SpaceX mission turns to Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad for health study

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in General Discussion edited September 2021
Apple products are set to play an important role in a SpaceX mission that will send an all-civilian crew into orbit, with Apple Watch Series 6, iPhone 12 Pro and iPad mini involved in a number of health experiments designed to examine the impact spaceflight has on the human body.

SpaceX Inspiration4


Crew of the Inspiration4 mission will perform a series of experiments on human health and performance during a three-day mission planned at a 575-kilometer orbit, farther from Earth than any manned spaceflight since the Hubble Space Telescope repair, SpaceX announced this week.

The aerospace firm is partnering with the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine and investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine on the project that will collect environmental and biomedical data, as well as biological samples, from the mission's four crew members.

"It's a pretty Apple-heavy set of projects," Jimmy Wu, senior biomedical engineer at TRISH and instructor for the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, told SpaceExplored. "Which is really great because the product speaks for itself."

During the mission, Apple Watch will collect "research-grade ECG activity, movement, sleep, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen saturation, cabin noise and light intensity," according to SpaceX. Readings are also expected to be gathered from the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle.

Crew members will further perform cognitive evaluations with the Cognition app on iPad mini, software that is used by NASA-funded research studies.

Apple's iPhone 12 Pro is being paired with the Butterfly IQ+ Ultrasound device to scan the crew's organs. The evaluation will help determine whether non-medical experts can use Butterfly IQ+'s artificial intelligence guidance, which is presented through an accompanying app, to acquire clinical grade images without assistance from the ground.

Other tests include the collection and examination of drops of blood using a Vertical Flow Immunoassay (VFI) device, balance and perception evaluations, and biomedical sample collection.

Inspiration4 is scheduled to launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 14.

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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 10
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Capitalism at it’s finest, the commercialization of space. Private enterprise will build the space station seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey and there will be a Hilton Hotel on it. Asteroids will be mined for important minerals.
    watto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 2 of 10
    byronlbyronl Posts: 363member
    so cool! love both apple and spacex 
    watto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 3 of 10
    slow n easyslow n easy Posts: 323member
    I feel like using the Apple products was probably not SpaceX’s idea. I have always thought of Elon Musk as anti-Apple. Why can’t Teslas have CarPlay, for example.
    watto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 4 of 10
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    slow n easy said:
    I feel like using the Apple products was probably not SpaceX’s idea. I have always thought of Elon Musk as anti-Apple. Why can’t Teslas have CarPlay, for example.
    Do Tesla’s support Android Auto?
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 10
    hexclockhexclock Posts: 1,258member
    lkrupp said:
    Capitalism at it’s finest, the commercialization of space. Private enterprise will build the space station seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey and there will be a Hilton Hotel on it. Asteroids will be mined for important minerals.
    Human ingenuity pushed to its absolute limit. Jobs in space. Sign me up. 
    edited September 2021 uraharawatto_cobrajony0byronl
  • Reply 6 of 10
    jSnivelyjSnively Posts: 429administrator
    I know this will probaly fall on deaf ears, but don't be weird FFS. Some comments were removed. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 10
    glennhglennh Posts: 72member
    jSnively said:
    I know this will probaly fall on deaf ears, but don't be weird FFS. Some comments were removed. 
    With all due respect, we thank you for removing weird comments! However, the last word of your first sentence does nothing to discourage anyone who incantation is too make inappropriate comments. 😎
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 10
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    I'm intrigued as to what the weird comments might have been.
    watto_cobrajony0
  • Reply 9 of 10
    kurai_kagekurai_kage Posts: 105member
    lkrupp said:
    Capitalism at it’s finest, the commercialization of space. Private enterprise will build the space station seen in 2001: A Space Odyssey and there will be a Hilton Hotel on it. Asteroids will be mined for important minerals.
    Much better than some alternative hotel chains.
  • Reply 10 of 10
    ilarynxilarynx Posts: 90member
    People seem to be unaware that capitalism was around during the Apollo program and was instrumental in its successes (and failures). Billionaires launching themselves into space as schools, roads, power grids deteriorate, is less about capitalism than it is plutocracy. 

    Musk's myopic "capitalist" endeavors in space are causing other problems: 

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