Southampton team begin study of the effect of space travel on muscle mass

It has long been known that regardless of how much astronauts exercise while in space, their muscle mass and strength declines. However, until now no mission has carried appropriate equipment to test muscles over the course of an extended stay.

The Southampton team is taking part in the European space agency study called the Myotones project, which is led by Prof Dieter Blottner at the Charité Institute in Berlin. Three researchers from Southampton, Prof Maria Stokes, Martin Warner and research fellow Paul Muckett, have this week taken part in a live video link with ISS astronauts, talking them through a data collection session and explaining to them how they should perform measurements on their muscles over the next six months.

The ISS crew are using a commercially available device called a MyotonPRO, which sends mechanical pulses into muscles and records how the tissue oscillates in response to the pulse. This gives a rapid measurement of parameters such as tone and stiffness of muscles and tendons.