bone density in space<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cIn space we don\u2019t experience any forces, our muscles, our bones immediately start to diminish because we don\u2019t load our body with those forces,\u201d explained Dr Dan Cleather, professor of strength and conditioning at St Mary\u2019s University and member of the HIFIm development team.<\/p>\n
Without regular exercise, astronauts also lose coordination and cardiovascular fitness. This would reduce their ability to carry out functional tasks required during missions. Current equipment on the ISS demands significant time commitments that limit opportunities for scientific research and experiments.<\/p>\n
International Development Race<\/p>\n
ESA, NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the UK Space Agency have all contributed to the equipment\u2019s development and testing. ESA supported the project by providing parabolic flight tests. Dr Meganne Christian, a reserve astronaut for ESA and Senior Exploration Manager at the UK Space Agency, noted that reducing exercise time \u201cfrees up more time for astronauts to do science and experiments, which could cause a whole range of breakthroughs.\u201d<\/p>\n
HIFIm is not the only device currently in development. The Danish Aerospace Company is also developing the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D) for ESA. The system includes four exercise modes: resistive training, cycling, rowing, and rope pulling. It also features motion-capture technology for performance tracking. The recent Artemis II mission also carried a specially developed flywheel exercise device.<\/p>\n
British Innovation and Design<\/p>\n
HIFIm originated from a competition between three European consortia to create exercise equipment for the Gateway Space Station, an orbital station planned for the Moon. Although Gateway has been sidelined by NASA, Christian emphasised that \u201cwe are at a really exciting moment in space exploration.\u201d He added that these devices can be used for new space stations and lunar surface operations with Artemis missions.<\/p>\n
The device was invented by John Kennett, a former aircraft engineer and pilates studio owner, who made the connection between bone density rehabilitation and space fitness needs. He believes the ISS was \u201cmissing a trick\u201d with current exercise approaches.<\/p>\n
Kennett\u2019s small device can reportedly handle 300 different exercises, works without electrical power, and can isolate vibrations so they don\u2019t interfere with fragile experiments or vessel structural integrity. The equipment was manufactured at Pinewood Studios by special effects engineers who have worked on Star Wars, James Bond, Mission Impossible, and won an Oscar for 1917.<\/p>\n
Testing in Extreme Conditions<\/p>\n
The latest parabolic flight tests focused on the rowing attachment. Notably, researchers could not properly evaluate it on Earth. Wells, who won bronze at the Beijing Olympics, described the experience as \u201coff the chart\u201d and \u201cthe most outrageous\u201d of his many post-Olympic physical challenges.<\/p>\n
Kennett described parabolic flight tests as \u201cextreme conditions\u201d for conducting science, with researchers having only 22 seconds of weightlessness during each manoeuvre to gather data before the cycle repeats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A British-designed exercise device that could transform astronaut fitness routines has completed testing in space-like conditions. Revolutionary Fitness…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33143,49,48,44,66],"class_list":["post-692979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronauts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"equipment](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/equipment-test.webp\")
This image features Dr Meganne Christian, a reserve astronaut for ESA, who helped test the equipment on the parabolic flight. Credit: ESA\/Novespace<\/p>\n