Pole flies into space! Dr. Tomasz Rożek warns: Then the steam will go into the whistle

Magdalena Frindt, "Wprost": The launch date of the Ax-4 mission has been postponed several times. The current date is June 10. The crew will fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in a Dragon capsule from SpaceX, which will be launched into orbit by a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Will this day go down in history?

Dr. Tomasz Rożek, founder of the Nauka. To Lubię Foundation: It depends on us. It happens that high-profile events are not communicated properly and escape public attention. It also happens the other way around – events that are not among the most important gain enormous publicity.

Everything is really in our hands. And how the mission in which Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski takes part will be remembered also depends on how much time we devote to building a certain story, a certain image around it. I am not talking about falsifying, hyping or embellishing the tone of the Ax-4 space mission. I just want to point out that in a world where everyone has a device in their pocket with access to all digitized information, it sometimes happens that really important events are almost passed over in silence.

It is necessary to ensure that a different fate befalls Sławosz's mission.

Scientists have 14 days of work ahead of them on the International Space Station. The 4-person crew, including a Pole, will use this time to conduct a series of experiments. What information can we become richer thanks to this mission?

This is a difficult question, because if we were sure what effect we would obtain, i.e. if we knew the results of the experiments before conducting them, there would be no point in carrying them out.

Taking into account the scientific aspect of Sławosz's mission, one can come across a way of asking the issue which boils down to one question: "Why are you going there?" I blame the Polish school for looking at the world from this perspective, because it does not reflect what science is about.

Is it the path to the goal that counts, not just the effect?

We are used to everything being done for a specific purpose, which is supposed to bring a specific result. Example? We buy bricks to build a house, not to experiment with the construction. In everyday life, this is understandable, but in scientific life it should be completely different, because we do not know the results of specific studies. So, referring to the Ax-4 mission, we can talk not about the effect, but about what experiments will be carried out on the International Space Station.

And there will be many of them. From studies using a radiation detector, which will provide information about radiation in low Earth orbit, to those that will allow us to delve into the topic of how being in space affects the human body, including bones, soft tissue and the mental state of astronauts.

The astronauts' mission is not very long, because it lasts 14 days, but it is important to realize that the time for experiments will be even shorter, because you have to fly to the ISS and then return to Earth. At first, the body will also have to get used to the new situation. For this reason, no one expects the crew to roll up their sleeves and start intensive work right after leaving the airlock.

Biological studies will be conducted, which will include how yeast behaves in orbital conditions. An experiment has also been planned to enrich the analogue databases. This is a set of data that will allow us to create a substitute for the database on Earth, for example, on the Moon or Mars. This is extremely important, because not all elements can be tested on Earth.

And the blank spots in science have to be filled by space experiments?

This is the case with microgravity or weightlessness conditions, which cannot be recreated on Earth in a 1:1 ratio. Of course, you can try, and a few months ago I flew with Sławosz in an Airbus A310 Zero-G, which was able to create weightlessness on board for several dozen seconds through a suitably curved flight path.

Some things can be studied in such a short period of time, but others remain undiscovered. It is therefore crucial to understand the conditions of microgravity or weightlessness, because in such circumstances many biological, chemical and physical processes proceed differently than on Earth. And understanding these conditions will allow humans to fly into space not for two weeks, but much longer.

Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski will be conducting experiments, among others, on his own body. And literally. Sensors will be placed on his body, which will collect measurements of physical parameters.

One of the experiments involves the study of brain waves.

It is called "NEUROFEEDBACK EEG". Simply put, based on the readings of brain waves with an electroencephalogram, one can draw conclusions on how to increase the efficiency of brain function. The question arises whether trainings that have been tested on Earth work in space conditions. Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski will therefore check on the ISS whether procedures developed in standard conditions will work in the same way.

Not long ago, a neurological experiment was conducted to test how quickly new connections between neurons in the human brain would form. And although this organ is famous for being incredibly plastic and able to adapt to new situations, it is surprising how quickly it does so. It was therefore surprising that – despite the fact that our organism has not evolved to deal with weightlessness – a single session in such conditions, which lasts several dozen seconds in the Airbus A310 Zero-G, was enough for the brain to start reorganizing itself.

Another small step for man, one giant leap for mankind?