http://www.racetomars.ca/mars/article_effects.jsp
Summary: To move on to missions to near earth asteroids or to mars, NASA and other space agencies will have to overcome the effects of long term space flight. Through research at the international space station, we know much more about what happens to astronauts over long duration stays in space. Most notably is the circulatory and muscle systems. On earth your body must overcome the effects of gravity so that your blood does not pool in the legs. Without gravity the heart does not need to work as hard causing blood to move up from the lower body to the trunk causing puffy faces and skinny legs. Also affected by micro gravity is the muscular system. Without gravity constantly pulling down on your body, muscles are not under the same strain that they are adapted to on earth. This can cause muscles that are repeatedly unused to become weak and unusable after initial return to earth. Several other parts of the body are also being investigated including the immune system and many of the psychological effects.
Connection: In order for humans to land on mars after a long flight to get there, the body must be as capable as it is on earth. This requires homeostasis to be kept throughout the flight as it affects the circulatory and muscular system. The systems cannot remain in balance in micro gravity and thus will be bombarded by a slew of homeostatic disruption. This is very similar to what we studied in how systems are compromised in disease.
If a person stays in space for too long, will the body become rendered useless? Let's say a person lives in space for 60 years. What will happen to the person? Will he/she die, or will microgravity just damage his/her body?
ReplyDeleteIs there any possible ways to prevent the negative effects of microgravity?
ReplyDeleteNobody is quite sure what would happen if you lived in space for much longer than a couple of years. The longest someone has spent in space was a Russian cosmonaut that spent 803 days on the space station Mir. However it seems that death could occur, the bodies immune system degrades and many of the skeletal and muscle systems cease to function
ReplyDeleteMany solutions have been proposed,Astronauts use weight resistance on orbit in order to try and prevent muscle loss. Other proposed solutions include large spinning space stations to simulate gravity along with faster ships that would make micro gravity less of a problem.
ReplyDelete