According to researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of Rhode Island, artificial gravity can reduce the effects of weightlessness on bones and muscles. Muscle atrophy and bone loss are especially important for astronauts on long-duration missions. The study was the first to simulate the effect of artificial gravity in mice on the ISS.
Despite decades of human life on the ISS, the challenge of space exploration faces technological and physical limitations. Today we simply do not have spacecraft to fly to other planets and satellites other than the Moon.
NASA’s Artemis program is intended to be the starting point for exploration of the solar system. And the SpaceX Starship program is aimed at regular flights to Mars.
Future travelers to Mars will have to face the harsh conditions of outer space. Human evolution has adapted us to life on Earth, and space missions face radiation and prolonged weightlessness.
Weightlessness affects muscle and bone mass, but new evidence suggests it may be possible to reduce these effects. In the study, mice were subjected to weightlessness, 0.33G, 0.67G and 1G in centrifuges on the ISS during a 30-day mission. Similar conditions were created for mice on Earth. After the study, the body weight and bone strength of the mice were measured.
The femur suffers especially badly from weightlessness. The study found that femur bone mineral density increased for mice exposed to artificial gravity. The least muscle loss was also observed in mice at 0.33G. The mass of the ankle and gastrocnemius muscles was higher than that of mice under zero gravity conditions.
It remains to conduct similar trials in humans.
