CAPE CANAVERAL: Astronauts can become as weak as 80-year-olds after six months at the International Space Station, according to a study that raises serious health concerns as Nasa contemplates prolonged trips to asteroids and Mars.
Marquette University biologist Robert Fitts, who led the study, stresses that the accelerated space ageing is temporary: astronauts’ muscles recover after a few months back on Earth.
But what if a crew needed to make an emergency landing on the home planet and rush from a burning spacecraft? What if an urgent spacewalk was needed for repairs? Would the Mars men and women even be able to muster the strength for routine work?
“I’d be concerned,” Fitts said this week.
Astronauts can avoid becoming weaklings, however, with more research and the right equipment for the space gym, Fitts observed. “I really think this is all preventable,” he said. Besides better exercise routines and equipment, astronauts also need to eat more, he noted.
Fitts bases his findings on calf muscle biopsies that his team collected on nine US and Russian space station residents from 2002 to 2005. It’s the first muscle study of long-flying astronauts that gets down to the cellular level.
Each astronaut spent six months on the orbiting lab, and submitted to a biopsy before rocketing away and upon returning to Earth.
Researchers discovered that the astronauts had lost more than 40 per cent of the power in the calf muscles’ slow-twitch fibres. These muscles are crucial for balance and posture, and seem to take more of a space-beating than other parts of the body.
Be the first to comment