Kathmandu: A team of NASA scientists, along with their Indian and Nepalese aides, is set to leave for the Everest base camp on Monday to carry out experiments on "sleeping and waking movements" for future space programmes.
The team of 25 scientists from NASA, who arrived in Kathmandu on Saturday in a research mission, includes doctors, pilots and scientists.
Besides the American and European scientists there also six Indian and 11 Nepalese aides in the team.
"Quality sleep is crucial to daytime alertness and performance on critical tasks, and can also impact long-term health. Lack of sleep could even affect safety," Steve Vander Ark, Section Manager, Behavioural Health NASA said.
Chris J Johnson, who is the NASA Orion Landing System Integration Manager, is the leader of the expedition. They wanted to do some serious research to help the astronauts.
Equipped with the Actiwatch and Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development Portable Test System, the team members would record the sleeping and waking movements and light exposure of the subjects.
"Actiwatch resembles a wristwatch and records the wearer's sleeping and waking movements. It also measures light exposure. Several members of our group will be wearing an Actiwatch during the hike. In general, these devices will show how well the hikers sleep during the trip," Ark said.
Vander Ark is taking a device up Mount Everest to monitor what happens with the sleep/wake cycle when the human body is subjected to long periods in challenging environments.
The Lab-On-a-Chip, which can detect bacteria and fungi on surfaces inside the International Space Station, will be used to look for snow algae, he added. Former NASA astronaut Scot Parazynski has already left for Everest as a member of an expedition towards the summit.
"We expect to meet Scott at the base camp," Chris said. If his attempt is successful, he'll become the first person ever to have gazed up at space from the pinnacle of Earth's tallest mountain, and gazed down on that same pinnacle from the black vacuum of space, he said.
Steve said trekking to the base camp will be comparable in some ways to what astronauts face while engaging in a long spacewalk or an excursion on the surface of the moon or Mars adding Mt Everest provides a good space analog.
The team's research would benefit future space travellers, they claim. The outcomes of the research would aid future research projects of the NASA, he said. The research could help scientists develop efficient procedures for future field studies on moon and Mars.
The team also collected more than $1500 to support the Prisoners Assistance Nepal. The team plans to leave for Lukla, gateway to the Everest on Monday and is scheduled to return to Kathmandu on May 2.