University of Central Florida researchers have landed a $900,000 grant to study the effects of space on astronauts’ memory and attention span.
Researchers Stephen Fiore and Shawn Burke received one of 27 grants from NASA, as the agency continues its push to eventually send astronauts to Mars.
The research will attempt to mimic conditions astronauts face in space. It’s part of NASA’s Human Research Program and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.
“Studies suggest that cognitive processes may be negatively affected” in space flight, Fiore said in a release. “We need to understand how problems with memory or attention will impact the spaceflight team’s ability to function and successfully perform their mission.”
Fiore is director of the school’s cognitive sciences laboratory at UCF’s Orlando-based Institute for Simulation and Training. Burke is a research professor at the Institute who specializes in team dynamics and behavior.
NASA’s Human Research Program has worked more than 10 years to learn how prolonged exposure to space conditions will affect the human body.
Recently, astronaut Scott Kelly returned from a year in space and researchers expect his body to yield a trove of data related to how space affects the human body.
The work comes just as a new, commercial space race emerges on Florida’s Space Coast and elsewhere, opening new opportunities for research.
Companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin have made exploration and missions into space more affordable, which gives more research agencies access to space.
UCF professor Josh Colwell recently launched an experiment meant to explain collisions in the early solar system on a suborbital mission aboard a rocket built by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin.
But Fiore and Burke’s research keeps them on land, as they hope to contribute to a growing push by private space companies to send a mission to Mars.
Recently, SpaceX landed a rocket for the third time on a drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, in an effort to develop reusable rockets.
CEO Elon Musk has been open about his plans, which include continuing that research to perfect systems to some day send humans to Mars.
SpaceX announced on social media that it hoped to send one of its Dragon capsules to Mars by 2018.
The company confirmed shortly thereafter that the launch would be from Florida’s Space Coast, adding to an already growing profile for the region in the space industry.
Meanwhile, Blue Origin and satellite manufacturer OneWeb both plan to break ground on a production facility on the coast this summer.
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