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from the the-final-frontier-is-dangerous dept.
Cristoforetti, of the European Space Agency (ESA), was scanned prior to her trip to the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2014. When Cristoforetti landed back on Earth on June 11 this year, her 199-day mission meant she became a new record-holder for the single longest spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing NASA's Sunita William's 195-day flight in 2006-2007. Cristoforetti's skin cells were subsequently re-scanned by Koenig, who explained how on the ISS skin physiology is different, leading to some surprising results.
"So far we've got interesting results from three astronauts. It seems that there is a strong production of collagen; so suddenly these astronauts have more collagen. It means there is some sort of anti-ageing effect, at least in the dermis - the lower part of the skin. And we found that the epidermis, in particular the part of the living cells, that this epidermis is shrinking, so the skin gets thinner," Koenig said.
Bone de-calcification? Check. Cancer from space radiation? Check. Thinner skin? Check. Perhaps we ought to go with exploration via telepresence robots for the time being?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday July 22 2015, @04:21PM
> it's just too tempting to read it as "skin gets thinner *because of* space"
But it is 100% correct too.
Since humans don't wander outside of the ISS naked, "in space" is equivalent to "in the environment designed to sustain life and have a productive time in orbit".
I don't know if I should be amused or appalled that skin thinness and aging was published on the rare woman in orbit.