NASA’s astronauts Barry ‘Butch’ Wilmore and Sunita ‘Suni’ Williams threw themselves into space from Florida in June. The mission was supposed to last eight days.
The Americans were testing the new Boeing Starliner on their crew trip, but the technical problems with the spacecraft caused him to return to Earth without them.
They have been trapped at the International Space Station (ISS) since then. Now, after nine months in orbit, astronauts return home.
Experts say they face a long and intense recovery due to the physiological and psychological impacts of space travel.
‘Even our same DNA changes’
Nine months may sound like a long time, but some astronauts remain in orbit for up to one year. ISS missions generally last six months.
Even so, experts say that prolonged time in the environment of low gravity space, known as microgravity, has a price on the body.
Dr. Rebecca Allen, co -director of the Institute of Space Technology and Industry of the Technological University of Swinburne, said: “Our most important muscle, our heart, pumps blood differently in space because the fluids do not flow, of course, without gravity there.”
“Our function of the immune system, our intestinal microbiome, even our DNA changes,” he explained.
Allen said that without the constant pull of gravity, muscle mass and bone density begin to run out.
“Our muscles are strengthened because they are accustomed to sustaining us against gravity. When you remove it, they no longer have that resistance to really accumulate strength, so they deteriorate very quickly,” he said.
“But also the bones to which they are united, do not have that continuous pull of the muscles on them, so our bones also begin to decompose.”
Dr. Brad Tucker, astrophysicist and cosmologist at the National University of Australia, said the studies have shown that six months in space can result in the equivalent of 20 years of loss of bone density.
“So [Wilmore and Williams] Being in their fifty years, the early sixties, now they will have the bones of an 80 -year -old, going down, “he said.
Prolonged exposure to microgravity also affects the vestibular system, located in the inner ear and is crucial to maintain balance and spatial orientation. That can cause balance and coordination problems, Tucker said.
He said the view can also be affected.
“The ocular nerve, through changes in space in space, creates a vision distortion. Then, when [the astronauts] Go down again, your vision will be distorted. “
Outside the Florida coast on Wednesday morning AEDT. However, your landing time can change if climatic conditions are unfavorable.
If everything goes as planned, the spacecraft on board will display their parachutes for a splash of the ocean, where a recovery container will recover them.
Allen said astronauts who have spent a long time in space are usually taken for immediate medical evaluation.
“They sat immediately. And that is because their muscles cannot cope with gravity and sustain them,” he said.
“So they are immediately evaluated to see how extreme this has been for them in their body. Therefore, things as their respiratory and cardiovascular systems and how their brain activity works immediately.
“And then, in terms of recovering and recovering, they will enter for hours, several times a day, rehabilitation to increase that muscle force and try to recover the correct nutrients.”
Allen said in space, the body looks deprived of the key nutrients in which it depends.
Tucker said Wilmore and Williams will also need to participate in psychological rehabilitation.
Long -term space missions require astronauts to live in confined and isolated environments with limited social interaction.
“It is a transition that is difficult for some astronauts,” he said.
“The whole world has been looking [them] Apparently he left in space and stayed there for a prolonged mission. Now they have to wake up, prepare breakfast and get stuck in the traffic that is going to work.
“And also update the personal life that have been lost for nine months. They were only planning perhaps two weeks away, but birthdays and other scenarios have been lost, and the administrator of life who now have to catch up.”
Allen also points out that in space, the teams experience multiple sunrises and sunsets every day.
“Orbit the earth every 90 minutes. That means a sunrise and a sunset every hour and a half,” he said.
“Then, things like sleeping, even though they have resolved the fact that there is no gravity and that you can tie yourself and be in a sleeping bag, the fact that the sun approaches and gets so quickly really affects our circadian rhythm, that fundamental pattern in humans that helps us sleep.”
NASA has plans to send humans to Mars already in 2035. A round trip to the red planet has been a mission for three years?
Tucker said that trips extended to space, such as Wilmore and Williams, are key to understanding that question.
“I think this is the incalculable part of the space trip … How do we make humans survive the trip? How do we solve all health problems, psychological problems, food supplies?
“So at this time, it is logistically almost impossible to obtain a human safely to Mars.
“But when studying and doing these experiments at the space station and, finally, on the Moon, that will give us ways to solve these problems so that it can have a successful mission to Mars.”
Allen believes that work for such a mission is underway.
“I would say that there are astronauts who have already been preparing for Mars for years and years … that they have already been carried out probably during a decade of training for that mission.”
