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from the just-stay-horizontal-and-wear-tight-spandex dept.
New research brings more bad news to astronauts thinking about long-haul space flights as spinal muscles shrink after months in space, scientists have found.
Floating around in space in an environment with little or no gravity is not good for the human body. Along with decreased bone density, nausea, a puffy face, possible cognitive deterioration, an astronaut's back starts to weaken too.
The research is part of NASA's wider project to study the physical effects space has on the body to prepare for long-haul flights to Mars.
Results from the NASA-funded research have been published in Spine, and show spinal damage persists months after the astronauts return to Earth.
Six NASA crew members were subjected to MRI scans before and after spending four to seven months floating around the microgravity conditions of the International Space Station.
NASA should send the astronauts into space with one of those inversion tables so they can hang upside down.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 28 2016, @11:17AM
Shaft seals are completely different from a rotating crew compartment. How many wires and tubes are connected between the rotating section and the non-rotating section? The submarine would have few if any. A space station would need a lot going through that rotating connection. We can do that, but it isn't trivial. Even getting the extra components needed for that into space isn't trivial. The medical insurance is likely far less costly that the extra engineering and transport costs to get a rotating section and besides, we didn't even know of the medical need until recently.
Second, 33 atmospheres is completely different from 0 atmospheres from an engineering perspectives. At 33 there's tons of pressure pushing in on the craft. That pressure will help seal any leaks in the frame. The pressure is helping you right up until it crushes you. With an outside pressure of 0, any leaks will be increased as the outward pressures forces them open even more. When you're inside a circle/dome/sphere, higher pressure on the outside helps maintain structural integrity where as higher pressure on the inside means you'll explode outward.