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Scientists Are Grappling With Our Biggest Limitation in Spaceflight

May 15, 2019

Our own bodies. We’ve sent people to space for decades — but we’re only beginning to learn what that means for their health

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Scientists Are Grappling With Our Biggest Limitation in Spaceflight

Wednesday, May 15th, 2019

The human body has evolved, for hundreds of thousands of years, to thrive on the surface of the Earth.

But what happens when you take such an earthbound body and put it in the weightlessness of space?

Things get weird.

Astronauts commonly report diminished eyesight upon their return home, possibly because the eyeball changes shape in space and tissues surrounding the optic nerves become swollen. Without the constant tug of gravity, bones become more brittle and muscles atrophy.

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Vox

The Human Body Might Survive a Mission to Mars Better Than Our Minds

February 21, 2019

Scientists are still trying to figure out how the human body responds to long-duration spaceflight… In particular, a mission to Mars could require at least a three-year round trip that would take a toll both physically and psychologically

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The Human Body Might Survive a Mission to Mars Better Than Our Minds

Thursday, February 21st, 2019

Scientists are still trying to figure out how the human body responds to long-duration spaceflight. It’s an important and open research question as NASA moves toward more deep space missions. In particular, a mission to Mars could require at least a three-year round trip that would take a toll both physically and psychologically.

At the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference last week, researchers revealed new insights into the physical effects of long-term stays in space. They focused mostly on studies of astronaut Scott Kelly, who spent a year on the International Space Station while his twin brother Mark Kelly stayed on the ground.

…continue reading ‘The Human Body Might Survive a Mission to Mars Better Than Our Minds’

Image via Flickr Some rights reserved by NASA Johnson

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Discover Blogs - D-Brief

Ron Howard: Creating Vision of a Future Mars Colony

November 6, 2018

To mark the second season of the television series Mars, Hollywood director Ron Howard talked to the BBC about creating a realistic depiction of the first human colonies on the Red Planet

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Ron Howard: Creating Vision of a Future Mars Colony

Tuesday, November 6th, 2018

If humankind is to expand out into the Universe, then Mars is likely to be our first stepping stone. With an atmosphere largely consisting of carbon dioxide and temperatures that vary between 20C and -125C, the Red Planet isn’t exactly ideal for human occupation.

We’d have to adapt to living almost entirely within sealed habitats – so outdoors-y types need not apply.

But there is perhaps a bigger issue in play. Colonising Mars would provide humankind with a lifeboat, ensuring our species’ survival if some giant catastrophe were to befall civilisation – let’s say an asteroid strike, or an ecological breakdown.

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BBC News

My Year on “Mars”

January 2, 2018

Physicist Christiane Heinicke spent 365 days sequestered with five others in a geodesic dome on the side of a Hawaiian volcano to test what isolation might do to the psyches of the crew on a Mars mission

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My Year on “Mars”

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2018

The wind sweeps quietly across the barren, dry landscape. There is not a shrub in sight, not a tree, not a single blade of grass that the wind might disturb. Only barren grayish-red rocks.

The wind never touched us as we peered out of our only window, which was more of a porthole than a real window. We did hear it though as it swept across our white dome perched on the slope of the volcano.

We lived and worked for an entire year halfway up Mauna Loa under conditions similar to those that explorers on Mars will encounter. We called the 1,200-square-foot space that we lived in our “habitat,” and whenever we left it we had to wear spacesuits. We each had our own tiny room outfitted with a bed, a small table, a stool and a chest of drawers.

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Scientific American

The Millennial Astronaut Who Wants to Go to Mars

June 15, 2017

Jessica Watkins, one of NASA’s newest recruits, says she’s ready—but only if there’s a ride back

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The Millennial Astronaut Who Wants to Go to Mars

Thursday, June 15th, 2017

When Jessica Watkins was growing up, NASA was launching space shuttle missions into low-Earth orbit about every few months. But Watkins, one of NASA’s newest astronauts, doesn’t really remember watching the launches on television. Her first enduring memory of American space exploration came in 2004, when a pair of robotic rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, landed on the surface of Mars.

“That was a really cool moment, and I kind of knew from then that it would be really awesome to work on a Mars rover,” said Watkins, who was 15 years old at the time.

Watkins and 11 others were introduced last week as NASA’s newest astronaut class, selected from a pool of more than 18,300 applicants. Watkins turned 29 years old last month, and is one of the youngest astronaut candidates in history. Two other new recruits, Kayla Barron and Zena Cardman, are the same age. This makes them the first astronauts to emerge from that much-maligned cohort, the millennials. Unlike earlier generations of astronauts, they came of age during a time in American spaceflight when space-shuttle launches were, for the most part, routine, and schools no longer interrupted lessons to wheel in bulky televisions so students could watch the action. By the time of their early twenties, the shuttle program was canceled.

