Astronauts Suffer Horrific Amount of Bone Loss, Study Finds
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As we enter the dawn of a new space age, however, there’s still little we understand about the impacts of long-term space travel on humans.
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Astronauts Suffer Horrific Amount of Bone Loss, Study Finds
In just six months, they experience decades worth of skeletal deterioration.
9:00 PM · Jul 1, 2022
https://www.thedailybeast.com/nasa-astronauts-on-the-space-station-suffer-horrific-amount-of-bone-loss-study-finds?ref=scroll
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Space missions are set to take off in the coming decades. Not only is NASA planning to return to the moon with the Artemis missions, but the agency and a host of private space companies like SpaceX have their sights set on colonizing Mars. As we enter the dawn of a new space age, however, there’s still little we understand about the impacts of long-term space travel on humans. But some new research sheds light on how months of microgravity affect the body—and it doesn’t look good.
In a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, University of Calgary researchers have found that astronauts who spent more than three months in space aboard the International Space Station (ISS) only partially recovered from extensive bone loss. While the phenomenon naturally occurs in humans on Earth, the loss appears to be more prominent when the body is exposed to microgravity. In fact, the study’s authors found that six months in space resulted in decades worth of bone deterioration.
“Understanding what happens to astronauts and how they recover is incredibly rare,” Leigh Gabel, an assistant professor of kinesiology and lead author of the study, said in a press release. “It lets us look at the processes happening in the body in such a short time frame. We would have to follow someone for decades on Earth to see the same amount of bone loss.”
The issue stems from the microgravity environment of space. One of the biggest factors behind bone health is weight. Like muscles, bones need weight and stressors to maintain their strength. Without them, they become weakened over time. If your body is too underweight, it can lead to serious bone issues including osteoporosis, a disease that causes your bones to become so brittle that even a coughing fit could result in broken ribs.
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Was supposed to work …
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but that particular design is enormous, compared to the ISS.
However, much, much larger designs have been proposed, but they are along the lines of space colonies, as opposed to a mere space station.
The "O'Neil Cylinder" concept is 4 miles in diameter and 10 miles long;
Gerard K O'Neil proposed mining the Moon for the materials needed to build such a structure. His proposals were all spelled out in his 1976 book "The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space". He knew 47 years ago that we had the ability and the technology BACK THEN to undertake such projects, but this country and its government seemingly preferred to spend trillions on its military instead of the betterment of mankind.
"If your body is too underweight, it can lead to serious bone issues including osteoporosis, a disease that causes your bones to become so brittle that even a coughing fit could result in broken ribs."
Interestingly the bone density scans I've had show no osteoporosis. What does that tell you about me?
