Polaris Dawn had a busy first few days since launching Tuesday, including the first commercial spacewalk in history and Houston native Anna Menon reading her book to children from the spacecraft.

But among the group's most important tasks are scientific experiments, including some from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

Multiple experiments on space health sent by the TRISH team are being conducted by the Polaris Dawn crew to help further understanding of what time in space does to the human body.

"We're trying to understand how the body changes to each phase of flight," said Jimmy Wu, TRISH deputy director and chief engineer.

MISSION START: Polaris Dawn mission begins as crew finally launches into space

The data the Polaris Dawn crew members are collecting for the institute includes vision-related performance regarding Spaceflight Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome and radiation. Crew members will do tests for space motion sickness and cogitative performance.

TRISH is also collecting and conducting full analysis of biosamples from the crew, which Wu said is very compelling because of the potential for a "rich data set."

Data is collected via different devices and through different time intervals on the trip, including some data that is constantly collected. Pre- and post-flight data is also collected for some experiments.

A MILESTONE AND SUCCESS: Polaris Dawn completes first commercial spacewalk

Wu said previous relationships with Polaris Dawn commander Jared Isaacman from the Inspiration4 mission and Space X were crucial for them being able to support this mission.

While the research and tests are being done for the understanding of living in space, Wu said there can be applications to living on Earth because "if you can keep a human healthy in space, in the remoteness of space, you should be able to do that anywhere on Earth."

"Being able to take care of someone in space, understanding how their body's changing and helping them stay healthy and perform at a high level, the fact we can try to do that and hopefully be successful with that in spaceflight really opens up the fact that we should be able to do that anywhere on Earth." Wu said. "The tools that we develop to do that, it can directly spin off for us on Earth."

Wu said the data they receive from Polaris Dawn will not lead to one-off studies on the mission but instead be included in larger data sets including information from other missions.

READING ON BOARD: Houston native Anna Menon wrote a children's book. Watch her read it from outer space

He said it's important to have a robust data set, like any good science experiment, so the researchers can have confidence that their findings could have wide appeal instead of being more narrow in approach.

"We need to be able to have the statistical power to be able to do more with a greater subject pool to understand those trends," Wu said. "We can't just have a small sample size to say, Hey, this is how it is for everyone, right? We still need to have this done across multiple multiple missions, especially now with increased diversity of humans going to space."

Polaris Dawn, which is scheduled to be a five-day mission, launched Tuesday. While the five days mark the highlights for many people involved in the mission, that's not the case for the TRISH team.

The time Polaris Dawn is in space is less stressful for TRISH, Wu said, because the team's work is mostly on the front and back end as the investigators need to get the crew up to speed on how to conduct experiments and then analyze the research.

There's not much they can do from the ground, other than be supportive of what's going on up in space.

"Our work is front and back loaded to just get the crew ready for being able to support the science on their own, and then waiting for the mission and the outcomes from it," Wu said. "But you also know that the heavy lifting is still to come, because after they return, you got to get back to work."