The hatch is opened: the Minerva mission kicks off. During her mission, the ESA astronaut will conduct several scientific experiments for the ASI<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Samantha Cristoforetti<\/strong>‘s second mission, Minerva<\/strong>, has begun: the Italian ESA astronaut arrived with her companions on the International Space Station. The Freedom capsule docked at 1:37 am CEST today, April 28. NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines and Jessica Watkins accompained Samantha on her journey.<\/p>\r\n After the opening of the hatch between the ISS and the Freedom capsule, the new quartet was was warmly received by a large ‘welcoming committee’: seven people, including NASA and ESA astronauts and cosmonauts from Roscosmos.<\/p>\r\nEight years after the start of ASI\u2019s\u00a0Futura<\/strong>\u00a0mission, the Italian astronaut returns to space to spend about five months and a half in the orbiting laboratory, as the protagonist of ESA\u2019s\u00a0Minerva<\/strong>\u00a0mission.\u00a0AstroSamantha<\/strong>\u00a0thus becomes the\u00a0first European woman at her second flight to space<\/strong>.\r\n\r\n\u00abSpace exploration, both human and robotic, has always represented one of the spearheads of the Italian role in the international space activities. Astronauts are clearly the most visible symbol of this Italian excellence! \u2013 says the president of the Italian Space Agency,\u00a0Giorgio Saccoccia<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 This year, Samantha Cristoforetti\u2019s return to the International Space Station, obtained through our negotiations with the ESA in the last few years, underlines, also symbolically, the importance our country has been giving to space activities for some time. I wish good luck and all the best in her work to Samantha for her new and extraordinary adventure!\u201d\r\n\r\nA\u00a0paramount role, which Italy plays also in the many scientific experiments<\/strong>\u00a0that Samantha Cristoforetti will conduct in orbit: dozens of researches, covering different sectors of medicine and nutrition, including six Italian Space Agency experiments.\r\n\r\nThree of these experiments are now travelling to the Iss, brought with her by Samantha Cristoforetti. The first one is\u00a0Antioxidant Protection<\/strong>\u00a0(ASI Prometeo), an ASI project which will study in orbit the consequences of oxidative stress, that is the cell damage caused by too many free radicals, which represents a contributing factor to several harmful effects of space flight. The project aims at developing effective and safe therapeutic tools to protect the central nervous system, the most critical target of oxidative stress.\r\n\r\nThe\u00a0Ovospace project<\/strong>, still by the ASI, aims at investigating the role of microgravity on the maturation and development of ovarian cells. In fact, the lack of gravity can compromise the ovarian function and physiological development of human beings. Studying the impact of the space environment on such aspects becomes essential in view of the future human settlement and long-term stay programs in the deep space.\r\n\r\nASI\u2019s\u00a0Evoo project<\/strong>, instead, is focused on balanced nutrition. On the International Space Station, the project will study the impact of space environment conditions on the physical-chemical, as well as nutritional and microbiological, characteristics of extra-virgin olive oil. A specific focus will be placed on how this food product, a symbol of Italy, reacts to microgravity and radiations.\r\n\r\nAs well as the three ASI projects, AstroSamantha\u2019s national scientific background also involves the Italian contribution to ESA\u2019s\u00a0Suture<\/strong>\u00a0in space project, which sees the University of Florence as principal investigator. The purpose is assessing the healing process of wounds in microgravity. Following the preparation of the project, a new technique has been developed to extend the survival of the explanted tissue.\r\n\r\nDuring the Minerva mission, Samantha Cristoforetti will conduct two more Italian experiments which have been active on the ISS since 2019 and have already been used by her colleague\u00a0Luca Parmitano<\/strong>\u00a0during the ESA\u2019s\u00a0Beyond<\/strong>\u00a0mission.\r\n\r\nThe first one is\u00a0Acoustic Diagnostics<\/strong>, an ASI experiment aimed at assessing how the status of microgravity and the noise aboard the ISS may represent risk factors for the astronauts\u2019 hearing, with the purpose of developing the necessary countermeasures for future long-term missions.\r\n\r\nThe second one is\u00a0Nutriss<\/strong>, aimed at maintaining an ideal body composition by avoiding the increase of the fatty mass\/lean mass ratio due to inactivity from microgravity.\r\n\r\nThe\u00a0Lidal<\/strong>\u00a0experiment, instead, will only touch lightly AstroSamantha\u2019s in-orbit work: this experiment, which will be active until Cristoforetti\u2019s arrival and will then resume as scheduled after her new departure from the ISS, is part of the Altea project to assess the risk of radiations. The purpose is developing a detector capable of measuring all the radiations to which astronauts are subject and exploring the radiation environment aboard the ISS.\r\n\r\nAs we wait to see Samantha Cristoforetti at work in this new adventure, where she will ensure consistency to in-orbit experiments, ESA\u2019s Italian astronaut is again a symbol of the Italy of space.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The hatch is opened: the Minerva mission kicks off. During her mission, the ESA astronaut will conduct several scientific experiments for the ASI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":30811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[44,51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-agency","category-life-in-space"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n