Bone mass machine set to come down to Earth soon

A handheld device designed to help astronauts counter loss of bone mass in microgravity environments will soon be available to the general public online, according to the developer.

"The functions of the device we will sell online will be the same as those used by astronauts in space right now," said Ma Yan, deputy general manager of Shandong Huayu Aerospace Science Co, which is owned by the Shandong Institute of Aerospace Electronics Technology with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp in Yantai, Shandong province.

After more than 10 years of development, the instrument was tested for 13 days by astronauts aboard on the Shenzhou IX spacecraft in 2012.