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First medical X-ray scanner heads for space station
MAKE no bones about it: the International Space Station is about to get its first medical X-ray scanner.
Astronauts will use the device to study the effects on rodents of extended periods of time spent in microgravity.
Bones deteriorate quickly in space, losing about 1 to 2 per cent of their mass for every month away from Earth. Muscles and organs also suffer in low gravity.
No astronaut has spent more than six months at a stretch on the ISS, so direct medical studies only cover relatively short-term effects. A good diet and strenuous exercise minimise the damage, but no one knows how the human body will fare on long-term missions to an asteroid, for example, or Mars.
Mice have been kept aboard the ISS for up to 91 days, during which time they were used to study a loss in blood quality called flight anaemia, and the effects of cosmic radiation on fertility.
The condition of individual astronauts is routinely studied before and after a mission, but this can only reveal so much. What's needed is research while travellers are actually in orbit.
"Previous research was a lot more limited than what we're now able to support," says Mike Roberts at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages science experiments on the ISS and helped fund the new scanner. "This device will enable investigators to track bone loss in real time."
Astronauts are now being trained in how to care for and handle rodents in space, and a training video on how to use the X-ray scanner will be sent to the crew before the device arrives.
But building an X-ray scanner that can operate in space is no mean feat. The machine needs to be safe to use, robust enough to survive the rattles of the launch vehicle, and straightforward to fix when something goes awry.
"Having a radiation source on board the station is something that has never been done before," says Rich Boling, a vice-president at Techshot in Greenville, Indiana. The firm spent the last two years developing the scanner, which it calls the Bone Densitometer.
The Techshot team started with a device called a dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry scanner, a common lab tool about the size of a microwave oven. Engineers went over NASA's safety guidelines and stripped out any materials that could pose a fire or health risk.
For example, the scanner's wires are normally insulated with polyvinyl chloride. This material can produce a toxic gas when heated, a serious hazard in the cramped quarters of the ISS. The space-ready scanner uses Teflon instead. And stainless steel components replaced any made of tin or zinc, as these metals can grow slender crystalline "whiskers" that might break off and cause damage.
The team redesigned the scanner to be foldable, so it can be stowed when not in use. They also made it easier to swap out certain parts, for ease of repair.
The finished machine will travel on the next cargo run by private firm SpaceX of Hawthorne, California. Due to lift off in late August, the mission will also carry SpaceX's first mammalian passengers – 20 mice and rats that will spend six months on the station in specially designed habitats. They will be used in a variety of medical experiments to assess the effects of microgravity on the body. For instance, one experiment will look at changes in the blood-brain barrier to learn more about why space travel can cause cognitive and visual problems.
The first X-ray experiments are slated to begin in December, once the animals have become accustomed to their new home and the astronauts are comfortable with their care. During a scan, they will be isolated in containers to prevent urine or faeces from floating free. To keep the animals themselves from drifting around, the X-ray tray has a sticky surface, which Techshot chief scientist Eugene Boland likens to the back of a Post-it note.
As well as providing data for future space missions, the findings might be useful back on Earth, to help people with skeletomuscular diseases, says Roberts.
For example, one study will focus on mice that have been bred to have a muscle-wasting disease tied to a particular gene. The experiment was designed by pharmaceutical firm Novartis, which will use the data to design drugs to combat the disease.
"NASA is looking for all sorts of diagnostic technology that will help with a trip to Mars," says Boling. "CASIS is looking for Earth benefits. This payload does both."
This article appeared in print under the headline "X-ray medicine blasts off to space"
Correction, 19 June 2014: When this article was first published, the final quotation was misattributed.
Source: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22229743.000-first-medical-xray-scanner-heads-for-space-station.html#.U6vgoUA0rUd
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
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• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
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• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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