{"id":107554,"date":"2026-03-16T14:02:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=107554"},"modified":"2026-03-16T14:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:02:35","slug":"do-we-have-the-muscle-for-mars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2026\/03\/do-we-have-the-muscle-for-mars\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we have the muscle for Mars?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 16, 2026 \u2013 NASA\u2019s goal is to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. Marie Mortreux, an assistant professor in the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Health Sciences<\/a>, is part of an international team of researchers studying how the Red Planet\u2019s gravity would affect astronauts\u2019 skeletal muscle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skeletal muscle is the most abundant tissue in the body\u2014representing more than 40% of the total body mass\u2014but it is especially sensitive and a loss of gravity and can result in substantial loss of muscle strength, size, and performance. Since Mars\u2019 gravity is about 38% of Earth\u2019s, it\u2019s important to determine how the muscle would handle the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we can simulate spaceflight on Earth in humans, it\u2019s extremely complicated and costly,\u201d said Mortreux. \u201cWe have centrifuges that can be used to temporarily expose humans to certain gravity levels, but it is not homogenous nor constant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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The research team at Kennedy Space Center confirming protocol and timing prior to receiving animals for post-flight sampling. The team included researchers, research assistants, and students from the United States and Japan. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Among the dozens of scientists involved in the project, many were from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). To determine how skeletal muscle reacts to different levels of gravity, 24 mice were launched from Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Center, where they were tested in the Kibo experiment module<\/a> developed by Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mice were exposed to four different gravity levels using the JAXA-developed, centrifuge-based Multiple Artificial-gravity Research System (MARS) laboratory over a 28-day period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe used gravity levels that were equally separated, to have a better picture of the dose-response of each system to gravity,\u201d said Mortreux, who leads the Metabolism and Muscle Biology Lab in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Department of Nutrition. \u201cThe test group that was exposed to 0.33g was extremely close to Martian gravity (0.38g). Our findings for that group can be translated into actions to enable Mars exploration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mortreux wasn\u2019t available for the pre-flight testing of the mice from January to March 2023, but when the mice returned from space in April 2023 she analyzed their weight, strength, and movement at NASA\u2019s facilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mortreux became involved in the project while collaborating with Professor Mary Bouxsein at Harvard Medical School as a post-doctoral researcher and instructor, prior to joining the 溏心vlog免费B站 faculty in 2022. She continued with the project after arriving at 溏心vlog免费B站, while protocols were defined and several launches were delayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Bouxsein developed the ground-based mouse model of partial gravity in the early 2010s, and I created the rat model of partial gravity at Harvard, so we were extremely experienced with the impact of different gravity levels on musculoskeletal tissues,\u201d said Mortreux. \u201cSince this mission aimed to assess gravity as a continuum, we were perfectly positioned to see if our ground-based results had similar outcomes when reduced mechanical loading was applied in orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mortreux was also comfortable working with her Japanese counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking with an international team was challenging and exciting,\u201d said Mortreux, who earned her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees and Ph.D. from Paris Diderot University in France. \u201cI think my experience working in Italy, France, and the United States prepared me for those big-scale collaborations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results of the research team\u2019s analysis of how different gravity levels affected the skeletal muscle of the mice is described in a peer-reviewed article published in Science Advances<\/a> in March. Data from the project is still being studied in Mortreux\u2019s lab and is expected to result in future articles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 March 16, 2026 \u2013 NASA\u2019s goal is to send astronauts to Mars as early as the 2030s. Marie Mortreux, an assistant professor in the 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of Health Sciences, is part of an international team of researchers studying how the Red Planet\u2019s gravity would affect astronauts\u2019 skeletal muscle. Skeletal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":107558,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,1905],"class_list":["post-107554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-health-sciences","tag-research"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107564,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107554\/revisions\/107564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}