Will an extended space stay affect astronauts?

Will an extended space stay affect astronauts?

Subject: Sci

Sec: Space sector

Context:

On August 24, NASA announced that Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule that took astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore to the International Space Station (ISS), as part of its first crewed test flight, wasn’t safe enough to transport them back. Instead, NASA extended Williams’s and Wilmore’s stay onboard the ISS until February 2025, when they will return in a SpaceX crew capsule to be launched in September 2024.

How does Space affect the body?

• 100 km above mean sea level and experiencing microgravity conditions.
• In microgravity, bones become weaker.
• Food may move more slowly through the gut and lead to weight gain.
• Around 70% of astronauts involved in long-duration spaceflight develop a condition called spaceflight associated neuro-ocular syndrome (SANS): more fluids enter the head and build up at the back of the eye, affecting eyesight.
• Because of the body’s weightless experience, the heart is required to do less work and could shrink.
• Similarly, other parts of the musculature could shed muscle mass and strength.
• The blood loses more red blood cells per day than it does on the ground, which means astronauts’ diets need to be adjusted to deliver more energy for their bodies to make more of these cells.
• The signals from the body the brain uses to help maintain balance and a sense of place could also be disrupted in space.

Causes of these symptoms:

• Including radiation exposure, confined environments, and gravitation.
• Time is also an important factor.
• In microgravity, muscles and bones can weaken due to lack of resistance. Astronauts may lose up to 1% of bone mass per month and experience significant muscle atrophy without proper exercise.
• The longer astronauts spend in space, the more pronounced the symptoms.
• The average range of time an astronaut spends in space has increased from one minute to one month in the 1960s to 10 minutes to six months in the 2020s.

Space omics:

• “Space omics” is a set of studies involved in understanding all the ways in which the body can be affected by the space environment.
• Scientists from around the world, including India, are part of the International Standards for Space Omics Processing to develop research and ethics guidelines for space omics.