Here are a few effects that zero gravity has on the body!
9.
Weakened Bones All’s good in space…...until you break
a bone, or ten.
“Spaceflight osteopenia” is the astronaut’s version of the disease osteoporosis, only
worse.
Astronauts lose around 1% of bone mass per month while in space, and this could increase
after long periods of exposure to zero gravity.
Spaceflight osteopenia is the same bone loss that an elderly person would lose except,
obviously, astronauts are typically only around 30 years old.
Although, there IS actually a small amount of bone that does grow while an astronaut
is in space, it’s growing in a weird way.
Bone growth happens in the direction of mechanical stress, and in space there is no mechanical
stress.
So basically, the body is growing every which way all over the place, which is actually
making bones weaker.
So why exactly does this happen?
Two reasons: lack of gravity, which is duhhhhh, and calcium expulsion through urine.
Wait what?!
If astronauts pee in space their bones pretty much starts to disintegrate?!
Well, you guessed it, astronauts can’t just stop peeing, so researchers designed a super
clever plan to counteract these effects: good ol’ exercise.
Living in space is a constant workout!
In fact, astronauts actually exercise AT LEAST 2 hours per day when in space.
I guess working out better be on your list of favorite things to do when you’re an
astronaut.
Even after astronauts are back on Earth, the pain doesn’t stop.
Walking and standing become super-human chores, and it can take up to 3 years to get back
the bone loss, if ever.
Hmmm…..I wonder what the life expectancy for the average human being be in zero gravity?
8.
Loss of muscle mass Oh, did you think that it’d only be bone
loss?!
An astronaut also loses A LOT of muscle.
Without Earth's gravity pulling you down, your muscles take a nice little vacation,
and eventually disappear.
So say goodbye to whatever gains you’ve had after those hours at the gym if you want
to visit space.
Without constant exercise, astronauts can lose up to 20 PERCENT of muscle in only 10
DAYS!
That’s just insane.
Wow.
This incredible amount of muscle loss has been compared by the UK Space agency to a
20-year-old turning into a 60-year-old in only three months.
Researchers have tried many different alternatives to help astronauts redevelop the lost muscle
tissue, but apparently lifting free weights and doing cardio are the things that have
worked best.
Do I really need to say this?
Gym equipment has to be modified to the environment.
I’m sure you guys have figured out that a 200 pound weight will most definitely not
weigh 200 lbs in space.
Even after all that outer-space exercise, upon arriving back to earth astronauts still
have trouble standing up and balancing themselves on their own feet.
You could say they get to time travel and experience how it feels to be 100 I guess!
That’s one sensation I’m not in a rush to feel!
7.
Losing Track of Your Body While the human body adapts to zero gravity,
it’s a shock not being constantly pulled down.
Actually, it’s a shock not having a “down” to speak of.
This causes a disruption in the senses that researchers call “loss of proprioception”.
This is the loss of one’s grasp in the world.
An Apollo astronaut said that the first night he experience in space he realized that he
had lost track of his arms and legs.
He couldn’t even tell if he had limbs!
That has to be quite a out-of-body experience!
I guess zero gravity would be a great type of therapy for people with chronic types of
pain in their body.
This loss of feeling has caused problems in space before.
In the Apollo 9 crew, Rusty Schweickart had to delay a spacewalk because he was feeling
queasy: if he puked while in his spacesuit, the vomit could spread in his helmet, which
would most likely make it quite difficult to see, or even interfere with his breathing,
causing him to potentially choke to breath.
Now that’s one way I’d imagine would be an embarrassing and painful way to go!
6.
Astronaut moon-face It’s pretty common to look at pictures of
astronauts and see a round, full face.
C’mon, you guys really think that the food in space is actually THAT good?
Nope.
The effect is usually called “moon face” and no, it’s not caused by looking too much
at the moon.
It’s actually the effect of zero gravity on bodily fluids: without gravity to pull
it downwards, all sorts of fluids are floating around and are re-distributed to the upper
body, resulting in bulging neck veins, puffy face, and nasal congestion.
