A Calgary researcher is part of a team studying bed rest for space exploration

April 12 marks International Human Space Flight Day, but a Mount Royal University Calgary biologist is looking at the impact of exploring the stars with a study closer to the ground.

Dr. Nick Strzalkowski studies changes in skin sensitivity in participants who spend 60 days on head-down bed rest to better understand the sensory adaptations that occur during spaceflight.

He is part of a team that models microgravity environments to help astronauts adapt to physiological changes.

“First of all, your blood and all the fluids are rushing to the head, so the astronauts' face swells up. It puts pressure on the optic nerve, loses heart muscle and loses blood volume, so there are a lot of problems,” he said.

“It's all represented in a head-down bed position, and your vestibular system, the sensors in your head that tell you about gravity, are also disrupted in space. So we think it's a vestibular system disorder. because of the changes in skin feedback that we're seeing.”

At the University of Guelph, Strzalkowski received his doctorate under the supervision of Dr. Leah Bent, who studies neurophysiology and is the principal investigator of this latest project funded by the Canadian Space Agency.

The research itself will be conducted this fall at the German Aerospace Center in Cologne, Germany, in collaboration with NASA.

Twelve participants will spend 88 days in the laboratory, 60 of which lie in bed, simulating the fluid shifts experienced by the human body in space.

Participants will be divided into groups, including a control group that does nothing, a group that gets electrical muscle stimulation in their legs, and a proprioception group that uses a wobble board for balance and more stimulation.

“With these different groups, we're looking at how these interventions might change whether they're resilient or susceptible,” Strzalkowski said.

“But it's also part of a much larger international team with dozens of original researchers measuring everything you can imagine from bone health, muscle health, cognitive function, sleep, gut microbiome, and the list goes on.”

The work also involves MRU undergraduate students in data analysis.

While the immediate goal is to help astronauts, Strzalkowski says the research also has implications for those bedridden on Earth.

“Research affects people on Earth, so people may not understand, but every day we interact with technology and medical advances from the space sector.”