Space Ready Menstrual Cups- A Giant Leap for Womankind

Two menstrual cups launched toward space in October 2022. They were contained in a small metal box created by aerospace engineers and rocketed to a height of 3 kilometers on the Portuguese rocket Baltasar, experienced a few minutes of microgravity, and then returned to Earth unharmed.

“They performed very well,” said astrobiology researcher Lígia Fonseca Coelho, who co-designed the AstroCup payload project, one of two experimental payloads (cargo not essential to the mission) on the rocket launched by Técnico University, in Lisbon, Portugal.

“Now we know that cups made by Lunette, and probably other brands, are very resilient in the turbulence and microgravity of a rocket launch,” she said.

The trial was a tiny step for two menstrual cups but a giant leap toward offering menstruation astronauts options, particularly on extended voyages to Mars or the moon.

The AstroCup team of six aerospace engineers designed and manufactured the 100-by-100-by-50-millimeter container, which was outfitted with equipment to record accelerations, pressure, temperature, and humidity. The team’s astrobiologists, including Coelho, compared the cups in the box before and after launch, and they recently finished follow-up tests on the two menstruation cups.

“Women’s health in space is an understudied area of research,” said Coelho, a Fulbright postdoctoral researcher in astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). “Certain topics, such as menstruation, are taboo, so we don’t talk about it, and if we don’t talk about it, people are not going to invest in it.”

Life in space problems are never far from Coelho’s mind. She analyses the reflecting spectra of colorful microorganisms as part of the team of Lisa Kaltenegger, associate professor of astronomy and head of the Carl Sagan Institute (A&S), developing a collection of biosignatures so telescopes can be constructed to seek for color-based signals of life.

She was a cancer researcher before working in astrobiology, and she designed a urinary tract infection diagnosis kit that could be beneficial for extended space trips with minimal crew. Her childhood ambition of working in mission control has evolved into devising payload experiments, like as the AstroCup project, that envision and plan for human life beyond Earth.

“In space, we are mainly dependent on what we bring from Earth,” she said. “It’s in these little things where we see gaps still existing in the technology of medical devices.”

Most menstruating astronauts halt their periods hormonally before going into space. They can choose not to on months-long International Space Station trips, but the only other alternative, according to Coelho, is to pack in disposable pads or tampons and pack out the used products at a significant cost. (NASA estimates that the current cost per pound launched into orbit is $10,000.)

On Earth, efforts are being made to educate women about sustainable solutions such as reusable menstrual cups. When Coelho saw that reusable solutions were not even included in space agency planning in 2019, she began trying to provide the same possibilities to future space tourists, who may be out in space for years.

“If you say to a woman, ‘you have to put your reproductive system on hold for five years and this is the only way you can go to Mars,’ we are going to have problems,” Coelho said. “With AstroCup, what we really wanted was not only to launch the cup but to launch this conversation.”

Coelho organized the 2022 AstroCup experiment as a side project with a group of colleagues, including fellow astrobiologist Catarina Miranda, who is now working in scientific communication, and aeronautical engineers Catarina Pereira, Miguel Morgado, Joo Canas, and Diogo Nunes. It wasn’t Coelho’s first payload competition; in 2019, she and collaborators from the MIT/Portugal Program – a collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Portuguese universities and research institutions, and the Portuguese government and industry – won a payload spot on Blue Origin’s New Shepard Rocket, testing the effect of microgravity on photosynthetic microorganisms that could be used in astronaut food.

Several firms expressed interest in participating; the AstroCup team chose Finland-based Lunette for its sustainable objective and constructive approach to providing women with options.

Following the flight, scientific studies using water and glycerol (a blood substitute) demonstrated that Lunette cups stay functioning despite the turbulence and microgravity experienced during a suborbital rocket launch.

The team’s next goal is to test the cups for long-term radiation exposure on the International Space Station. They are meeting with university research teams and businesses to identify the best potential.

The ultimate purpose of the AstroCup project is to ensure that individuals who go on long-term space journeys, including expeditions to Mars, have as many options as possible in their daily lives.

“It’s already going to be uncomfortable to not have air to breathe, to not have water from a natural source to drink. They won’t have the same amount of gravity. Sleeping is going to be weird,” Coelho said. “Let’s make them as comfortable as possible so they can have their normal human processes happen in a positive way, so they can focus on finding life on Mars, on building the colony, on putting us in the next frontier.”

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