Sports scientist helps Mission to Mars project
Solent University's Associate Professor, Adam Hawkey, has been working with NASA on how to keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space flight.
How do you keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space flight? This is something that Solent University’s head of sport science and performance, Adam Hawkey, continues working on with NASA and other space organisations.
His latest venture with The Physiological Society is designed to inspire the next generation - known as Generation Z - of space explorers, some of who may travel to Mars in the next 20 years.
Associate Professor, Adam, has worked as a scientific advisor alongside former NASA astronaut, Jim Pawelczyk, on an educational animation which launches on YouTube today. The animation describes the challenges faced when planning a human mission to the Red Planet, the dangers that the crew will face, and the current countermeasures (including exercise) employed to combat what Adam describes as ‘the physical price of a ticket into space’.
Adam says: “It’s a real honour to be involved in such an initiative and it is always enjoyable and insightful working with those select few who have experienced leaving the relative protection of our home planet. Informing and inspiring the next generation of scientists and explorers is a great privilege.”
Watch the YouTube video here.
