MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. The SIRIUS international project simulating a flight to the Moon includes research on women’s reproductive health, so the next stage will involve experiments of conceiving and giving birth to a child in isolation, Lena De Winne, prime minister of the Asgardia Space Nation, said.
The Asgardia Space Nation was founded in October 2016, when Earth’s residents were invited to register for citizenship. Three years later, the number of Asgardia citizens passed one mln, while 18,000 people became its official residents. The project’s goal is to create a state in open space.
"One of the main missions of Asgardia is to see a human child born in space. Research within the SIRIUS project focuses specifically on women’s health. <...> Once the SIRIUS project is completed, Asgardia plans to move on to isolated studies of married couples, which will involve conception and childbirth," De Winne noted.
She added that Ksenia Orlova, an Asgardia resident engaged in women’s health research, was taking part in the SIRIUS experiment set to kick off on November 14.
The SIRIUS (Scientific International Research In Unique Terrestrial Station) experiment is an international project, being carried out in line with the vision of the International Center for the Development of Medical and Biological Support of Interplanetary Flights. The experiment is taking place at the Moscow-based Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The experiment is organized by the Institute of Biomedical Problems and the NASA Human Research Program, in coordination with experts from Russia, Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy, the UAE and other countries. The project includes a series of isolation experiments. The first one took place in November 2017, when a test crew spent 17 days in isolation. Another isolation experiment lasted four months in 2018-2019.