Isro, AIIMS partner to build space medicine for human missions

BENGALURU: Isro and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have signed an MoU to collaborate on space medicine research aimed at supporting India’s future human spaceflight missions.

The agreement will focus on studying how the human body responds to long-duration space travel and developing medical systems to keep astronauts healthy in orbit, Isro said Thursday.

The MoU was signed by Dinesh Kumar Singh, director, Isro Human Spaceflight Centre (HSFC), and Dr M Srinivas, director, AIIMS.

“Long-duration missions planned by India, including the proposed Bharatiya Antariksh Station and potential crewed missions to the Moon, present a range of medical challenges. Astronauts in microgravity face muscle loss, bone weakening, changes in immunity, and behavioural and psychological stress,” Isro said.

Under the partnership, scientists and doctors from both organisations will carry out ground-based and space-based studies to better understand these effects and develop ways to counter them.

The research areas include human physiology, behavioural health, immunology, gut microbiome studies, neuroscience and neurophysiology, nutrition and metabolic health, and musculoskeletal atrophy caused by microgravity. Studies will also look at infectious disease control and other medical countermeasures needed in space environments.

The collaboration also aims to develop specialised medical devices, procedures and clinical protocols that can be used during human space missions.

Officials said the programme will help build multidisciplinary expertise in space medicine in India, an area that will become increasingly important as the country expands its human spaceflight ambitions.