How Astronauts’ Urine Could Unlock Future Space Health

This week, a SpaceX engineer and billionaire Jared Isaacman successfully conducted the first-ever commercial spacewalk. Now, scientists are interested in analyzing the whole crew’s urine.

Isaacman funded SpaceX’s Polaris Dawn mission which proved that non-professional astronauts working at governamental space agencies can actually conduct a successful mission. The mission also drew interest from previous astronauts and researchers, like Jay Buckey.

In 1998, Buckey traveled to space as a NASA astronaut, and now as director of Dartmouth College’s Space Medicine Innovations Lab he is interested in studying astronauts pee.

Buckey, along with Mimi Lan, a Dartmouth PhD candidate, designed a device to collect astronauts’ first morning urine to monitor bone loss and the risk of developing kidney stones in space.

In space, calcium leaves bones and enters the bloodstream, raising the risk of kidney stones.

Buckey and Lan’s experiment focuses on tracking this process through urine analysis. The goal is to detect potential health risks, such as the formation of kidney stones, which could be critical on longer space missions to destinations like Mars. If astronauts show signs of increased calcium concentration, they could take preventive measures, like drinking more water or taking medication, before the problem worsens. For their study, astronauts’ samples are collected in space but will be analyzed back on Earth to determine the reliability of their method.

NASA has long been concerned with the health risks posed by bone loss in space. Over time, astronauts’ bones lose density, and without proper precautions like diet and exercise, this can have serious consequences.

The research could provide essential information to develop an accurate way to monitor astronaut health in future missions, particularly as the focus shifts toward smaller spacecraft and extended journeys beyond Earth’s orbit. Now that NASA aims to build a lunar-orbiting space stanchion and send people to deeper space, addressing the health problems of living in zero gravity is a priority.