Jeng Woo Park
ESS 102 AD
Research Paper
The Effects of Long-Term Space Flight
In the year 2121, Jay and his crew took flight into space. Jay’s mission was to reach a potentially habitable exoplanet, Proxima Centauri b, to colonize and recreate civilization after the nuclear destruction of Earth in 2028. With years of planning and preparing, he gathered one hundred of the brightest and healthiest men and women he could find and built a space craft that could travel at 0.8 of the speed of light. With this speed, he calculated the estimated time of arrival to be around 2126. The space craft is powered by the effective fusion reactor generator, in which a controlled fusion reaction is performed releasing small amounts of antimatter. The massive
…show more content…
There are the obvious dangers of outer space: the high-energy radiation, the lack of pressure in the vacuum and the severely low temperatures. These cause an abrupt death when encountered. However, there are other lethal repercussions that can leave a heavy toll on the body with much more gradual yet deleterious symptoms that have the potential to linger long after the trip. Some of these issues are the loss of muscle mass, bone microfractures and the reduction to the immune system. Because these problems cannot be solved by our current technology, astronauts must undergo safety measures that help combat these …show more content…
The purpose of the immune system is to protect the body from the inside by eradicating certain diseases before they are given the chance to spread or exacerbate. The lack of Earth’s gravity significantly simulates the process of aging, which is known to reduce the immune system.6 Since humans naturally age regardless of traveling in space, this area of research proves to be a difficult field to study. Fortunately, this process is accelerated in microgravity by a noticeable extent so some observations that deviate from the normal deterioration of natural aging can be recorded. A NASA researcher, Millie Hughes-Fulford, has studied the specialized T-cells, which quickly lose their functionality as humans age or travel in microgravity.6 When diseases or infections are caught by the immune system, the T-cells are the group that fights and kills these foreign intruders. Without them, the immune system has a higher risk of losing to the disease, which eventually leads to humans getting sick.6 Along with Hughes-Fulford’s study on the T-cells, NASA’s integrated Immune and Clinical Nutrition Assessment research groups have also done analysis on the concentration of cytokines.7 Cytokines are proteins that are vital to cell signaling and serve many different roles in the immune system. By measuring the concentration of these proteins for 28 astronauts before and after traveling in space, researchers
What happens when you go into space? You lose muscle and bone mass. I found that the astronauts set apart two and a half hours each day are devoted to fitness. If astronauts are not exercising they start losing the bone and muscle that they need. Bone and muscle loss mean decreased size and strength, and can reduce the ability to do the work that they have due the weakness. Once they land on Earth walking difficult by the lose of muscle. Muscle can be built back up with exercise, but when you lose bone is not easy to get back. In the Apollo mission there wasn't room for the exercise equipment that the space station has.
“It’s like a built in regulatory system,” she says. Rather than being applied simultaneously with the gas, “the brake is being built … as the car is accelerating.” (hughesfulfordlab.com) When miR-21 accumulates above a certain concentration, this “brake” is activated and stops the “car” by shutting off gene expression. This is now referred to as “self-limiting induction.” It also works to control the immune response here on Earth. Dr. Hughes-Fulford speculates that self-limiting induction may be happening in other systems inthe body. For example it may be how the body keeps from growing too many skin cells-and possibly causing cancer- when healing a small surface wound. Getting people to Mars and keeping them healthy along the way is the ultimate goal for Hughes-Fulford. Astronauts now have several ways to counteract the altered immune effects of microgravity, such as quarantines. However, better understanding of how spaceflight alters immune function and susceptibility to pathogens could either lead to the development of new countermeasures or improve those already in place. While this work provides information to improve astronaut health, it also helps us to better understand the human aging process. Although the two may not seem to have much in common, microgravity causes many of the same problems for the immune system as old age does. If the team can discover some missing factor that causes immune system suppression, then it maybe possible to counteract that, which could lead to treatments for the elderly and immune-compromisedpopulation. Information gathered from these experiments could also help people who suffer from a variety of diseases ranging from osteoporosis (lack of stimulation of the osteoblast growth) to cancer (inappropriate upregulation of tumor cell growth). (medicine.net.com) Conducting experiments in space may not always be practical, but Hughes-Fulford’s validationof
We've all seen pictures of the beautiful blue globe of the Earth from space. Some of the first images were taken by NASA. Not only that,The International Space Station has been a huge step forward in the healing technology, and NASA has made millions of research projects to help us with our health. This research is going to show a few of the many things that NASA, with its knowledge helped us discover, and in some cases, to solve many human problems. They have contributed not only clearler and more extensive vews of space, but it also has helped with the problems and diseases that occur.
