THE REMAINING contenders in the race to become Britain’s first astronaut
are being put through their paces this week. So are 30 proposals for scientific
experiments to accompany them on their historic flight aboard a Soviet spacecraft
in 1991.
On Monday, a panel of scientists prepared a shortlist from which 15
experiments will be chosen. The panel will present these to the Russian
contingent of this joint Anglo-Soviet mission in Moscow in mid-September.
Heinz Wolff, of the Institute of Bioengineering at Brunel University, has
received more than 60 proposals for research in microgravity to take part
in the Juno mission to Mir, the Soviet space station. ‘Over a very short
time and through an informal process we have had as many proposals as the
European Space Agency would receive for one of its formal research rounds,’
he says. Wolff feels that this response rebuts the British government’s
view that there is little interest in research in microgravity in Britain.
The proposals include ideas for experiments in human physiology and
materials science. Some researchers advocate examining the critical temperatures
of materials, temperatures at which they exist as both a liquid and a gas.
Others suggest studies of the growth of crystalline proteins and materials
such as silicon and gallium arsenide for industrial applications.
‘At the moment we know nothing about the experiments that the Russians
want to include, and we still need to know a lot more about the environmental
conditions inside the space station – its temperature, humidity and atmospheric
pressure,’ said Wolff.
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The spacecraft can carry payloads of up to 100 kilograms, sent up in
a cargo vessel before the astronaut flies up. The astronaut can take only
20 kilograms of hand luggage, and return with no more than 10 kilograms
of material, including the results of their experiments.
Over the next three weeks, each of the 35 aspiring astronauts will be
subjected to a range of medical tests. If they fail one test, the medical
team will reject them. The doctors will monitor how the candidates’ brains
function when they breathe mixtures of air with low levels of oxygen. They
will then subject each candidate to tests which measure the function of
their bowels and rectum. The doctors will also make X-ray examinations of
the skull, spine, teeth and sinuses.
All 35 candidates will have ultrasound tests of the abdomen, to check
the ovaries and womb of each of the 10 women and the prostate gland of each
man. The medical team will take samples from each orifice to check for infection,
and will track the function of the candidate’s hearts over 24 hours of normal
activity. Fifteen or so applicants are expected to pass these tests. Next,
they will face more rigorous tests at the Farnborough Institute of Aviation
Medicine.
Four astronauts will emerge triumphant; two will go to the Soviet Union,
and two of them will be held in reserve in Britain. Of the four finalists,
however, only one will make the trip into space.
