A trip to the space should be an eye-opening experiencewhich gives you a new perspective on humanity and its place in the cosmos. But while you’d think such an experience would make one infinitely wiser, a new report found that space travel actually can to make you a little dumber.
S recent influx of tourists traveling to space on private missions run by companies like Blue Origin, scientists have taken advantage of the opportunity to see how real people react to space weather. Now what billionaires and retired actors are heading into space, it offers a unique look at how normal bodies react to the pressures of spaceflight instead of astronauts who have been training for their missions in orbit for decades.
now, new report from New York Times revealed exactly what that impact looks like, and it doesn’t sound good for anyone hoping to fly into orbit anytime soon. According to a recent survey of the four private astronauts aboard 2021 Inspiration4, short time in orbit can affect brain function, your immune system, and even your physical condition. Like times explains:
Four people who spent three days outside Earth in September 2021 suffered physical and mental changes that included modest declines in cognitive tests, a stressed immune system and genetic changes in their cells, scientists reported in a set of papers published Tuesday in Nature journal and several other related journals.
Almost everything that changed in the astronauts returned to normal after they landed on Earth. None of the changes appear to represent an incredible precaution for future space travelers. But the results also highlighted how little medical researchers know.
Christopher Mason, a professor of genomics, physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York and one of the leaders of the study, called the collection of documents and data “the most comprehensive study we’ve ever done on a crew,” as he said during press conference on Monday.
The four chosen to represent “a broader community” include billionaire Jared Isaacman, who heads the mission; Haley Arsenault, physician assistant; Sian Proctor, community college professor; and Christopher Sembroski, engineer. However, the researchers anonymized each person’s data from the Inspiration4 mission.
Through their journey to spaceas well as the build-up and days after their flight, participants provided the researchers with everything from blood and urine samples to cognitive data collected using specially designed tasks.
Research analyzing the collected data found that kidney function is affected by time in space, making kidney stones slightly more likely, and genetic markers that indicate age are also increased, meaning you look genetically younger in spaceAccording to paper published by Nature. The team also looked at the crew’s ability to focus and maintain attention while in space. Like times adds:
The astronauts took several tests on the iPad to measure their cognitive performance in space. One test assesses what is known as psychomotor vigilance, a measure of the ability to focus on a task and maintain attention. The astronaut stared at a box on the screen. Then, suddenly, a stopwatch appeared in the box, counting the time until a button was pressed.
If the response is too slow, longer than 355 milliseconds, it is considered a lack of attention. On average, performance in space deteriorated compared to when Inspiration4 astronauts took the same test on the ground. Other tests show deficits in visual search and working memory.
The test found that the astronaut’s reaction time decreased in space, but the researchers acknowledged that this could also be because the participants were distracted by the grandeur of space.
Despite the study’s limited sample size, research like this will be important as more and more people travel into orbit in the coming years. It can help the mission is like NASA’s Artemis program developing warning and control manuals for everyone in orbit and can affect how next generation space stations are designed.
