Chinese astronaut will be the first woman in space to carry out extravehicular activities including fighting cancer

Wang Yaping visits space for the second time after succeeding in 2013, when she became the second Chinese woman to leave Earth. This time, your presence will serve to test equipment designed especially for women.

Only 15 women have conducted spacewalks, which is due in part to “the shortage of adapted suits,” Chinese expert Pang Zhihao explained to local media, adding that “a suit weighing about 90 kilos, lighter than 130 kg standard ”and designed for female astronauts.

Pang assured that “women are better suited for long stays in space“Because” in microgravity, they metabolize estrogen and magnesium better than men and have low iron levels, “which makes them” less prone to thrombosis and heart problems. “

Wang Yaping is the first woman to visit Tiangong, where not only Chinese astronauts, but perhaps foreigners as well, are expected to visit in the next few years.

Fighting cancer in space

The Tiangong space station will also test a hypothesis formulated by Canadian doctor Tricia Larose of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Does weightlessness prevent tumor growth?

The project consists of sending healthy and cancerous organoid cell tissue from the same person to space to study the different mutations they experience in a weightless environment and under the effect of cosmic radiation.

Larose, based on research indicating that weightlessness affects gene expression related to tumor development, predicts that tumor growth will slow or even stop when they are far from Earth’s gravity.

Thathe only female-led project accepted by Tiangong, whose crew member Wang Yaping will likely be the first Chinese woman to conduct a spacewalk. (I)