Space Effects On The Human Body
Ah yes.
Welcome.
Ya like radiation? Lack of contact and gravity, isolation, and the mental impacts of the overwhelming and mind numbingly frightful abyss of space? I’d give it a go.
This ain’t my first rodeo.
(Technically this is my first post on this publication but it’s the last one I wrote.)
Space has horrible effects on the body. When talking about the stresses placed on the human body, it is grouped into five categories; gravity fields, isolation/confinement, hostile/closed environments, space radiation, and distance from Earth.
The first mission that really went in-depth about the side-effects of space on the body was the mission with Scott Kelly, a twin (so a perfect candidate). Kelly spent a year in space, twice the normal amount that astronauts typically spend in space and when he came back, scientists compared him and his brother, to see the longer term effects of space.
The first category, gravity fields talks about the three different gravity fields you would experience on a Mars mission. Space, of course, is weightless but Mars would have a working environment of one-third the gravity we have here on Earth. And then the trip back home would be weightless until Earth, where the readjustment would happen to how heavy the Earth’s gravity is.
Without gravity working on the body, bones lose minerals, and the density drops up to 1% every month. A helpful comparison from NASA, an elderly person’s bone density drops 1% to 1.5% over a period of each year. Even after the return to Earth with proper rehabilitation, bone density can cause osteoporosis related fractures which happens when the bone becomes weak and brittle. Osteoporosis is chronic and lasts years or even life long. It’s [osteoporosis] called the “silent disease because you cannot feel it, your bones weaken and you do not know until you hurt yourself.
