Astroskin will soon be getting another ride to Space, thanks to Canadian Private Astronaut Mark Pathy and the first-ever private mission to the ISS, Ax-1, organized by Axiom Space. The Ax-1 space mission is set to send a crew of four private astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon. Set to launch in April 2022, Ax-1 is a 10-day mission where at least eight days will be spent inside the ISS to conduct several research experiments including research on the effects of microgravity, chronic pain, and sleep disturbances. Mark will be joined on Ax1 by fellow crew members Eytan Stibbe from Israel, Larry Connor, and Michael Lopez-Alegria from the United States.
M. Pathy, aged 52, is the CEO and founder of the investment firm MAVRIK CORP. He is recognized in Montreal, the city where he resides, to support several causes as a philanthropist. Married and father of three children, Mark Pathy decided to leverage his participation in this mission to collaborate with the Canadian Space Agencies to conduct experiments in microgravity that are a priority for children’s and universities.
As a Mission Specialist, he will be taking part in a total of 12 science research projects in partnership with six Canadian universities and their investigators, including clinician-researchers at The Montreal Children’s Hospital and Child Health Research at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre and become the first private Astronaut to wear Astroskin on board the International Space Station. Pathy will be funding himself the research conducted in Space and contribute to generating results and potential applications on earth that would have taken more time to be realized under the current Canadian space program.
Going to space involves months of planning. Canadian Private Astronaut Mark Pathy has been busy training at NASA Johnson Space Center ahead of the launch.
Pathy and his crew already took part in training exercises and will now embark on seventeen weeks of training to get ready for the mission. We look forward to following him and the Ax-1 mission in the coming weeks and months.