Electromyostimulation (EMS) of Astronauts in Spaceflight (Easymotion-2)

Summary

This is a prospective spaceflight study involving an investigational non-risk device called the EasyMotionSkin for whole body electric muscle (myo) stimulation (WB-EMS) onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The purpose of this study is to show:

* optimized exercise outcome with EMS in human spaceflight
* demonstrate efficacy of EMS as alternative inflight exercise protocol
* provide a time-saving and reliable EMS-assisted exercise protocol compliant to astronauts for later use in planetary habitats and future deep space exploration

Eight (n=8) astronauts on long duration missions will take part in this study. This experiment uses the following hardware/software (HW \& SW): (A) EasymotionSkin suit (dry electrode muscle stimulation), B) non-invasive hand-held Myoton device (digitized passive muscle stiffness data collection). C) a customized Myoton body template suit (elastic yoga suit with customized anatomical reference labels to aid inflight Myoton data collection on dedicated perforated 2x2 cm small skin fields) at 5 different skin measurement points (MP), neck, back, shoulder, legs.

Before and after flight the following tests will be done once: Myoton data collection, dynamometry strength test, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for baseline comparison. Researchers will compare data from a non EMS control group (non EMS Astronauts, retrospective) to see if changes of passive muscle stiffness is seen in EMS Astronauts before, during and after spaceflight

Conditions

• Muscle Atrophy
• Myotonia
• Stiffness; Spine
• Exercise Overtraining

Interventions

DEVICE

Electromyostimulation (EMS)

EasymotionSkin body suit for digitally controlled electric impulses via Easymotion-2 software on crew iPad (frequency, impulse rate, duration) are transferred from integrated dry electrodes of the EMS- stimulation suit to activate surface muscle groups of the body (trunk), arms and legs

DEVICE

Myoton

The non-invasive Myoton technology collects data from passive muscle properties (tone and stiffness) obtained from selected anatomical surface muscle groups

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Electromyography (EMG)

As a standard method, surface EMG collects data from nerve impulse-triggered active muscle contractions, pre/postflight only

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

MRI is a clinically standard (non-radiation) imaging method to study structural changes of the human body (organs, muscle, bones, tendons) at the macroscopic level, pre/postflight only

DIAGNOSTIC_TEST

Dynamometry

Dynamometry is a standard functional and diagnostic method to test muscle strength in sports and rehabilitation. pre/postflight only

Sponsors & Collaborators

• German Sport University, Cologne

  collaborator OTHER

• Charite University, Berlin, Germany

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Dieter Blottner, PhD · Charite-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

40 Years

Max Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2025-09-15

Primary Completion

2029-07-31

Completion

2029-12-31

Countries

• Germany

Study Locations