Space mission Axiom 4: The universe can be a family one day

After being postponed multiple times on account of technical glitches, Axiom Mission-4 set pulses racing in a nation of over 1.4 billion when the Crew Dragon Grace lifted off from Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center in the US on 25 June. 

This spacecraft was sent up by SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, the reusable bulk of which returned swiftly to its pre-launch clasps on the ground after delivering the necessary thrust. Designed to travel on, the crew capsule docked on Thursday at the International Space Station (ISS), which has been in low-earth orbit with seven astronauts aboard. 

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They’ve been joined by Axiom-4’s team of four led there by American astronaut Peggy Whitson, described by Nasa as a “frequent flyer." Apart from Shukla, the mission’s pilot, its other members are scientists Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland on behalf of the European Space Agency and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.

Scientific, engineering and technological research will be the bedrock of Axiom-4. This mission is chock-a-block with projects. It has brought aboard the ISS as many as 60 studies from 31 countries. Common to all are the conditions of microgravity—or near weightlessness—under which experiments will be conducted. This could prepare the ground for replication  in deep space someday. Seven of these projects are from India, selected by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

They include tests with three strains of edible micro-algae, which will be compared with algae grown on earth; the sprouting of salad and food crop seeds, which is broadly about space farming; and gauging the effects of metabolic supplements on muscle strength, which may help us work out how to address the atrophy that astronauts suffer on long missions. 

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Another experiment involves studying cyanobacteria (also known as blue-green algae) to see if they can grow in microgravity with urea and nitrate from human waste as fertilizer. The idea is to explore if this could be a source of nutrition in space. It can potentially yield a ‘superfood’—think of Spirulina, which is valued for the protein and vitamins it packs in—that lays a path to human survival away from the home planet for prolonged stretches. 

Crop seeds grown in orbit  will be brought back and grown under a lens for several generations. Yet another project will study the physical and cognitive effect of computer use, aiming to develop screens suitable for long-duration space missions. Isro has also sent up Tardigrades, known as ‘water bears.’ These are microscopic aquatic invertebrates that can survive extreme conditions—from volcanoes to radiation. How well these ‘extremophiles’ handle microgravity will be of interest.

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India’s participation in Axiom-4 offers hope for our collective future. Health, food security and our ability to withstand extremes of weather triggered by climate change—all these are vital fields of study. 

What we learn from those tests will advance human knowledge for the benefit of all, even as this quest fosters a  scientific temper. The need to explore the habitability of space should also concentrate minds on the future of the planet we inhabit. In Gaganyaan, Isro has its own crewed space mission lined up for 2027. But for Axiom-4, we have global collaboration to thank. As universal truths go, it’s self-evident that the world must learn to collaborate on earth too.