Friday 16 April 2021 ALPHA MISSION AT CADMOS CNES serving space exploration and human spaceflight 2 CONTENTS CONTENTS 3 FOREWORD 4 FRENCH EXPERIMENTS ON THE ALPHA MISSION 4 CADMOS, THE MICROGRAVITY EXPERT 11 CNES AT A GLANCE 14 ESA 15 CONTACTS 17 3 FOREWORD In the spring of 2021, France’s ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet is departing for his second mission on the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit between 360 and 400 kilometres above Earth. During this new mission, Thomas Pesquet will be performing some 200 experiments, 40 of them European. Nearly half of these will be monitored by the CADMOS centre for the development of microgravity applications and space operations at CNES. As part of CNES’s contribution to the mission for France, CADMOS has prepared 12 science, technology and education experiments. Through this programme, CNES is seeking to further cutting-edge science on the ISS and continue advancing knowledge in space for Earth. It is also supporting French scientific research and technology advances with an eye on future exploration of the solar system and deep-space missions. FRENCH EXPERIMENTS ON THE ALPHA MISSION Physiology and health Dreams: studying astronauts’ sleep The Dreams experiment will be taking a closer look at the ISS crew’s sleep patterns. Microgravity affects the body’s physiological parameters, forcing it to adapt. Circadian rhythms are disrupted, due notably to the lack of a natural day/night cycle in Earth orbit, where the crew sees the Sun rise and set 16 times a day. For Dreams, Thomas Pesquet will be wearing a sleep headband for several nights fitted with an electroencephalogram sensor using dry electrodes. To observe how he adapts and how his sleep patterns change, measurements were collected before the flight and will be repeated at the start, in the middle and at the end of the mission. Dreams thus aims to demonstrate the biomedical device’s utility for studying sleep in microgravity conditions. The headband will be left aboard the ISS to enable the scientific community to collect hypnic and neuroscience readings. The impact of confinement and microgravity on sleep is a key challenge facing future long-duration missions to the Moon and Mars. The results of Dreams will help notably to plan and adapt cognitive therapies designed to aid sleep onset or help astronauts get back to sleep after night waking phases. Partners Toulouse Hospital – Dreem 4 Cerebral Ageing The Cerebral Ageing experiment aims to study how the brain ages at molecular level. The ISS offers a unique environment for observing cellular ageing and the impact of radiation on the human body. Because molecular analysis of the brain isn’t feasible on living organisms, this experiment will use cerebral organoids. These are complex 3D structures containing nerve cells and other types of cells present in a brain that is still in development. Its aim is to show that these cellular structures fabricated on Earth can be sent into space, cultivated and then brought back to Earth for analysis. Scientists are counting on accelerated ageing effects in space to study how these organoids grow and age. Cerebral Ageing is principally a technology demonstration. The experiment will subsequently evolve towards a more complex protocol designed to study the growth of different types of both healthy and sick cerebral organoids over longer periods of time. The utility of this experiment is twofold: the results could yield new insights into certain genetic disorders like progeroid syndromes that cause afflicted children to age prematurely, while astronaut health and physical fitness are major challenges for long-duration deep-space crewed flights. Understanding how microgravity and prolonged exposure to ionizing radiation affect brain cells is vital for future space exploration and astronaut health. Partners Institut Pasteur – Sup’Biotech – Space Tango Pilote: a visual-haptic robotic control device Following in the footsteps of French neuroscience experiments on the MIR space station and then on the ISS, Pilote aims to evaluate an optimized visual and tactile method for assisting astronauts with robotic tasks. The experiment uses an immersive virtual-reality headset combined with a haptic1 force-feedback device to reproduce the senses of pressure and touch. Conceived like an immersive video game, the protocol includes two types of task: guiding a drone through an obstacle course to assess the alignment of visual and haptic cues, and grappling a spacecraft with a robotic arm to gauge the differences between using both hands or just one hand with a haptic device. The results of Pilote will inform work to optimize the ergonomics of workstations aboard the ISS and subsequently future spacecraft for lunar and Martian missions. By designing interfaces capable of overcoming the challenges that working in weightlessness poses to humans, notably with respect to hand-eye coordination, the resulting methodologies will enable better integration of gravity aspects when designing interfaces to be used on Earth. Partners University of Paris – Tecnalia – CNRS – Oculus 1 A haptic device is a virtual-reality technology enabling physical interaction with a virtual object by reproducing the user’s sense of touch and motion. 