That could make one h*ll of a sexy skype call, don’t you think?
The normal mechanisms that keep fluids down are pretty much useless in space, and the
60% of blood that’s usually in the lower limbs on Earth goes up and elsewhere after
a mere 30 seconds in a zero-gravity environment.
We’re talking about EVERYTHING here: From blood to mucus.
Astronauts have said that space-flight actually feels a lot as if they had a perpetual cold.
The good thing is, immediately after returning to earth, a lot of these effects disappear,
thank goodness.
The bad thing is, depending on the length of the trip, you’re basically getting that
physical feeling of having a cold all the time for the entire length of your trip.
Think about that for a second...
YEP. 5.
Loss of Fluids The same mechanisms that make astronauts look
moon-faced and congested cause a cascade of aftereffects that can be pretty dangerous
if not treated.
After the re-distribution of bodily fluids, the heart doesn’t need to work as hard to
get blood to every inch of your body, as there already is blood kinda just going everywhere
without gravity after all.
The weakened heart will cause low blood pressure in the legs and mess with the ability of the
body to send enough oxygen everywhere when it’s time to get back on Earth.
Under normal conditions, blood pressure is higher in the legs and lower in the brain.
These changes caused by the redistribution of blood in space makes the brain’s internal
pressure increase.
The body then believes there’s too much fluid in the body, and the astronaut’s body
lowers its blood volume by typically about 20% of total blood volume in the first days
of zero-gravity.
The same thing happens to plasma volume as well.
Less fluid to pump around means less work for the heart, thus slowing it down.
This means that if you stay in space long enough, you heart could eventually stop altogether!!
Okay, okay I’m just seeing if you guys are paying attention; your heart’s gonna eventually
stop working anyways, not just because in space.
But trust me, going to space is still RISKY BUSINESS!!!
So with a loss of blood volume, how does it feel to get back to earth?
Once astronauts lack back on earth, they feel queasy and most of them can’t even stand
on their feet for more than 10 minutes WITHOUT FAINTING!!
Nevertheless, after drinking ginormous quantities of water and juice, and also some really good
meals I’m sure, they’re back to normal in just a few days.
4.
Space sickness Comparing space travel to a bad carnival ride
might be a stretch, but symptoms are quite similar: nausea, vomiting, vertigo, headaches...long
story short, you’ll be feeling like sh*t the first couple of days in space.
It’s related to motion sickness, as the body’s vestibular system adapts to weightlessness.
Space motion sickness is caused by changes in g-forces, which affect spatial orientation
in humans.
Gravity plays a major role in our spatial orientation.
Changes in gravitational forces influence our spatial orientation and require adaptation.
The changes in the perception of space causes the body to produce visual-orientation illusions
that mess with your mind: one second you’re feeling you’re okay, and the next minute
you’re feeling like you’re upside down…...except there’s really no upside down, since you’re
weightless.
That could mess with anyone’s mind, ya know?
After a couple of days in space the body adapts and you start to feel like your orientation
is the normal orientation no matter your surroundings.
There is an unofficial scale for space sickness used by NASA: the Garn Scale.
This was named for United States Senator Jake Garn, whose sickness during a zero-gravity
test was THE WORST on record.
EVER.
That would be an embarrassing honor to say the least.
Apparently the senator vomited, fainted and lost balance, and didn’t get much better
after returning to normal conditions.
Accordingly, one "Garn" is equivalent to the most severe possible case of space sickness.
I guess no one wants to be known because of THAT.
Still, that terrible precedent hasn’t deterred other politicians of trying out the zero-g
facilities whenever they can.
3.
Eye troubles NASA has also found that eyes and eyesight
suffer significant changes after space flights longer than 6 months.
Flattened eyeballs and changes in the retina have been reported, and astronauts have declared
that their vision is blurry after coming back from a long period in space.