Have you ever thought how great it would be to go to space, well if so, you should think again. If we do get the technology to go to space, it could lead to brain dangerous for the astronauts who go to space, that due to the radiation particles in the space atmosphere. We should not spend valuable resources on space exploration.
Space is one of the most researched and government funded fields internationally. Globally, researchers have been attempting to discover more about the universe far before Sputnik was launched on October 4, 1957. NASA has launched over 100 flights to space, but one of the most recent flights is Expedition 47. This team has gone to microgravity to investigate spaceflight’s effect on the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and neurovestibular systems in the human body. The crew members are also trying to discover how to make the workout equipment more practical and create more room for future space crews during long-duration missions. The Expedition 47 began on March 1, 2016 and will end on June 5, 2016. This three month long research expedition
Today rocket science allows humans to leave the safety of earth’s atmosphere and explore the infinite space. So far only 549 people have crossed the Karman line into space, lack of opportunity and money keeps the rest of the billions chained by gravity to earth. Recently a hand full of private companies has made it their mission to make space affordable for more people. NASA has recently shutdown space shuttle program and is exploring other ways to get astronauts to and from International Space Station. One option is to use a private spaceliners to take astronauts to the International Space Station. Three companies show real promise in human space flight, they are SpaceX with Falcon 9 and Dragon, Blue Origin with New Shepard and Virgin Galactic with WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo. Who has the safest rocket that can take the future NASA astronauts to the International Space
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project...will be more exciting, or more impressive to mankind, or more important...and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish” -John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961
The effects of travelling in space on the human body is a subject that is currently being researched increasingly in-depth, with many unanswered questions. There is little data on long term exposure to conditions in space, and a limited range of data based on the restraints of which demographics have been exposed
Immunity….. That is the goal. What happens to the immune system in space? There is a problem that the world is facing. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Over 505 of the Apollo astronauts had bacterial or viral infections during flight. This is a huge problem. We cannot send our astronauts into space to represent the USA without doing as much as we can to keep them safe. The problem is that a human’s t-cells are weakened, when exposed to a microgravity environment. The activation of the T-Cell is slowing at a rapid rate, leaving the astronaut at risk of being infected. In response to this problem, we have elected to put our faith and effort into Zinc as a solution for this problem.
Our knowledge of the long term space flight's effects on the human body is still limited, but we do have quite a bit of research done on the short term effects, which is necessary to know before considering the long term effects. These effects include but are not limited to blood
Space programs have implanted exercise programs and diets for Astronauts to help deal with the effects of living in space.
On July 16, 1969 Apollo 11 left Earth’s atmosphere in pursuit of achieving the first manned mission to the Moon. The crew consisted of Neil Armstrong, Edwin Aldrin, and Michael Collins. On July 20th, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon; the team had successfully completed their mission. NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) main goal of the mission was to gain as much data as possible from close orbits, manned landings, and of course, to take the lead in space exploration against the Soviets. There have now been 6 successful manned moon landings and countless unmanned missions (“List of 6”). Unfortunately, the U.S has not returned to the Moon since 1972, when manned missions came to an abrupt halt. However,
Humans are planning more space missions to Mars and deeper into the solar system. These manned missions require longer periods of time in space than any human has ever spent, as well as traveling farther from Earth’s protection than ever before. There has been very little research conducted regarding the effects of prolonged space travel on the human body. This paper examines how space travel will likely alter bodily functions. The evolution of life on Earth means that humans are adapted and specialized to live and function in Earth’s environment. The environment of open space presents hazards such as: solar radiation, microgravity, and extreme isolation. Prolonged exposure to these hazards could result in cardiovascular issues, cancers, cellular disruption, decreased bone density, osteoporosis, psychological issues, and more. It is important for scientists to research these hazards and their effects on the human body further so as to find solutions and ways to combat the negative outcomes.
During long term space flight the human body must fight through some very tough situations. Humans have evolved and were built to live in the environment we live in now and that means humans are built to live with earth’s gravitational pull. Along with this, earth’s atmosphere is a layer of protection that humans evolved with. During human space flight, both of these factors are taken out of the equation and humans begin to be faced with zero gravity and are forced to be without the protection of the earth’s atmosphere. The effects that astronauts endure include bone density loss, muscle loss, sensory motor issues, cardiovascular issues, radiation issues, and even psychological issues (Roberts, 2013).
In the year 2042, aerospace engineers continue to struggle with the challenge of a manned mission to mars. Biomedical complications disrupt any advancements in the effort, as astronaut safety is considered the most fundamental aspect of a successful mission. In order to study the effects of weightlessness and radiation in a deep space environment, NASA launches a government funded space station into high earth orbit. The astronaut’s medical health is studied over a six month period, as their bodies adapt to the low gravity environment and radiation becomes a crucial concern.