Question: How do you make an astronauts safe?

Charles Laing answered on 15 Jun 2016:

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Hi 748tch48 ,

When astronauts go into space their bodies face a great challenge. Without gravity their muscles get smaller and bones weaker. On the International Space Station (ISS) we try to keep astronauts healthy by using what we call ‘spaceflight countermeasures’. As a physiologist my aim is to keep astronauts safe by keeping them healthy.

Every day astronauts exercise up to 2-hours to try to trick their bodies into thinking it is experiencing gravity and stop the muscles and bones from wasting away. Exercises include:

1. Space cycling (on a device called CEVIS – )

2. Space running (on a device called COLBERT – )

3. Space weight lifting (on a device called ARED – )

In space blood goes to your head causing astronauts to have a puffy face and this can cause problems when they come back from Earth and make their vision worse. To try and stop this we use a device to suck the blood back to the legs and away from the head:

4. Space suction trousers (on a device called Chibis – )

To keep astronaut in top condition it is important to have a healthy diet:

5. Space food (space causes your taste buds to not work as well so it is common for astronauts to want salty and spicy food so they can taste something. Lots of salt is obviously not healthy so this remains a challenge!)

When astronauts return to Earth the blood in there body goes back down to their legs and they may faint. This is not good so immediately before returning some astronauts may drink a large amount of saline solution (salty water) to try and increase the amount of blood in their bodies and help stop them fainting:

6. Salty water

Physical health is important but also the mental health of astronauts. Many have families and long periods of intense work and being away from them can be difficult. To help with some of these issues every astronaut has frequent private calls with a psychologist to ensure their mental wellbeing. Also, they get free time to watch movies or talk to their family on the phone so this can help:

7. Space psychologist

8. Free time

Astronauts are highly trained and selected for their good health but if all else fails there is a good stock of space medicine on hand to treat any illness that may occur during a space mission

9. Space medicine

Charlie 😀🚀