This would all be an issue if they were sending people with heart conditions up there, but they’re not, two months later the person has recuperated and ready to go back up again.
Well, I could fall down the stairs and die at my work, and I wouldn’t get to do it in space. I’d take a trip to space in a heartbeat, long-term affect on my vision, bones or whatever else notwithstanding.
That seemed to be the approach for Interstellar.
3 Likes
“Turns out that long stints in outer space affect levels of cerebrospinal fluid. That explains why many astronauts who had 20/20 vision before space missions needed glasses upon return, according to a paper presented this week.”
Not according to your own extract from the article it doesn’t:
“The results showed that, compared to short-duration astronauts, long-duration astronauts had significantly increased post-flight flattening of their eyeballs and increased optic nerve protrusion.”
What that says is that the geometry of the eye changes, which is why its focal properties change. The cerebrospinal fluid changes are a different, and quite frankly much more frightening, change, since they appear to affect not only the space around the optic nerve (which might cause visual degradation in a way that can’t be corrected for by glasses, by putting pressure on the optic nerve), but also the size of the ventricles within the brain, and since the cranium isn’t enlarging, larger ventricles means less space for, well, brain.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
