Right Step is the 1st Estonian company to be selected for the SciSpace CORA Parabolic Flight programme and will fly the 85th Campaign in November 2024 facilitated by the European Space Agency (ESA). The last Estonian company to fly was Myoton (https://www.myoton.com) who participated in the 55th campaign and subsequently went on to send its device to the International Space Station.
Right Step’s experiment “Assessing exercise on bone loading from a novel perspective on earth and in microgravity.” was selected due to Right Step’s innovative approach to bone health. The experiment seeks to both advance the understanding of bone loss and identify opportunities for effective countermeasures. Parabolic flight is a medium through which experiments can be carried out at a variety of g levels, including hyper gravity and microgravity.
Right Step’s philosophy “to learn in space and apply on earth” is the center piece of its strategy to improve the outcomes of patients who undergo lower body surgeries by measuring their ability to weight-bear and tracking their progress throughout rehabilitation. Parabolic flight presents the first opportunity for Right Step to test its technology’s suitability to measure and monitor weight-bearing in microgravity and delve deeper into the response of the body to exercise.
Right Step, an ESA-BIC Estonia company, partnered up with TalTech’s Centre for Environmental Sensing and Intelligence, lead by Assoc. Prof. Jeffrey Tuhtan and leading expert in the field of bone physiology, Dr. Laurence Vico of St Etienne, France, to shape the proposal, along with support from Dr. Jin Luo of the University of West London, who also acts as a scientific advisor to Right Step. Dr Luo’s research in bone health and osteoporosis is at the core of Right Step’s solution.
Right Step co-founders Mike Crooks and Marcus Carter will prepare for flight over the next 6 months, with the campaign consisting of one week of experiment preparation and boarding, followed by three flights of 31 micro-gravity parabolas in early November.
“At Right Step, we are concerned not only with developing solutions to benefit patients rehabilitation post-surgery but also with providing quantifiable measurements to hospital directors, surgical leads, and clinicians as to the effectiveness of the program. Walking is a fundamental human right, and weight bearing is the fundamental measurement of walking” stated Mike Crooks.
“We don’t know everything and only provide what we do know in our current solution, keeping it as focused as possible. We are aware of the challenges associated with long-duration space flight, and while we can certainly aid in this area, we are hoping to leverage the unique environment of space to further our knowledge of bone health to apply here on earth. This is the first step for us to do that” he continued.
Right Step’s Osteosense product captures a patient’s weight-bearing ability in near real time with the scientific foundations of bone loading at its core. The project is supported by the Estonian SekMo programme, which promotes innovation by bringing Right Step’s commercial expertise together with one of TalTech’s leading research groups in sensing.
Initially, Osteosense allows simple and repeatable assessments to be carried out in under 3 minutes, using two miniature sensors worn on each of the lower limbs. The primary focus of the solution is on patient progression and trajectory. It is envisioned that Osteosense will be able to monitor a patient’s weight bearing remotely, providing an intuitive way to allow patients to control their weight-bearing during recovery.
Assoc. Prof. Tuhtan is especially happy with the newfound trajectory of innovation in wearable sensor technology. “We are very excited about the opportunity to learn and innovate with Right Step, and to study the effects of exercise on the human body related to bone health in this highly challenging and unique environment. Estonian space research is taking a major step in the right direction. These flights are just the beginning of a series of disruptive innovations planned between Right Step and our group at TalTech.”
Sven Lilla, ESA BIC Estonia commented, “It’s awesome to see that novel health and space tech combined with real solutions are pushing the boundaries of future manned long duration space missions to support astronaut health. Learnings in space are very transferrable to on earth health problems and it is good to have Right Step in our portfolio of startups”.
Sander Sipelgas of the Estonian Space office stated, “The Estonian Space Office welcomes RightStep’s initiative to test its new technology in parabolic flight. Human space exploration is a relatively new area for the Estonian space scene, having joined the relevant ESA programme in 2022. We are pleased to see Estonian companies actively developing solutions in this field, which will be crucial for human health monitoring in the future. RightStep’s Osteosense is a promising new solution we look forward to seeing tested on space missions. It sets a mark on what can be achieved in health technologies”.
About Right Step:
Right Step is an Estonian company, part of the ESA-BIC Estonia, committed to improving patient outcomes post surgery. It’s flagship product, Osteosense allows the capture of a patient’s weight-bearing capability in simple assessments and delivers progress outcomes to hospital staff.
Right Step works with research institutions that align with its vision of improving bone health and is currently engaged with a variety of institutions TalTech, University of West London and Jean Monnet, St Etienne. Right Step is also working with partners in healthcare and female professional football in the UK.
Right Step is a team of bio-mechanists, software engineers, and analysts that offers Osteosense, custom sensor solutions, and human movement analytics services.
Right Step is working with TalTech under Jeff Tuhtan to develop future sensing solutions for bone health to practically aid healthcare practitioners in managing their patients through rehab. This includes being able to “listen” to a bone during motion.
