- When you get to space,
because you're in a zero G environment,
some really funky things happen to your body.
(upbeat music)
I grew an inch.
Right now, I'm 5'11" but in space I was six-feet tall.
On the ground, gravity compresses your spine,
it pulls you down, the force factor going down.
In space, without gravity pulling your spine down,
every vertebrae has a chance to move up,
which gives you your extra inch of height.
After my spine elongated,
when I went to bed on the first night,
I felt some back pain, some lower back pain,
and so I actually curled up to kind of alleviate that pain,
to kind of stretch it out even more.
A few other ways the body can change in space
are the heart gets smaller and changes shape
because it's not having to pump as hard to pull the blood up
from your feet,
'cause now things are just floating and working
inside your body so it's pumping easier,
therefore the muscle walls actually changes the shape
and they get smaller.
Without gravity, your bones, they change shape
and they lose calcium, and they become more brittle.
So, we run on a treadmill that you strap yourself down to
and you run on the treadmill to actually give loads
into your bones to keep them from atrophying
and losing bone density or calcium.
For some people in space, your intracranial pressure
changes with pushes on your eyeball
and that changes its shape,
therefore requiring you to wear glasses in space,
so it effects your vision.
So, we keep different prescriptions of glasses
on board just in case someone's vision changes.
Any changes in our bodies
and anything that happens in space,
it's worth it for the spirit of exploration.