For the entire time of the existence of mankind, each person has spent his life in normal earthly gravity – 9,806 meters per second squared. And then a few decades ago, people started spending days, weeks, and then months in free fall. We are only now beginning to understand what life without gravity does to the body. Kinesiologists Lee Gable and Stephen Boyd of the University of Calgary published a new study that examined the bones of astronauts. They found that prolonged time in space causes bone degradation that never completely goes away. If our future is in space, this could be a big problem.
Scientists are not shy about the terms of the study, which was published in the journal Scientific Reports. They call the effect of weightlessness on astronaut skeletons “profound.” Even a year after returning to Earth, bone density is not fully restored. In fact, being in space for even a few months causes your bones to age at a faster rate, up to 10 years per flight.
This study focused on people who were on long-duration space missions, which in this case means three months or more. In partnership with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Gable and Boyd examined 17 astronauts (14 men and 3 women) before and after a 6- to 12-month stay in space.
Only one of the astronauts who participated in the study regained normal bone density after a long stay on Earth. In the remainder, most of the density loss was concentrated in the weight-bearing bones of the lower extremities, but the arms returned to normal after about a year. The team analyzed the mineral content and density of the bones, which allowed them to determine how the “failure load” had changed. On average, the maximum load on the tibia of astronauts before spaceflight was 10,579 Newtons, but after the flight it decreased to 495 Newtons. Over time, they partially recovered, but after a year they were still declining by an average of 152 newtons.
The researchers also note that those who have been in space longer, the strength of the bones decreased more. Astronauts who have been on the International Space Station for more than six months have regained less bone density upon return. Long-term missions like those envisioned in the Artemis program could seriously affect the health of astronauts in the future. It also raises more questions about how people will live long-term in an environment with less gravity than on Earth, such as the Moon or Mars.
Perhaps it is possible to mitigate the effects of weightlessness to some extent. Astronauts perform rigorous exercises under simulated gravity during missions to prevent muscle wasting. The researchers used exercise data from the mission and say that extra attention to the legs (such as deadlifts) can reduce density loss. However, it may be years before we fully understand how the body reacts to microgravity.
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Source: IXBT