5 Immersive Exercise: sport meets virtual reality Astronauts on the ISS have to exercise for two hours a day to offset the negative effects of microgravity on their bodies, notably muscle wasting and bone loss. This daily routine in the same closed environment soon becomes repetitive and the astronauts gradually get bored with it. The aim of Immersive Exercise is to break this routine with virtual reality. When exercising on the CEVIS ergometer, the astronaut dons an immersive virtual-reality headset and a pair of cycling shoes equipped with cadence sensors and can then pedal on the station while thinking of Earth. A selection of 360-degree videos filmed on Earth are played in the virtual- reality headset and synchronized with the pedalling speed. Several outdoor scenes have been filmed, including a route taking in the landmarks of Paris for Thomas Pesquet. The Immersive Exercise device is already being used in a number of gyms on Earth and could evolve to match pedalling difficultly to the terrain, for example when going uphill or downhill. Immersive Exercise therefore aims to boost the ISS crew’s motivation and performance, with an eye on long-duration space missions to the Moon and Mars for which psychological effects will be a key concern. Partners Fit immersion – Oculus – DAC (Danish Aerospace Company) Technology and the future Telemaque: handling objects hands-free The Telemaque acoustic tweezers are designed to hold, move and study objects and liquids without ever touching them. At equal intensity, the force exerted by acoustic waves is about one million times stronger than that of optical waves. Acoustic tweezers emit ultrasound waves that exert a force on objects in their path. The acoustic field is shaped in such a way that these objects are trapped. By moving the beam, it is thus possible to move an object with a very high degree of precision. The aim of Telemaque is to assess in microgravity the ability to capture and release small plastic or glass spheres without touching them and then to guide them remotely through an obstacle course. Telemaque is a technology demonstrator intended to remain on the ISS to serve the crew and scientific research. In particular, it could be used to hold and study other materials, gels or liquids without touching them, for example a hazardous product or biological sample to avoid contamination, or a water droplet as it evaporates to gain new insights into the physical mechanisms at play. Telemaque also has applications for the health sector. For example, the acoustic tweezers could be used to clear kidney stones or for targeted delivery of medicines in the body. Partners Jean Le Rond d’Alembert Institute (Sorbonne University / CNRS) – EREMS – COMAT 6 Lumina: measuring radiation on the ISS Lumina is an optical-fibre dosimeter designed to demonstrate the reliability of this technology for measuring ionizing radiation inside the ISS. Radiosensitive optical fibres darken when exposed to a source of radiation. This darkening allows the attenuation of the signal injected into the fibre to be precisely quantified and thus the total received dose of ionizing radiation to be measured. The advantage of Lumina is its ability to withstand the harsh conditions of space, notably its robustness to temperature swings. With its two fibre coils, each several kilometres long and operating respectively in the visible and infrared, the Lumina demonstrator will advance scientific understanding of how optical fibres behave when exposed to weak ionizing doses in space over a long period of time. Measuring and anticipating radiation is a major strategic concern for space exploration and human spaceflight. ISS crews receive on average a radiation dose 100 times higher than on Earth at sea level over the same time. The dose is significantly higher outside the station and continues to increase the further a spacecraft gets from Earth and the protective bubble of its magnetosphere. The optical-fibre dosimeter therefore aims to become a key technology for shielding equipment and crews during space missions to the Moon or Mars. Partners Hubert Curien Laboratory (Jean Monnet St Etienne University / CNRS) – iXblue – CERN Eco Pack: a new generation of packaging Recycling and management of resources is one of 93 technology lines of action identified as necessary for a future lunar or Martian base. From this broad perspective, CADMOS has prepared three experiments focused on managing space packaging under the moniker Eco Pack. Renewable Foam and Edible Foam: a new lease of life for carry bags The entire experiment will be flown to the ISS inside a fireproof bag with inner walls made of protective packing foam, notably to shield the equipment from vibrations during launch.