from the er,-the-dept,-is,-er,-what-is-it,-err,-I-forget-... dept.
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
The effects of being in space can worsen an astronaut's working memory, processing speed and attention - which could be a problem for future missions
Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) had slower memory, attention and processing speed after six months, raising concerns about the impact of cognitive impairment on future space missions to Mars.
The extreme environment of space, with reduced gravity, harsh radiation and the lack of regular sunrises and sunsets, can have dramatic effects on astronaut health, from muscle loss to an increased risk of heart disease. However, the cognitive effects of long-term space travel are less well documented.
Now, Sheena Dev at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and her colleagues have looked at the cognitive performance of 25 astronauts during their time on the ISS.
The team ran the astronauts through 10 tests, some of which were done on Earth, once before and twice after the mission, while others were done on the ISS, both early and later in the mission. These tests measured certain cognitive capacities, such as finding patterns on a grid to test abstract reasoning or choosing when to stop an inflating balloon before it pops to test risk-taking.
The researchers found that the astronauts took longer to complete tests measuring processing speed, working memory and attention on the ISS than on Earth, but they were just as accurate. While there was no overall cognitive impairment or lasting effect on the astronauts’ abilities, some of the measures, like processing speed, took longer to return to normal after they came back to Earth.
Having clear data on the cognitive effects of space travel will be crucial for future human spaceflight, says Elisa Raffaella Ferrè at Birkbeck, University of London, but it will be important to collect more data, both on Earth and in space, before we know the full picture.
“A mission to Mars is not only longer in terms of time, but also in terms of autonomy,” says Ferrè. “People there will have a completely different interaction with ground control because of distance and delays in communication, so they will need to be fully autonomous in taking decisions, so human performance is going to be key. You definitely don’t want to have astronauts on Mars with slow reaction time, in terms of attention-related tasks or memory or processing speed.”
(Score: 5, Interesting) by pkrasimirov on Monday November 25, @09:33AM (5 children)
Is it because low-G or because they are confined for months in a can? Or maybe because every operation and science mission there is with so many safe checks and so slow they get used to the routine speed and are not in any hurry?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday November 25, @11:40AM
My understanding is that there have been groups that have attempted simulated Mars missions on Earth which have similar or to some degree harsher simulations of being stuck in a small vehicle and a time lapse to talk to anyone you aren't in close quarters with. So if I were trying to determine that, I would compare the people who spent 6 months on the ISS with people who spent 6 months doing one of those.
And given that I'm sure the bright people who do this for a living are at least as aware of those experiments as I am, I suspect they've already done that comparison and ruled things out.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Monday November 25, @06:39PM (1 child)
It's probably not the former and definitely not the latter. People are confined to small areas without their brains slowing down.
I would guess radiation damage is main factor here. There is precedence to this here on earth,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation-induced_cognitive_decline [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by Type44Q on Tuesday November 26, @01:24PM
Your guess would clearly be wrong - gravity obviously effects every cell in your body.
It shouldn't require too impressive of an intellect to extrapolate (qualitatively if not quantitatively) that the results aren't going to be good.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Monday November 25, @08:18PM
The most likely dominant single variable cause is prolonged exposure to high CO2 levels. Not "fatal" high, but high enough to make a meaningful physiological difference. Since ISS was designed, we've discovered humans are far more sensitive to this than expected.
Suggestion for future research: CO2 significantly impacts sleep quality, and that has knock-on effects for a bunch of systems. I'd be curious how good the air circulation is in the sleeping pods, and curious if the lack of convection currents from free fall are causes higher *local* CO2 levels in the sleep area specifically when they are occupied. A CO2 monitor pinned to their PJs would be one way to spitball this. Another would be to metric sleep quality while on a non-rebreather setup like a CPAP.
(Score: 1) by skaplon on Tuesday November 26, @01:57PM
Also: working at ISS is very stressful, there is a lot of stuff that needs to be done at both military and scientific rigor. The study should also be re-done once we have civilian space presence
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Monday November 25, @12:36PM (1 child)
Not a huge amount of testing and not a huge amount of test subjects, so I wonder about the error bars.
One interesting thing to think about is sleep quality. I wonder if they don't sleep well. Supposedly the station is pretty loud compared to earth bedrooms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 25, @12:49PM
In space, no one can hear you dream.
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Monday November 25, @02:51PM
So is this the origin of the term Spaced Out?
From an AI . . .
<no-sarcasm>
As VLM pointed out, quality of sleep. If you can't get quality sleep, it may also be possible that one cannot get quality masturbation either. Both of these, and other issues, are probably also experienced by crews on submarines, or other enclosed environments with little privacy. But at least those have 1 G. (no, I don't mean cell phone network)
</no-sarcasm>
Santa maintains a database and does double verification of it.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Frosty Piss on Monday November 25, @05:04PM
But does it level off at 6 months? This could be planned for and delt with.