Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002iaf..confe.858d&link_type=abstract
IAF abstracts, 34th COSPAR Scientific Assembly, The Second World Space Congress, held 10-19 October, 2002 in Houston, TX, USA.,
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The first astronaut of the European Astronaut Corps of Italian nationality, Roberto Vittori, will fly on a Soyuz capsule at the end of April 2002, opening a new era of space flight. The mission, sponsored by the Italian Space Agency, has been developed in the framework of an ESA- ROSAVIAKOSMOS agreement, reached in order to give European astronauts additional possibilities to fly. It's the first mission of this kind. In addition to that, this is the real first time in which a Soyuz mission is in the hands of two cosmonauts, and one of them is non Russian. On the same flight, in fact, Mark Shuttleworth, the second tourist in the history of space activities, is going to fly, performing also a set of scientific experiments. Marco Polo is also the first mission in which the two Agencies, ASI and ESA, are developing a joint commercialisation program, devoted to attire sponsors for improving research and development activities in the Human Spaceflight area. This will allow the two agencies to improve also the quality of life on Earth. A comprehensive scientific program is also foreseen accompanying Vittori on board, mainly in the field of life science. Experiments devoted to neurophysiology, arms rehabilitation, test of new materials for dressing in space, evaluation of the behaviour of the Nobel Prize Montalcini discovery named NGF (Nerve Growth Factor) will be performed on board. A R&D payload for Blood Pressure Measurements could have in the future commercial spin-off. In addition, a possible institutional sponsorship of the World Health Organization is under discussion. It will be the real first time in which a space mission gets this kind of sponsorship, and this strictly related to the World Health Day this year, devoted in promoting health throughout movement, i.e. "Move for Health". The Italian Space Agency proposed a joint combination of the two slogans, coupling the "Move for Health" message with the Italian "Space for Health" one. This is because of the Marco Polo scientific program, and because of an advanced training and rehabilitation protocol we have studied, to be applied to old population in order to improve their quality of life, through the parallelism between astronauts (in microgravity conditions) and aging population. The mission, at the time of the World Space Congress, will be already performed and the results can be presented.
Bracciaferri Fabio M.
di Pippo Simonetta
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