Israel-based startup to test its brain-monitoring helmet on ISS-bound Axiom astronauts

Axiom Space will be launching its Axiom-1 (Ax-1) mission to International Space Station (ISS), which would be carried out in a SpaceX Dragon capsule on April 6 at 9:35 pm (IST).

Apart from being first-ever private astronaut mission, Ax-1 will be special as crew of four visiting astronauts would conduct different experiments including those to determine effects of space on humans. One such experiment would be to test an Electroencephalography (EGG) helmet that would monitor changes in brain of Ax-1 astronauts. 

Purpose of brain-monitoring helmet

helmet has been developed by an Israel-based startup brain.space and it works on EEG method, which is monitoring certain signals produced by brain. According to company, helmet will be used on Ax-1 astronauts to record and analyse ir neurological activity in order to determine wher results obtained in microgravity are different from those achieved on ground.

company says that re is currently no high-quality data regarding neural changes in brain during prolonged space missions. Data gared using EEG helmet would be crucial in tracking day-to-day changes in brain and would help scientists predict how brain will apt to long-term space travel, says brain.space.

Ax-1 mission is now being targeted for April 6, after being postponed from April 3. NASA, which is also a collaborator in mission along with SpaceX, said that postponement is due to "wet dress rehearsals" for Artemis I being carried out at Kennedy Space Center- Ax-1's launch site. Once mission takes off, it would launch a former NASA astronaut with three space tourists for a 10-day-long mission, wherein crew would spend eights days aboard ISS. 

crew members are Axiom VP and ex-NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, along with entrepreneurs Larry Connor, Mark Pathy, and Eytan Stibbe. Mission commander Lopez-Alegria would be making his fifth overall spaceflight and third ISS visit whereas his fellow passengers would be on ir first space trip. 

(Image: brain.space)