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Will astronauts traveling to Mars remember much of it? That's the question concerning University of California, Irvine scientists probing a phenomenon called "space brain."
UCI's Charles Limoli and colleagues found that exposure to highly energetic charged particles – much like those found in the galactic cosmic rays that will bombard astronauts during extended spaceflights – causes significant long-term brain damage in test rodents, resulting in cognitive impairments and dementia.
Their study appears today in Nature's Scientific Reports. It follows one last year showing somewhat shorter-term brain effects of galactic cosmic rays. The current findings, Limoli said, raise much greater alarm. (Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/srep34774)
"This is not positive news for astronauts deployed on a two-to-three-year round trip to Mars," said the professor of radiation oncology in UCI's School of Medicine. "The space environment poses unique hazards to astronauts. Exposure to these particles can lead to a range of potential central nervous system complications that can occur during and persist long after actual space travel – such as various performance decrements, memory deficits, anxiety, depression and impaired decision-making. Many of these adverse consequences to cognition may continue and progress throughout life."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 05 2017, @05:06PM (1 child)
And send the cripples to the space stations. Not much use for legs in space.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 06 2017, @09:26AM
It's just that paraplegics wouldn't be AS affected by a lack of functionality in them in space, except in extreme circumstances.
However having an extra set of limbs for course corrections or cushioning blows that would otherwise impact your torso would be beneficial. Unlike Earth you could in theory do the majority of things in space without the lack of functional legs seriously impeding you, whereas on Earth more things would be impossible without them.
Quads would be screwed either way without either a brain-controlled exoskeleton or a repair/bypass technique for an inoperable spine however.