Flights to Mars: “It will endure weightlessness over 18 months” – Why doctor?

On March 2, astronaut Scott Kelly returned a 340-day stay aboard the International Space Station (ISS). To better anticipate future trips to Mars, astronauts are making more and longer missions that put their bodies to the test. Clervoy, French astronaut for the European Space Agency (ESA), an update to Pourquoidocteur on the medical monitoring of astronauts before, during and after their missions.

the American Scott Kelly has spent 11 months in orbit around the Earth, is a record

JF Clervoy: No, but only 3 astronauts have conducted longer missions. A Russian doctor who performed two flights of 10 months and 14 months, and in 1988, two astronauts remained in space 366 days in a row.

Scott Kelly confessed, he found the time long. Can we prepare for a long distance

JF Clervoy: Even for a short flight, it is very important that members of crew say, “My new home, my new home, it is the station.” This is also what makes Scott Kelly, on his return to Earth he said: “I feel that I left my home, I’m not on my planet.” If you say, “I’m on a mission in a resort, and one day I go home,” then we risk gamberger!

The general public discovered during the return of the astronaut he had a twin brother. Why is this interesting for research

J-F Clervoy: Scott actually has a twin brother, Mark, who is also an astronaut for NASA. The Kelly brothers are identical twins, and therefore have the same genetic heritage. They followed both the same program of medical tests before, during and after the mission. This will allow to make very detailed comparisons to discern more clearly what biological changes are due to weightlessness, and which are simply the result of aging and time passing.

Clervoy, astronaut: “It was a perfect opportunity to do comparison (.. .) having Mark as compared to the ground, it’s very interesting. “

Life in weightlessness requires the body to adapt, what are the major changes that occur

JF Clervoy: Almost all functions are affected! Bone density decreases as the muscle, the blood is distributed in a new way, creating a cardiovascular deconditioning, heart atrophies and the immune system is depressed. But these changes do not prevent astronauts to be in good health on board. It’s back is more difficult

Clervoy, astronaut. “In general, they adapt very quickly to weightlessness (…) the return takes much more time. “

Exactly, all these changes they are reversible

J-F Clervoy: All changes are reversible but three to diagram. Bone density does not return to normal, but we now know how to prevent it falling too. Another issue on which scientists are working for ten years is visual acuity. About a quarter of the astronauts, after a mission, will have to wear glasses to life, while they did not wear before. This comes from a deformation of the geometry of the eyeball. Finally, what is not reversible at all, it is the accumulation of cosmic radiation. In space we are more exposed than on Earth. We all wear dosimeters during missions to accumulated radiation to which we have been exposed over the flights. It happened to be told in an astronaut “You can not fly because you are getting close to you to the extent permitted by the labor law. “