Study recommends mandatory 3-year vacation so astronauts' brains can recover

https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/12/astronaut_brain_recovery/

by LinuxBender • 3 years ago

40 9 3 years ago

datameta2• 3 years ago

This reminds me of the Scott and Mark Kelly experiment. Scott went up to the ISS for an extreme duration mission (1 year), while his twin brother Mark, also an astronaut, stayed on earth. We are able to see what genetic changes have occured due to the stay in space. I wonder what papers have come out studying that.

belter• 3 years ago

"The NASA Twins Study: A multidimensional analysis of a year-long human spaceflight" - https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aau8650

datameta2• 3 years ago

Yes, thank you for the link! I should add that in Scott Kelly's book Endurance he detailed to what lengths they went to collect specimens (blood, urine, saliva, etc). The urine collection was quite challenging in microgravity.

avmich3• 3 years ago

I really wonder why by this time we don't seriously consider an experiment with a centrifuge creating an artificial gravity on ISS. One would thought medical experiments like that are an important part of ISS mission. It does conflicts with some other research topics, which is the main argument for why it's not yet done, but by now it could be done without disturbing micro-gravity too much - there are options - and the topic itself is important enough so the arguments to contrary are wearing thin.

sikosmurf• 3 years ago

Because a centrifuge requires a tremendous amount of energy and equipment (relative to a space station)

avmich3• 3 years ago

No.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifuge_Accommodations_Modu...

marcellus232• 3 years ago

To be clear, are you talking about building a centrifuge attached to the ISS that's large and safe enough for humans to spend time in? Because that seems like an absolutely massive engineering effort, probably comparable to the work that went into the ISS itself.

avmich3• 3 years ago

It's either mechanically connected to ISS, which has some advantages and disadvantages, or is a separate module which closely follows ISS on the same orbit but is not mechanically connected to ISS, which of course also has advantages and disadvantages.

No, it's not going to be absolutely massive engineering effort... why do you think it will?

https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/35960/how-many-tim...

Study recommends mandatory 3-year vacation so astronauts' brains can recover

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