Greg Olsen to Perform Research on the ISS for the European Space Agency

Greg Olsen to Perform Research on the ISS for the European Space Agency

September 26, 2005

Space Adventures, Ltd., the world's leading space experiences company, today
announced a science agreement with the European Space Agency (ESA), for a
research program to be performed with Greg Olsen, Ph.D. who will visit the
International Space Station (ISS) next month. Under the agreement, Dr. Olsen
will act as a test subject for three experiments of ESA's onboard research
program.

The ESA experiments in which Dr. Olsen will participate aboard the ISS all
aim to study the response of the human body to the microgravity environment.
The experiments are designed to cast light on processes that cause
discomfort and pain to millions, such as nausea, lower back pain, and the
evolution of the body's bacterial flora.

"I do not consider myself a space tourist," comments Dr. Olsen. "Learning
how to live and work in space and my upcoming mission are truly a dream come
true for me. But I am first and foremost a scientist, and I am going to
carry out real science aboard the ISS. I am proud that my work will help
understand medical conditions that affect so many people on Earth."
"We, at Space Adventures, are very much in support of Greg's scientific
experiments while aboard the ISS. We encourage our clients to pursue their
interests and we assist in making it happen," said Eric Anderson, president
and CEO of Space Adventures. "Greg is very dedicated to the study of science
and should be commended for committing his time to assist ESA with their
program. We hope to continue this collaboration of efforts with future
clients as well."

Dr. Olsen, a successful entrepreneur and researcher, as founder of EPITAXX,
Inc. and Sensors Unlimited, Inc., rose to his eminent position from humble
beginnings. He grew up in Brooklyn, the son of an electrician and a school
teacher, and pushed himself to graduate in electrical engineering and
physics and gain a Ph.D. in material science. With his mission, carried out
under the banner "Science and technology are the easy way up," Dr. Olsen
wants to bring science and technology to life and motivate young people to
study scientific subjects.

The first experiment, called Motion Perception or MOP, will help ESA better
understand the mechanisms behind motion sickness, vertigo and nausea. These
conditions affect millions and may be seriously debilitating. MOP will study
the vestibular system, which is responsible for balance and orientation.
People exposed to stronger or weaker gravitational fields often suffer from
a form of sea sickness. It happens to astronauts as they adapt to
weightlessness, and it happens to those who come out of a centrifuge having
experienced two to three times Earth's gravity for several hours. The
experiment will check how the vestibular system adapts to weightlessness and
will compare this to the changes it undergoes in a centrifuge. "I hope my
work with these experiments will help people suffering from equilibrium
disorders and kids whose motor functions aren't working properly," said Dr.
Olsen.

Another problem affecting millions is lower back pain. Astronauts, too,
suffer from this condition, and ESA is studying it on the ISS with various
astronauts performing the Low Back Pain Experiment, which aims to understand
how changes in muscles influence lower back pain. In astronauts, this pain
is probably due to the atrophication during weightlessness of a deep muscle
corset which maintains our posture on Earth. This leads to ligament strain,
which may in turn cause lower back pain. Understanding this process will
provide precious data to help better understand and thus treat this serious
condition.

Finally, Dr. Olsen will explore the world of the station's smallest
inhabitants. Over the years, dozens of flights from Russia and the United
States have brought many people and many tons of equipment from all over the
world to the space station. Obviously, much of it could not be sterilized.
With the Sample Experiment, Dr. Olsen will help to collect more data to
detect and record the different species of microbes that have made a home
for themselves on the ISS - and on its astronauts. The study will reveal how
microbial populations are affected by spaceflight, and show if and how their
genetic mutation rate has been affected by the special conditions in orbit.

Dr. Olsen is scheduled to launch to the ISS on October 1 from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. He will be joining the Expedition 12 crew which
will also include American astronaut William McArthur and Russian cosmonaut
Valery Tokarev.

Space Adventures, the only company to have successfully launched private
space explorers to space, is headquartered in Arlington, Va. with offices in
Cape Canaveral, Fla., Moscow and Tokyo. It offers a variety of programs such
as Zero-Gravity and MiG flights, cosmonaut training, spaceflight
qualification programs and reservations on future suborbital spacecrafts.
The company's advisory board comprises Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin,
shuttle astronauts Kathy Thornton, Robert (Hoot) Gibson, Charles Walker,
Norm Thagard, Sam Durrance, Byron Lichtenberg and Skylab astronaut Owen
Garriott.

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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info