BEIJING, March 27 (Xinhua) — The China Manned Space Agency announced that it would solicit proposals for a space human research program starting April 1, targeting major strategic, fundamental, and forward-looking scientific issues related to the long-term healthy survival of humans during future space station flights and lunar landing missions.
The program aims to create a space human atlas, establish a space human research database, and yield a series of innovative research outcomes that can benefit both the health of taikonauts on long-duration orbital missions and the public on Earth.
It is also part of the country’s efforts to accelerate the construction of aerospace power and technological power, according to the program guidelines issued by the agency this week.
Taking human samples, organoids and cells as research objects, the program will study the effects of microgravity on bones and muscles and the impacts of long-term spaceflight and post-return conditions on the heart and blood vessels, metabolism, cognition, and aging.
Space medicine experiments are among the crucial research areas aboard the Chinese space station Tiangong, which means Heavenly Palace. Since a public solicitation announcement issued in June 2023, a total of 387 projects have been submitted, and 53 of them have been conducted on the national space lab, the agency said.
China is targeting a crewed lunar landing by 2030. Moreover, the orbiting Tiangong space station will receive two crews this year, and one taikonaut involved will undertake an orbital stay lasting over one year. As long-term crewed missions in space become more frequent, ensuring taikonauts’ well-being has become a matter of public concern.
Space medicine research has also helped advance public health on Earth.
According to Li Yinghui, a researcher at the China Astronaut Research and Training Center, the country has made several achievements in the field, including completing the country’s first research on a space organ chip and the world’s first involving an artificial blood vessel tissue chip. These research results have provided theoretical and technological support for studies into heart health, the muscular system, neurodegenerative diseases, human aging, and drug protection and screening. ■
