With modern medicine and the everyday safety a first world existence brings us, sometimes we like to think of ourselves as indestructible. Whether we like it or not, humans are animals that require a very specific environment. Regardless of our level of technology, space exploration involves putting very healthy people into very unhealthy circumstances. A good few billion years of species deviation and evolution has led to us being very adapted and dependent on the confinements of our cosy blue planet. We humans regard things like gravity, a breathable atmosphere and the availability of sustenance as rather important. Space, for all intents and purposes, lacks all of these things. Why is this bad news? Even on short term journeys, major physical effects are felt. You can expect to lose about 30% of the muscle in your legs and back within just a few months, while your bones become brittle as they lose 1-2% of their density every month. The lack of gravity means the heart also isnt required to work properly and steadily becomes weak and abnormal. As a result, movement becomes harder and blood fails to clot properly meaning any small cut can become deadly. Your immune system even goes haywire. A multitude of latent viruses such as herpes simplex emerge, even if they werent a bother on Earth. And once youre home, things dont fix themselves right away. Recently, astronaut Scott Kelly just did a yearlong shift on the International Space Station. He felt things he didnt expect, like the intense burning of his skin from touching foreign substances for the first time in 12 months. This is all on the time scale of 6 months to a year. What will happen when it could be 3 times as much? If science makes your brain box fizz, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for plenty more.Want to write for WhatCulture Science? Click here to find out how you could get paid to write about what you love.
