There is no point in sending human explorers on long voyages around the solar system if they arrive at their destination in poor physical shape. Long stays in zero gravity are not good for the human body.
We already know that astronauts lose bone mass at around 1% for every month they are in space; muscles – including heart muscles – atrophy despite hours of exercise; and there are a host of other problems.
🎥 ESA – European Space Agency
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Humans are adaptable beings. Wear glasses that turn your view of the world upside-down and within two weeks your brain will have adapted to the topsy-turvy world.
Researchers suspect that astronauts’ brains adapt to living in weightlessness by using previously untapped links between neurons. As the astronauts learn to float around in their spacecraft, left–right and up–down become second nature as these neuronal connections are activated.
To confirm this theory, up to 16 astronauts will be put through advanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners before and after their flights to study any changes in their brain structure. A control group on ground will undergo the same scans for further comparison.
The research is providing scientists on Earth clues where to look in the brains of people who suffer from disorders based on previous traumatic experiences such as vertigo.
🎥 ESA – European Space Agency
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Like every other living creature we know of, humans evolved at the bottom of a gravity well. We take the Earth’s tug for granted, and so do our bodies. So it’s not surprising that our bodies behave oddly in orbit. What is surprising is that humans turn out to adapt remarkably well to zero-g (more precisely, microgravity).
🎥 ESA – European Space Agency
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