Tuesday March 18) Nasa Astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore should get the oceans of the earth safely inside a Spacex crew capsule, put an end to a stay of more than nine months in space It was to last a few weeks away. When their capsule is finally open, astronauts will probably be carried out and loaded on civilians.
The reason for this has nothing to do with the specific mission of Williams and Wilmore aboard the International space station (ISS), but is simply a question of protocol that all astronauts must follow, said experts at Live Science.
When astronauts return to the land of space, they cannot immediately walk on landing. This is due to the temporary changes of the body that occur in space – a fact that NASA is aimed at strict safety procedures.
“Many of them do not want to be put on a stretcher, but they are told that they must be,” John DewittDirector of sports sciences applied to Rice University in Texas and former senior scientist of the NASA Johnson Space Center, where he developed methods to improve the health of astronauts during space flights, told Live Science.
“Except for transportation of space”
Just as someone can feel the evil of transport on a roller coaster or by driving in a boat on agitated waters, astronauts can feel dizziness and nausea when they return to earth. Mainly for this reason, astronauts are generally deployed on a stretcher after their landing as a precaution, said Dewitt.
The temporary sensation occurs because our bodies are designed to enjoy the constant force that draws us here on earth – gravity. However, habitats of orbital space such as the ISS are in perpetual free fall towards our planet, which creates a feeling of weightlessness for astronauts inside and encourages their bodies to adapt to the altered environment.
In relation: Boeing Starliner astronauts spent almost 300 days stuck in space – Is this a new record?
A significant change occurs in the sensory vestibular system within the inner ear which is crucial to maintaining balance, said Dewitt. In space, this system gets used to Ignore some sensory entries As the brain adapts to weightlessness. Thus, when astronauts return to the earth and the gravity is reintroduced, they start to readjust, which can temporarily cause “space evil”, said Dewitt.
Another change that astronauts experience, in particular those who spend long periods in space, is the gradual loss of muscles and bones. Although walking here on earth is generally sufficient to keep our muscles strong due to gravity, astronauts in space do not need to use their muscles. This lack of activity means that muscles weaken and shrink over timeleading to a condition known as muscular atrophy.
“We feel strong and ready”
To counter these effects related to space flights, astronauts who spend prolonged periods in space – including Williams Wilmore – follow a daily daily exercise diet using a series of equipment on board the station.
“Has worked for nine months,” Williams Tell Live Science via an email in Dewitt. “We feel strong and ready to fight against the gravity of the earth.”
Williams and Wilmore are part of the crew-9 Mission Alongside Nasa Astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, who are all slated to return to Earth Aboard a Spacex Dragon Spacecraft on March 18. Their Return Will Mark the End of An Unexpected Nine-Mont for Williams And Wilmore, after the Boeing Starliner Capsule they launched on encountered several problems During his trip to the ISS, including propulsion dysfunctions and fleeing propulsion, which led NASA to bring the spacecraft back to empty earth.
Despite the setbacks, “they are in a good mood and feel very confident that there will be no major problems because of the space station so long from a physiological perspective,” said Dewitt. “They get exactly what they would have obtained if their trip was planned for nine months.”
The effects of long -term space flight on the human body are an active area of research. Currently, the Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov holds the record for the longest consecutive time in space after spending 437 days – just over 14 months – aboard the MIR space station now disappeared in 1994 and 1995.