USF researcher joins NASA deep-sea mission

Mr. Dominic D’Agostino (Ph.D.), associate professor of University of South Florida has been selected as one of the four crew members for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) 22 expedition. He is the only member of the four who do not belong from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) or European Space Agency (ESA). He was selected for his research at the USF Hyperbaric Biomedical Research Laboratory (HBRL). He has done a research on how extreme environment impacts on the human body.

For this NEEMO 22 expedition, the crew members will be splashed down at the bottom of Atlantic Ocean. The mission will start on 18 June 2017. There they have to spend 10 days in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. It is six miles off the coast of Key Largo. They are going to experience living and working in the extreme environment at the bottom of the sea. The environment will be harsh and microgravity due to the pressure of water. They are to be accustomed to the space walk, test time delays in communication and evaluation of tools and procedures. This experience will help them in future space missions.

Dr. Agostino has developed a method to induce and sustain nutritional ketosis with ketone supplement formulations. This Ketosis balances the metabolic state of the body by burning the fat in place of Glucose. This method will help to preserve genome by protecting DNA. This research will countermeasure neurological risks in various space travel situation. Those are - space radiation, the stress of small space, lack of oxygen etc.

This is reported that there will be no other crew members will be in this metabolic state which creates a baseline for such environmental condition impact the human body in extreme conditions. The research data also will be collected from other crew members for various tasks like body composition, sleep quality, vision assessment etc.

The other experiments will be carried out also. The members of NEEMO 22 will test countermeasure equipment, technology for precisely tracking assets and assess hardware sponsored by the ESA. It will help the members to survive someone at the time of lunar spacewalk injury.

- Subhra Mallick