LIFE IN SPACE
101 Β· zoom in
Life in space β what the human body does when gravity goes away.
Spaceflight is a slow medical experiment that humanity has been running on itself for 65 years. The body evolved in 1 g, in a thick atmosphere, behind a magnetic field. Take any of those away and physiology re-wires β fluids redistribute, bones thin, muscles fade, eyes change shape, the immune system gets weird, the inner ear gives up trying to tell which way is down.
This tab walks through the headline effects and what astronauts do to fight them. Microgravity is the big one β every other tab section traces back to it. Radiation is the other one we don't yet know how to defeat for a Mars trip. EVA is its own physiological problem: a hard vacuum on the other side of a thin pressure suit changes everything.
The countermeasures are real: ARED exercise machines on the ISS, sleep schedules calibrated against orbital sunrise, pre-breathe protocols before every spacewalk. None of them are perfect. The longer-duration we fly, the more we learn about what gives way first.
β Pick a section from the right rail to start reading.