Astronaut medical records reveal the toll of space travel.

The creation of the first "space-omics" biobank, called the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), is expected to shed light on the effects of space travel on astronauts' health. The biobank contains thousands of blood and tissue samples, along with medical information, collected from multiple missions, including trips to the International Space Station and the Inspiration4 civilian space flight. Space flight is known to have certain health risks, such as bone density and muscle mass loss, DNA damage, and changes in gene activity and immune system functioning. The SOMA biobank will help researchers understand these changes and potentially develop ways to mitigate them. The results from the Inspiration4 mission suggest that sending civilians into space does not pose more health risks than sending professional astronauts, and the changes in gene activity returned to normal faster in women, possibly due to their ability to cope with potential pregnancy. The creation of a common resource like the SOMA biobank will be helpful for researchers worldwide, especially as longer missions, such as journeys to Mars, become more common. [Extracted from the article]