While the world celebrates International Day for Yoga on June 21, experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, have developed an anti-gravity body suit for astronauts that will help them perform yoga in space.

Announcing the development on the eve of International Yoga Day, the AIIMS doctors said astronauts will benefit from the anti-gravity gear as it will help them strengthen muscles and prevent loss of bone density minerals.

What is touted to be India’s first bodysuit for astronauts will increase the weight of the astronauts by over 70 percent in space, preventing them from floating, doctors at AIIMS said. The National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar, validated their claim. The proof of concept will be presented to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

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The development comes at a time when India is preparing to launch its own human space flight mission, said reports.

AIIMS has been pursuing space physiology in a vigorous way for the last few years, Mint quoted Prof KK Deepak, head of physiology at AIIMS, as saying.

“The space journey of astronauts adversely affects the functioning of muscle and bones. The anti-gravity gear will help astronauts to strengthen antigravity musculature and will also prevent atrophy in microgravity environment," Deepak said. Atrophy is a health condition in which the size of body parts decreases.

The professor claimed that no other country in the world had such a unique body suit for astronauts with grounding and loading facility.

It is said that Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma, the first Indian to fly to space in 1984 along with Russia's Yury Malyshev and Gennady Strekalov, practised the revolutionary 'zero gravity yoga' during his eight-day journey, Economic Times reported earlier.

Sharma had also advised the other astronauts to practice yoga to deal with space sickness.

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(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)