Image: NASA/BIll Ingalls

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The Atlantic

Space Sex Is Serious Business

March 15, 2017

We’ve done almost no research into this area, but it’s key to living on Mars. NASA says no humans have had sex in space. There’s nothing other than speculation to suggest otherwise

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Space Sex Is Serious Business

Wednesday, March 15th, 2017

In January 1991, a couple of crazy kids got married. That these particular “kids” were in their late 30s, were astronauts, and were keeping their marriage a secret from their bosses at NASA only added to the romance. Mark Lee and Jan Davis met during training for a space shuttle mission and kept their relationship quiet long enough to ensure that it would be difficult to replace them on the mission, as NASA normally would have done under its then-unwritten rule that banned married astronauts from flying together. And so, in September 1992, Lee and Davis became the first (and, after the unwritten rule became a written one, possibly last) married couple in space.

America had just one question for them. You know. Eh? Eh? Wink-wink.

NASA says no humans have had sex in space. There’s nothing other than speculation to suggest otherwise. (Well, speculation and a vague sense that we would want to try it, given half a chance.) But you aren’t a total junior-high pervert for wondering. Sex — or, rather, reproduction — has piqued the curiosity of scientists, too. When they went to space together, Lee and Davis even spent some time artificially inseminating frog eggs for the greater good. (So, somebody got lucky on that trip. Sort of.)

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Five Thirty Eight

Top 7 Ways A Trip To Mars Could Kill You, Illustrated

September 30, 2016

“The risk of fatality will be high,” Musk conceded in the course of describing SpaceX’s absurdly ambitious (and still preliminary) plan to establish a human colony on Mars. “There’s no way around it.”

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Top 7 Ways A Trip To Mars Could Kill You, Illustrated

Friday, September 30th, 2016

Much like early voyages to the South Pole or the initial moon launches were incredibly dangerous, the first would-be Martian explorers will face huge risks. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. There are so many good reasons to send humans to Mars. But there’s a cost to conquering new worlds and exploring hostile environments.

So what exactly makes a journey to Mars so perilous? Chris McKay, a senior scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center involved in planning future Mars missions, walked us through some of the hazards. Some, like exploding rockets, are hair-raising; others, like radiation exposure, could prove more tolerable.

But it’s a good bet that something could go terribly wrong on any mission this audacious and complex. “Going to Mars is a big, big thing. It’s going to involve risks,” McKay says. “We’ll always try for perfect safety. But we all realize that part of the deal … is that there could be fatalities.”

NASA Study of Twins Mark and Scott Kelly Examines Biological Limits of Sending Humans to Mars

September 7, 2016

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NASA Study of Twins Mark and Scott Kelly Examines Biological Limits of Sending Humans to Mars

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

Dr. Francine Garrett-Bakelman arrived at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in the middle of the night, ready to get her hands on Scott Kelly’s blood.

She watched on a laptop as the astronaut stepped off a plane March 2 about 1:30 a.m., back in Houston after his record 340 days aboard the International Space Station. Then, in a nearby molecular biology lab, she set the centrifuge to the right temperature and looked over her pre-labeled test tubes.

Within an hour, a NASA staffer brought in two samples — one drawn just minutes before, and the other taken during Kelly’s final hours in orbit.

The physician-scientist shifted into high gear: Blood doesn’t keep forever, and every minute counts. So does every drop — these tiny samples had to be split among several research groups.

See Also – Health Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflight: Ethics Principles, Responsibilities, and Decision Framework (2014). Jeffrey Kahn, Catharyn T. Liverman, and Margaret A. McCoy, Editors; Committee on Ethics Principles and Guidelines for Health Standards for Long Duration and Exploration Spaceflights; Board on Health Sciences Policy; Institute of Medicine

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LA Times

Page 1 of 212 »

Scientists Are Grappling With Our Biggest Limitation in Spaceflight

Scientists Are Grappling With Our Biggest Limitation in Spaceflight

The Human Body Might Survive a Mission to Mars Better Than Our Minds

The Human Body Might Survive a Mission to Mars Better Than Our Minds

Ron Howard: Creating Vision of a Future Mars Colony

Ron Howard: Creating Vision of a Future Mars Colony

My Year on “Mars”

My Year on “Mars”

The Millennial Astronaut Who Wants to Go to Mars

The Millennial Astronaut Who Wants to Go to Mars

Space Sex Is Serious Business

Space Sex Is Serious Business

Top 7 Ways A Trip To Mars Could Kill You, Illustrated

NASA Study of Twins Mark and Scott Kelly Examines Biological Limits of Sending Humans to Mars

NASA Study of Twins Mark and Scott Kelly Examines Biological Limits of Sending Humans to Mars

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