also encourage relatives of the cosmonauts to visit and talk with their loved ones. Years of psychological research by the pioneering space doctor Oleg Gazenko showed that good morale can be an effective weapon against medical problems in orbit.

A full medical kit is carried aboard the ISS for all possible emergency situations but the IBMP doctors have the authority to end a flight if they think there is a medical emergency in progress. This option has only been taken once in the past, when Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Vasyutin was evacuated from the Salyut 7 space station after he suffered a potentially life-threatening infection.

In so-called “active zone” situations (i.e. during launch or a spacewalk) a cosmonaut’s health is monitored in real-time, with continuous measurements of heart rate, blood pressure and breathing, but normally the Institute carries out a medical examination every ten days. As one of the doctors in the control centre quipped: “They can’t imply that they lack attention!”

Ground testing at IBMP

As part of its research the Institute contains its own centrifuge, and a small water immersion tank to simulate “weightlessness” amongst test subjects.

Previously testers were immerged in this water tank to monitor their body’s reaction to the unsupported state but they soon became complaining of the effect it was having on their skin. The Institute’s scientists used their lateral thinking to develop a special “dry immersion tank,” consisting of a watertight mesh layer between the tester and the water. This effectively allows the person to “float” on the liquid but stay dry, keeping the person’s skin problems to a minimum.

The Institute also has a long history of using animals for more uncomfortable experiments, with a decades long programme called “Bion” flying primates into orbit for a wide range of space medicine experiments. During the past 30 years eleven of these special satellites have flown.

The IBMP has also been pioneering in its study of human psychology – something that is often more difficult to predict than a person’s physical reactions.

A series of long-duration “bed resting” experiments were started in the 1980s to coincide with the start of long-duration flights aboard Mir. As well as the medical data they sought the researchers also gained an unexpected insight into their subject’s reactions to being confined for long periods in one place.

Again using their lateral thinking the researchers at IBMP tilted their test subjects in beds at six degrees to the horizontal. This created a similar condition to that experienced by orbiting cosmonauts, with blood pooling in the upper part of their bodies.

During the longest test, a mammoth 370-day study that began in 1986, things began to go wrong from an early stage.

The “team” of test subjects were confined to groups of five, three and two in their own separate rooms. The five-man group soon started arguing amongst themselves – which resulted in one of the test subjects being “expelled” to another group.

Another unexpected consequence of this experiment was that several of the men divorced their wives after it was all over, indeed one of the them is reported to have fallen in love with the female nurse who looked after him during the experiment!

Another example of these group interaction experiments going wrong was the international “SFINCSS” isolation test carried out at IBMP in 2000.

During that 240-day experiment a Canadian female participant accused a Russian male colleague of sexual harassment. The Russian researchers now freely admit the incident happened. Although embarrassed about the circumstances they believe the incident only shows that cultural traits will be a big problem to overcome on long-duration international missions in the future.

At least it can be said that these incidents happened during experiments designed to create the worst conditions to study the reactions of the participants. Personality clashes in orbit are still relatively rare.

But there have been no long-duration international missions lasting the length of a Mars mission to date.

Cosmonaut selection

As “prevention is part of the cure,” the Institute is actively involved in cosmonaut selection to make sure that the right people are chosen in the first place.

This process resulted in one of the Institute’s own young researchers, 28-year-old Sergei Ryazanskii, being selected recently to undergo training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre at Zvezdni just outside Moscow. He is hopeful he will fly within the next five to seven years.

The total number of cosmonauts has dropped since the heady days of the early Soviet space programme, with reduced space funding and the recent Shuttle accident meaning that there are now only 43 in total. This low figure may have increased Ryazanskii’s chances but it also increases the pressures of the job.

“I wanted to join the cosmonaut team because of a family tradition – my grandfather was a rocket engineer and we were proud of that connection. It was a dream of mine to work with cosmonauts and I joined IBMP after graduating from the biological department of the Moscow State University,” says Ryazanskii.

“I just started my cosmonaut training this June at the Cosmonaut Training Centre. At the moment I am continuing my usual research work at IBMP but my time at Star City saw me doing jet piloting, skydiving, English classes, physical training and astronavigation. I will live there and study, study, study!”

Co-operation in orbit?

Although the ISS is presently experiencing major strains and questions are being asked about its future, this co-operation during “interesting times” can only make the relationship stronger – if it doesn’t break it.

“We don’t just have a professional interest in each other, there is a personal trust. Perhaps that is why we have been co-operating in space medicine since 1971, even through the so-called ‘Cold War’ period. The only group that seemed to tie our two countries together during that time was the one working on biomedical space problems,” reminds Grigoriev.

“In spite of the fact that we have some differences in our medical approaches both sides manage to use all that we know to make our work better. That is why a new system was born that is a mix of the two systems.”

“Of course we have different education systems and different cultures. Sometimes our standards are higher; sometimes the Americans’ but the differences aren’t so great that they would matter to most people. Although to us they can be important!

“An example of this is the use of the treadmill – we believe that the main way to prevent problems though the flight is to use this, while our Americans colleagues often believe that the most important exercises in space are ‘resistive exercises’. So onboard the ISS we have both measures, giving the cosmonaut the choice.”

This flexible attitude is borne of a space programme immersed in the new realities of the world, one that has seen it looking towards that new space power – China.

“Our Institute is working together with an institute from China and we have co-operated on satellite experiments, unfortunately we haven’t had any joint experiments on manned flights.

“At present I’m involved with a space medicine journal produced in China and have a great interest in reading the articles produced by my Chinese colleagues. I think if we are going to have a flight to Mars it is important that all the countries that want to take part are involved in the preparation.”

Mars still the main target

The large bronze bust of Russian space pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovskii in the reception hall of the Institute not only shows a great pride in their country’s space heritage but a belief in his prophecy that it will ultimately be humanity that conquers the cosmos.

Not surprisingly, Mars continues to dominate their thinking.

“I think it will be in the third decade of this century. I intend to see it!” proclaims Grigoriev confidently. He is firm in his belief that the only realistic option for the cash-starved space nations will be an international mission.

“A mission to Mars is more of a political decision but we are studying the circumstances of flights to the other planets. It is going to be a very long flight. In the past there was an opportunity to bring a person back to Earth if there is a problem, the situation will be completely different when we go to Mars.”

Speaking as someone who might be making this journey, trainee Cosmonaut Sergei Ryazanskii is all in favour of bringing the strengths of each space nations together: “I think it must be a multi-national mission because it will be easier politically, financially and technologically. It is well-known that in some fields the Russians are better, while in some fields US engineering is much better. Now in computer support, Japanese companies have much better technology. The best thing would be to combine our talents.

“I just want to see this flight – not just to fly myself!”

While the IBMP facility itself might have the feeling of having seen better days, one can’t but be impressed by the passion and commitment of the staff – many of whom are only paid a fraction of their western counterparts. Many of them have dedicated their lives to the space programme – seeing both its high and low points.

Despite this they still exude the optimism of the early Space Age and many sincerely believe they will see an international manned mission to Mars in the near future.

Linked from RuSpace news