As I mentioned before, because weightlessness increases the amount of fluid in the upper
part of the body, astronauts experience increased intracranial pressure.
This appears to increase pressure on the backs of the eyeballs, which affects their shape
and slightly crushes the optic nerve.
Another curious effect is known as “Cosmic Ray Phenomena”, or AKA “light flashes”.
These are spontaneous flashes of light perceived by astronauts outside the Earth’s magnetosphere.
We don’t actually know if these light flashes are perceived or actual light that goes off
in space.
Apparently these could all be product of the eye’s reaction to phosphenes in the atmosphere,
which are sensations of light produced by the activation of neurons along the visual
pathway.
I’m pulling the conspiracy theory card here!
NASA is just trying to hide aliens from us!
Most of these mysterious flashes have been reported to be white, although some astronauts
have seen blue, yellow, or even green flashes.
Maybe these are the auroras of space?
Maybe they’re just stars: apparently these flashes look like spots or small streaks in
the empty darkness of space.
Some astronauts have described the flashes like comets, clouds, or even supernovas.
The flashes also happen fairly often: most astronauts claim to have seen them every 2-3
minutes.
That’s A LOT.
I’m still standing by the alien theory and calling NASA’s bluff.
They just want to communicate with us!
C’mon, haven’t you watched ANY space movie?!
2.
Excess flatulence Remember we said that space affects muscles
and causes muscle loss?
Well, that goes for ALL OF THE MUSCLES.
Including the muscles on your belly and…..nether regions.
Muscle loss around the abdomen won’t only mean that your beloved six-pack is MIA, but
also that you have less of an ability to stop that natural gas from coming out after a meal.
So you could say crews REALLY get to know each other while in space.
Hopefully this didn’t happen to Kate Upton while she did her photoshoot in zero G!
Anyways, researchers have studied for years the mechanics of farting in space.
YEAH, someone’s job is actually measuring space farts.
This is because human flatulence is actually composed of two gases: hydrogen and methane.
These are BOTH highly flammable gasses.
If the gas concentration reaches a high enough level within a small place, like a space capsule
or even a space suit, a small spark could destroy everything in its reach.
Like a fart-induced nuclear bomb.
This means that unaccounted flatulence in a spaceship could actually result in spontaneous
combustion and breath.
By farts.
In the sixties, a research team actually took it upon themselves to measure the frequency
and composition of flatulence among a space crew, in order to determine what kinds of
foods would make the trip less... gassy.
This is why space food is bland: that kind of diet reduces gas and diminishes explosion
risk.
You can thank that fart-smelling team for their amazing work!
1 - Long-term dangers of space Okay, okay, you got me, this isn’t really
an effect of a zero gravity environment, but at this point we’ve been talking about being
in space for so long, we might as well brush up just a little bit on the dangers of being
in space!
It hasn’t actually been thoroughly studied, but the high levels of radiation that astronauts
are exposed to during their lifetime could exponentially increase their risk of cancer.
This is because being exposed to gamma and x rays can cause cellular mutation, and increase
the body’s potential of developing certain diseases.
In 2012, NASA revealed a study showing that spaceflight could harm the brains of astronauts,
and accelerate the start of Alzheimer’s disease.
Apparently, high radiation to brain cells could offset the disease and cause other cognitive
issues, such as disorientation and confusion.
A neuroscientist at the University of Rochester, Kevin O’Banion, has stated that space radiation
poses a significant risk for the development of Alzheimer’s in former astronauts.
I guess if you’re really into aging, then you should really get to outer space!
Astronauts from the Apollo mission are also five times more likely to lie from heart disease
than any other astronaut.
WHAT?!
Further studies showed that the radiation is probably the main cause because in that
time space capsules didn’t have the same protections as today, making astronauts from
those initial flights more vulnerable to radiation than their more recent counterparts.
A little too late for that warning, if I say so myself!
But hey, those are always the risks being the guinea pig!
Here’s what’s next!