[Exclusive Interview] UST and the future of astronauts in Deep Space
How United Space Team is defining the future of astronauts in Deep Space
Hello, hello, space lovers!
Last week I had the privilege to interview Alex Ananin, the guy behind United Space Team a global organization based in southern Spain that is looking for innovative ways to prepare astronauts for deep space exploration missions.
Here’s a summary of the very interesting conversation we had. Enjoy and share! :)
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[Juan] Hi, Alex. Let’s start from the beginning: what is UST (United Space Team)?
[Alex] We are an organization with a single mission: we want to let people survive and reproduce in deep space.
[J] Why is this important now?
[A] There is a massive space industry worldwide and it’s growing every day, but there is very little research and commercial development about taking humans into deep space.
We as an industry are building more and more powerful and cheaper rockets, better and smarter robots and we are doing a lot of scientific research in different areas, but there are almost no commercial companies studying and innovating on ways to safely take humans to deep space in a healthy way given the extreme conditions that exist in space.
We know we will soon be able to send people to Mars. We are really close for this to be a possibility, but how dangerous is that for the human body? NASA and other agencies said openly: ‘We are not ready. We are not ready to send people to long-duration Deep Space missions without threatening their health”.
[J] Interesting! Who’s part of your project?
[A] There are three main groups of professionals in our project: astronauts, scientists & doctors, and crazy risk-takers. We have team members and top advisors, and we are constantly attracting more professionals.
The astronauts are helping us with the definition of the training program, but above all, their main goal is to stop us from having bad ideas. We are working with top astronauts (some of those names will be disclosed in April next year).
On the science and medical team, we are bringing in top engineers and the best specialists in presidential medicine, rare diseases, and elite sports medicine.
Finally, we have a team of crazy guys, risk-takers ranging from base jumpers, high mountains extreme climbing, and other high-risk activities. In the end, when going to deep space you need to be ready to die and this is quite challenging in terms of human psychology. If we are sending 50 people to Mars and 25 die on the way or at arrival, the rest have to be very strong to cope with the loss and be able to move forward with the mission. Here we are talking to base jumping specialists, members of the military, etc.
[J] Let’s get into details: what are you doing to help people survive deep space?
[A] First, we are researching and innovating on how to scale and make space training more available and affordable for the average person. The new commercial space companies such as Axiom and above all SpaceX are going to make space much more accessible and will open up for a scale never seen before. We want to be prepared to train astronauts inexpensively and at scale and not how it is currently being done by the big agencies, which is extremely expensive and slow.
[J] What about helping astronauts to survive?
[A] The main challenges in space are zero-gravity and radiation. We have both already covered with new solutions that have never been tried in the space industry, but what is still a big challenge is human reproduction. If we want to become a multi-planetary species, we need to look for ways to give birth to children in space and other planets, with zero gravity and exposure to high radiation, and that is a big challenge we are researching about. Nowadays, the official policy is just to avoid getting pregnant in space, but that has to change in the not-so-far future.
In space medicine at UST, we are not talking about modifying genetics. We push people towards an improved physical state that makes them better prepared for extreme conditions. Every day on Earth, we are exposed to radiation and we renew our dying cells: our bodies are used to it. In space it’ll be the same, the difference is that we need to reproduce those dying cells at a higher speed. That is what our doctors are focusing on. You can find more information and papers about this research on our website and we will be declassifying studies step by step, as we make progress in this area.
[J] Amazing. What’s the current status of the project?
[A] We have an initial solution bundle: a set of solutions that solve several problems for health in space. Radiation, low gravity, what we call the “new generation challenge” (the one I was talking about before, on human reproduction). Also, some additional research about water and nutrition.
Currently, we are in stealth mode, in conversations with several commercial space companies such as SpaceX, Axiom, and national organizations such as NASA, ESA, and more, and next year will be our launch year. Starting on January 16th, when one additional medical protocol for radiation resistance is expected to be made available, these organizations will be testing our model and we’ll keep making progress in the R&D area while we keep training astronauts to make them “Ready to fly” as efficiently as possible. We are also exploring being part of a commercial deep space research station that should be built sooner than the replacement of the ISS is planned for. We’ll be sharing more news about this soon.
[J] What are the biggest challenges to making all this magnificent vision a reality?
[A] I want to find the right people for the project. It is going to be a massive project that will have a very relevant impact on the space industry and on society in general, and its success will come from engaging the best people. Not money. But people.
[J] How can people know more about the project and follow for updates?
[A] We have our website and my Twitter account - feel free to reach out if you have any questions and follow us for more updates.
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Cheers from sunny Spain!
Juan, the Curious Astronaut
-Applause-