- You've been at it for a good 3 minutes Lauren.
- Oh my gosh.
Feels like an eternity.
- [Lauren] Sending people to space
isn't just about hardware and mechanics.
It's also about biology.
You're body changes a whole lot in microgravity.
And you can be exposed to some harmful elements.
So I'm headed to NASA to learn how astronauts
keep their bodies healthy
during missions in space.
So a big part of an astronaut's day
is just working out.
Here on earth we have gravity to work against,
so just standing works our bones
and our muscles, but in zero gravity you don't have that
so you risk weakening your muscles and bones.
But we're here at the counter measures training facility,
and you're job is to stop that from happening.
Well we try to minimize it as much as possible,
and the way we do that
is we have them workout 6 out of 7 days a week
for 2 1/2 hours per day.
- That's a schedule I should be adhering to
hear on earth.
- We all should, but...
That time is spent working out for roughly an hour.
Lifting weights on that machine.
They'll run for basically
another 45 minutes to an hour.
Or they'll hop on the bike and exercise that way.
- Now I'm gonna get a taste
of what it's like to work out like an astronaut.
- You are.
- So I feel like I might need to change.
- You better go get dressed down.
- Okay.
- [Lauren] These aren't your average machines at the gym.
They're specifically designed for microgravity.
- If we took a weight set up to the station
it wouldn't weigh anything.
- Just be mass floating around getting in the way,
so we use basically differential pressure.
You have two evacuated cylinders,
that you can see up there.
Inside each cylinder is a piston,
so that would be sort of synonymous with a syringe.
- [Lauren] If you were to close the top of a syringe,
it creates a vacuum that's hard to pull against.
The canisters do basically the same thing,
creating a simulated weight
that astronauts can lift in space.
You're pulling against that force.
- Yes, yes.
- Gotcha.
- When you're ready stand up nice and tall.
You have the weight.
You're gonna squat down.
There you go.
- I've been traveling so I haven't been working out
in a while.
So please bare with me.
(laughs)
- Very good.
Step forward.
Bring your shoulders and chest forward,
look for the orange.
Dip, go down.
- Does it feel different when it's on the station
because we are in a gravity environment?
- The load will feel the same,
however, the machines will move with you.
- Give me a break here.
Weight lifing really isn't my thing.
So we moved on to something
that's more my beat, cardio.
- Now the trick about running on a treadmill in space
is that you actually have to be connected
to the treadmill
and loaded down to the treadmill surface,
Or else you just float away.
And you wouldn't be running very long.
So what we have... - Is a harness.
- Is a harness.
- How do I look?
- Next step is to get you on this treadmill
and connect it to what we call bungees.
These are 3 big pieces of surgical tubing.
And we're gonna connect you at the hip.
- [Lauren] It's definitely a bit odd
to run while attached at the hip.
You're body wants to move fast,
but you feel weighed down.
I feel like my body is trying to be torn in two.
(laughs)
In space, of course, it's the only way
to stay on the treadmill,
and actually get a workout.
Here's a good question.
Where does the sweat go?
Does it float off and annoy the other astronauts?
- At first it'll just stick to your face
in big balls, big globs of sweat.
Because of surface tension.
Eventually that ball of sweat will grow
and get larger and I you like did that,
it's just gonna fly,
and then it's gonna get captured by the ventilation system.
It'll get recycled and it's tomorrow coffee.
(laughs)
- Wonderful.
[Lauren] I definitely got a workout in
by testing another mode
on the treadmill and even a bike.
They like to give the astronauts options
as working out is a consistent part of their daily routine.
But it's not just bones and muscles that change in space,
astronauts also experience vision disorders,
cardio vascular issues and balance problems.
And then there are health hazards linked
with just being outside the safety of earth's atmosphere
like space radiation.
Radiation is concerning because it can pierce
through materials, including skin and cause damage.
There are a few different sources of space radiation.
You've got energetic particles
that are periodically ejected from the sun.
And then you have deep space cosmic rays,
from exploding stars outside our solar system.
Here on earth we're protected from good chunk
of space radiation thanks to our planets magnetic field
and atmosphere.
These two things act like barriers around earth
deflecting a lot of particles that head our way.
Astronauts live outside most of our protected atmosphere,
so they get more exposure on the job.
And if they were to go deeper into space,
their exposure would be even higher.
NASA has a radiation laboratory set up in New York.
The scientists use a particle accelerator
to study the effects of space radiation on DNA and cells.
- Instead of bringing the samples up to the radiation,
we bring the radiation down to the samples.
You take ions and you accelerate around in a ring
faster and faster until the electrons start to strip off.
So you're left with a residual positive charge
and those are the types of ions that are present
in the space radiation environment,
but you can generate them on the ground.
- So the beam actually comes from up this tunnel over here.
On the rails in there.
They might be able to see,
and this essentially becomes a target area,
where samples can be brought in and placed
on the beam line,
so that they can be exposed in a sequential,
systematic kind of a fashion.
- [Lauren] Scientists are then able to test
how different levels of radiation may affect astronauts.
- They are monitored carefully,
to assess what level of radiation they have been exposed to.
That's not anything different,
then say a nuclear plant worker, or a coal miner
or something who is encountering some radio active material.
- Just another blue collar job, no problem.
- Astronauts have dosimeters like we actually have here
a particle accelerator that will measure approximately
what dose your body has received.
- [Lauren] That's important because too much radiation
can have some nasty affects.
- There are 3 main areas that are of concern
to human beings in space travel.
One of them is the affects on the central nervous system.
Another major one is the affects on other organs as a whole.
And the third major area of interest,
which is probably the primary one is cancer.
- [Lauren] Mitigating these affects of radiation
is a top priority for NASA.
And one tool they're using
to reduce damage is spacecraft shielding.
Different materials like aluminum and specialized plastics
can block from one quarter to one third
of radiation in space.
- If you could a more effective type of shielding material,
it would at least reduce the amount that the person
would absorb, and enough of it is blocked
such that it doesn't really produce any kind
of significant biological affects.
- [Lauren] Completely preventing exposure
is probably not going to happen,
but with more research,
better shielding can be developed
that may make trips into deep space possible.
Until then, I'll keep working on my fitness,
just in case NASA wants to send me to orbit.
- And it's the 3 mile an hour walk Lauren
so you can just kind of relax.
- I mean relax is a relative term here.
(laughs)
Walking has never been so difficult before.