Ottapalam, 10 July (H.S.):NASA astronaut Dr. Anil Menon, an Indian-American physician with family roots in Kerala's Ottapalam, is set to become the first Malayali to travel to space when he embarks on his maiden mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on July 14.

The 49-year-old astronaut will launch aboard the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-29 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan alongside Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina. The mission is expected to last around eight months.

Dr. Menon traces his roots to Ottapalam in Kerala. His father, Sankaran Menon, hails from the town, while his mother, Elizabeth, emigrated to the United States from Ukraine.

A physician, former military officer and NASA astronaut, Menon has built a distinguished career spanning military medicine, aerospace healthcare and human spaceflight. During his service with the US Air Force, he was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. He also served with the Himalayan Rescue Association, providing medical support to climbers attempting to scale Mount Everest.

As a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, Menon spent a year in India, where he participated in polio vaccination campaigns, reflecting his long-standing commitment to public health.

He joined NASA in 2014 as a flight surgeon, providing medical support to astronauts aboard the International Space Station. In 2018, he moved to SpaceX, where he became the company's first Flight Surgeon and Medical Director, helping develop medical systems for commercial human spaceflight.

In December 2021, NASA selected Menon as an astronaut. After successfully completing the agency's rigorous two-year astronaut training programme, he was assigned to his first space mission. His wife, Anna Menon, is also an astronaut.

During his stay aboard the ISS, Menon will conduct a series of biomedical experiments aimed at improving the safety of long-duration space missions. His research will examine how prolonged exposure to microgravity affects blood circulation, the nervous system and blood composition.

Another key experiment will focus on developing technology to produce intravenous (IV) fluids using the space station's onboard water purification system, an innovation that could prove vital for future missions to the Moon and Mars where immediate medical resupply from Earth is impossible.

Menon will also carry out ultrasound examinations using augmented reality and artificial intelligence to enable astronauts to perform advanced medical diagnostics with minimal assistance from doctors on Earth. The research is expected to contribute significantly to making future deep-space missions more self-sufficient and medically resilient.

With his historic journey, Dr. Anil Menon is set to script a landmark chapter in India's and Kerala's space legacy while advancing research that could shape the future of human exploration beyond Earth.

---------------

Hindusthan Samachar / Arun Lakshman