The state of weightlessness is a serious burden on the human body. How serious? Astronaut Frank Rubio experienced this firsthand when he just returned from his longest stay in space in decades. How has his musculoskeletal system, muscles and bones changed over 371 days? The answer will be useful to daredevils who will go to Mars in the future, because the return from the Red Planet may take more than a thousand days.
Frank Rubio has been waiting for this moment for over a year. The man spent 371 days in space – no American has ever been in orbit for so long. Rubio was supposed to return to Earth half a year ago, but due to the failure of the Russian Soyuz vehicle, the astronaut had to extend his presence on the International Space Station for another 6 months. – My favorite experiment I worked on on the ISS was growing tomatoes. I loved watching this little plant grow and develop. This helped us learn how to better manage water and nutrients. We also understood how to better use different methods such as hydroponics to grow plants. This is important because when we go to Mars one day, we will have to grow our own plants, says Rubio.
On a journey to the Red Planet, which would take almost 3 years both ways, we will need not only research on tomatoes, but also understanding what happens to the human body in space.
The longest in orbit, 437 days, was Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov. – The International Space Station is a unique place that allows us to study the most difficult part of space exploration, which is the human presence beyond the Kármán Line – explains Rubio. Many changes occur in the body of a person who has lived in space for months. This data was collected, among others, by astronaut Scott Kelly. His body’s reactions during the mission, which lasted almost a year, were compared with the health of his twin brother, also an astronaut. – Scott and his brother’s study was truly exceptional. This allowed us to obtain a huge amount of data that will undoubtedly be useful in studying the impact of space on people in the coming years, argues Dr. Marisa Covinghton, a scientist at NASA.
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Important answers
People on the International Space Station experience zero gravity all the time, which has a huge impact on their muscles and bones. After just two weeks in space, a person’s muscles shrink by 20 percent, and about two percent of their bone mass is lost each month. Scientists compare this to 20 years of aging. That’s why astronauts devote many hours a day to training. Life in orbit also involves weight loss – Kelly was almost 10 percent thinner after returning to Earth. The bacterial flora in his body has also changed significantly, affecting the entire body. According to scientists, this may be related, among other things, to a special diet and the fact that astronauts drink water recovered from urine. The skin is another part of our body that does not tolerate orbital travel well. – My whole skin hurts too. My wife desperately examines my body. It turned out that I had a strange rash on my back, calves and neck. Everywhere my body touched the bed. It looks like an allergy. It’s like being bitten by a swarm of bees, explains Scott Kelly, a NASA astronaut.
However, the most unexpected change is the impact of space on DNA. It’s about the so-called telomeres, which are located at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres shorten with age, but in the orbit their length increases. This suggests that the astronaut’s body is undergoing some kind of rejuvenation. – This was probably related to regular exercise and a proper diet, but when Scott landed on Earth, his telometers shortened and returned to their original length. The length of telomeres may be related to the health and lifespan of a group of cells in our body. Thanks to this discovery, we will be able to discover new therapies that improve health and well-being, emphasizes Dr. Marisa Covinghton. Scientists assure that most of the side effects of living on the ISS disappear a few months after returning to Earth. Subsequent records, like Frank Rubio’s, expand our knowledge of human behavior in space and bring us closer to answering whether humanity can be an interplanetary species.
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photo-source">Main photo source: ENEX
2023-09-29 20:07:25
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