Being an astronaut looks like an exciting and glamorous career.
Living and working in microgravity can impact your whole body in different ways.
On the other hand, the human body is capable of adapting its physiology to survive in diverse conditions.
What is microgravity?
Microgravity is the condition in which people or objects appear to be weightless.
You may have heard that there is no gravity in space.
This is not quite true.
In fact, a small amount of gravity can be found everywhere in space.
Gravity becomes weaker with distance.
At that altitude, Earths gravity is about 90 percent of what it is on the planets surface.
The real reason people and objects float in orbit is because that they are in free fall.
In a vacuum, gravity makes objects fall at the same rate.
Astronauts who live on the space station spend months in microgravity.
What are the health consequences of microgravity on the human body?
Inspace, blood redistribution toward the head causes altered responses of the nervous and endocrine systems.
Fortunately,astronauts bodies can adaptto this in 4872 hours.
Due to reduced use, they may suffer from muscle atrophy.
This can make them unable to do physically demanding tasks while on a mission.
It feels like your muscles cant perform their job correctly.
to get to preventing thesehealth problems, astronauts exercise regularly, providing much-needed exercise in the microgravity environment.
Thats why someastronautsmay suffer from blurred vision, requiring them to wear glasses during the mission.
Orientation and balance
Gravity is the fundamental reference that tells us which way is down.
Microgravity makesastronautslose this reference, so they can feel disoriented and have difficulty coordinating their movements.
In space there is no gravitational force telling the inner ear which way is up and down.
This causes nausea and dizziness.
Some astronauts experience headaches and vertigo, theBBC reports.
How can astronauts adapt to microgravity effects?
Astronauts nervous systems usually adapt very quickly.
On return to Earth, gravity once again pulls the blood and fluids into the abdomen and legs.
The human body is an incredible machine that can do amazing things.
This article was originally published onThe Cosmic CompanionbyDr.
Ana Luiza Dias.you could read this original piecehere.
Astronomy News with The Cosmic Companionis also available as a weekly podcast, carried on all major podcast providers.
