The first baby could be born in space within the next 12 years, an expert has said.
Dr Egbert Edelbroek, founder and chief executive of SpaceBorn United, said the company is designing missions where pregnant women can give birth in orbit.
The aim is not currently for the whole pregnancy to take place in space, but instead a 24- to 36-hour mission for the labour.
Speaking at the first Space and Science Congress of Asgardia the Space Nation in Darmstadt, Germany, Dr Edelbroek said he thought this would happen by 2031.
SpaceBorn United is a startup that researches conditions for human reproduction in space, and is focused on assisted reproductive technology.
This is only possible, for now, in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO), and it is only possible thanks to a very thorough selection procedure,’ he said.
Lower earth orbit is an earth-centred orbit with an altitude of 2,000 km or less.
Dr Egbert Edelbroek, founder and chief executive of SpaceBorn United
The congress heard some of the requirements for participant expectant mothers, and medical staff.
These would include having experience of two flawless previous deliveries, and a high natural radiation resistance.
Dr Edelbroek said: ‘You can induce the labour process like they do in IVF clinics on a daily basis.
‘Planning is, of course, an issue – it is hard to plan a natural process like this if there is something wrong with the weather, or a delay with the launch.
‘We could never work with just one pregnant woman.
‘We would have maybe 30 participants and they could step out at any moment.
‘But the experts that we work with, they believe, and I believe, that this is possible at a lower risk level than an average Western-style delivery on Earth.
That would be the only way to make this possible.’
He added that, while he thought this was possible, he was not planning for it, with the company’s work focusing on embryo development and conception in space.
Asked about the 12-year estimate, Dr Edelbroek said it would depend on funding and developments in the space tourism sector.
‘If that sector is going to accelerate in the way it’s doing right now, there will be markets for very wealthy people who aren’t prepared to do three months’ military training, happy to go as they are,’ he said.
‘And there will be spacecraft that are very comfortable for those people. It depends on the risk you are willing to take.’
Dr Edelbroek was formerly part of another company SpaceLife Origin, who also hoped to launch a pregnant women into space to give birth.
But according to a message on its website the operational activities of the company have been suspended as CEO & Founder Kees Mulder said he had ended the relationship with Dr Edelbroek ‘due to a serious and irreparable breach of trust.’
During a study conducted by NASA in 1997 pregnant rats were observed during re-adaptation to 1-g force and labour and delivery in space.
Although the rats gave birth successfully after exposure to microgravity an analysis of the rat’s labour found that they experienced around twice the number of labour contractions as controls on earth.
In June Dr Irina Ogneva, lab head of cell biophysics of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences, revealed the ambition for the first baby born in space to be Russian.
‘We have always been first in space, and would want the first human to be born in space to be a citizen of Russia,’ she said.
But she admitted that so far Russian cosmonauts have refused to donate sperm obtained in space for scientific study.
Dr Ogneva did not make clear whether she expects the first space baby to be conceived as well as born in orbit.
On a baby being born in orbit, she said: ‘We should take care about the person and not patriotic populism as the cornerstone.
‘Most important is not the fact [for the baby] to be born, but [for the child] to be born healthy.
‘And in this sense we are, beyond any doubt, competitive, because we hold the leadership in many studies.’
The leading scientist said: ‘It is too early to set a goal but it can be set as an aim.’
And she admitted: ‘From a scientific point of view, the birth of any mammal in space is an aim that can be achieved.
Source: Dailymail
