Ever since human kind was on this planet, it has been in our nature to wonder about everything beyond us. I got the opportunity to talk to a man that worked at NASA through my dad for a school requirement. The man that I talked to has done a lot of research on the dangers in space and the protection to help keep astronauts safe. One of the most significant dangers of going beyond our atmosphere is the loss of bodily fluid or "physiological fluid loss." Fluid loss is when the fluids in your body start to dry up or go into parts of your body where fluids shouldn't be present.
- Loose body fluid, Physiological fluid loss when "up in space"
*Causes malfunctions with the heart and liver
*nausea
*greatly increasing effect of Kidney stones
*The body has to adapt to a very rigorous environment
-18 hours for "frequent flyers" or people that go out of earth'satmosphere more than once
-48-72 hours for the first time flyers
-Interestingly, the body seems to adapt faster every time the body looses Fluid
*You are more prone to getting diseases that are capable of putting your life at risk
*Significant amount of blood plasma lost (10-15%)
*the loss of gravity causes digestive challenges
*The ability to move is greatly challenged. This is because the loss of gravity leaves the cells with less of a chance to locomode or move.
*The calcium starts to make it's way out of the bone.
*Exercising is a "big, huge, important" deal, because otherwise, the memory cells in your muscles shut down a lot faster than they do on Earth, thus causing you to loose muscle capability.
- The questions that were asked.
* About how many times do you send out missions annually? :
-Attempting to go to mars and the moon
-6-7 missions a year
-8 missions are "cargo rockets," which it basically a convenient way of throwing out all of your junk while wowing your neighbor!
*How do you avoid the planets' radiation and magnetospheres? :
-In the case of Mars, it has a trajectory and the space crafts are well equipped with gear to battle through the magnetosphere and the planet's radiation.
-In case of an emergency, the crafts have special software to communicate with earth.
This has been an enlightening experience for me as a journalist and a science geek! I hope that you have been enlightended as well about the danger of physiological fluid loss.