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On the devastating effects of a year in space

brisbanetimes.com.au

21–30 of 135 posts

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the concern is about gravitational conditions once you're on Mars, but the long trip to and from Mars (18 months each way, best case with current technology). Edit: I was wrongly thinking 18mo each way when it's closer to 18mo-ish round trip. Sorry internet armchair soldiers.

Where are you reading this? It is seven months each way as per the following: https://www.mars-one.com/faq/mission-to-mars/how-long-does-i...

Yes, you are right. I goofed up.

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#22
post #3

Based on the experience of cosmonauts who spent long periods of time on various Mir missions in the 1980s and 1990s, what is the long-term impact of staying in zero-gravity space for so long? If they lost bone mass, the walls of their hearts became thinner, and they received the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays daily over hundreds of days in space, are they experiencing debilitating effects 20 or 30 years later?

Irreversible bone mass reduction; heart shrinkage up to the point astronauts couldn't walk upon returning to Earth.

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#23
post #5

...And this is why Mars for colonists is still very much a turgid fantasy. We need to dream less, and commit more to the hard and expensive org of solving these problems. Step 1: stop stripping NASA down to bare metal. Here’s some possible insight into the impact of radiation on their brains: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/05/space-radiation-may-d... this is in addition to bones, muscles, eyes, etc. Edit: the pr…

Yeah - so instead let us not do anything and spend our time commenting on random threads how bad the idea is. You realize that at every cusp of a major technological breakthrough, there were 100s of people like you saying how terrible the idea was?

You are getting downvoted for your pessimistic and can't do attitude than anything else.

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#24
post #3

Based on the experience of cosmonauts who spent long periods of time on various Mir missions in the 1980s and 1990s, what is the long-term impact of staying in zero-gravity space for so long? If they lost bone mass, the walls of their hearts became thinner, and they received the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays daily over hundreds of days in space, are they experiencing debilitating effects 20 or 30 years later?

Given that lack of gravity seems to be a major risk factor for well-being I'm surprised a static structure like the ISS doesn't yet have a rotating centrifuge-like structure ala 2001: A Space Oddysey to at least ward off the effects during sleep and downtime

As others have stated, if you don't take a very large diameter, the Coriolis effect starts to be really disorienting. That can be counteracted somewhat by reducing the speed of rotation, but that comes at the cost of lower effective gravity.

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#26
> But very little is known about what occurs after month six. The symptoms may get precipitously worse in the ninth month, for instance, or they may level off. We don't know, and there is only one way to find out.

Actually, there's a second way: call Valery Polyakov.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeri_Polyakov

Or a whole bunch of other Mir veterans:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Avdeyev

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#27
post #3

Based on the experience of cosmonauts who spent long periods of time on various Mir missions in the 1980s and 1990s, what is the long-term impact of staying in zero-gravity space for so long? If they lost bone mass, the walls of their hearts became thinner, and they received the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays daily over hundreds of days in space, are they experiencing debilitating effects 20 or 30 years later?

Given that lack of gravity seems to be a major risk factor for well-being I'm surprised a static structure like the ISS doesn't yet have a rotating centrifuge-like structure ala 2001: A Space Oddysey to at least ward off the effects during sleep and downtime

The ISS is simply too small for that. It would have to spin at a ridiculous rate in order to get to a level of gravity where the effects are no longer felt. And in this particular case that is actually a blessing because even if the space station would be able to do this the spaceship used for any interplanetary traveling would not and so no useful data for such a trip would be collected.

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that lack of gravity seems to be a major risk factor for well-being I'm surprised a static structure like the ISS doesn't yet have a rotating centrifuge-like structure ala 2001: A Space Oddysey to at least ward off the effects during sleep and downtime

Well they do have those tied-down-with-a-spring treadmills, but that only covers you for the duration of your workout. I don’t know anything about constructing things for use in a space station, but I can’t imagine creating such a rotating structure would be easy, cheap, or safe.. a problem with a structure rotating quickly in space could quickly cause major safety issues for the ISS I’d imagine.

Resistance training is certainly still possible, but you still lose the normal ambient resistance you get on earth just from walking around and holding your limbs in place against gravity. The difference between low-gravity and someone on Earth who doesn’t exercise much is probably much larger than the difference between a non-exercising Earthling and an Earthling who exercises.

Besides, that doesn’t really work for the other physiological effects of low gravity, like the heart and circulation issues mentioned in the article.

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that lack of gravity seems to be a major risk factor for well-being I'm surprised a static structure like the ISS doesn't yet have a rotating centrifuge-like structure ala 2001: A Space Oddysey to at least ward off the effects during sleep and downtime

One was planned, but it was cancelled due to budget overruns: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Mo...

Humans would not have fit.

The goal was to "Expose a variety of biological specimens that are less than 24.5 in (0.62 m) tall"

Re: On the devastating effects of a year in space

#30
post #3

Based on the experience of cosmonauts who spent long periods of time on various Mir missions in the 1980s and 1990s, what is the long-term impact of staying in zero-gravity space for so long? If they lost bone mass, the walls of their hearts became thinner, and they received the equivalent of 10 chest X-rays daily over hundreds of days in space, are they experiencing debilitating effects 20 or 30 years later?

I don't know the answer to your questions, but I did read in Chris Hadfields book that it takes basically the same amount of time you are in space to recover afterwards on the ground. If you're up for 6 months, you'll need about 6 months recovery.

But he's totally ok now, right?
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