Challenges Faced By The Astronauts In Space- PART 2

Here are some other difficulties that Astronauts deals with in Space:

What Causes Muscle Atrophy and Loss Of Mass?

Muscle atrophy is defined as a decrease in the mass of the muscle; it can be a partial or complete wasting away of muscle, and is most commonly experienced when persons suffer temporary disabling circumstances such as being restricted in movement or confined to bed as when hospitalized.

To produce muscle growth, we have to apply stress greater than what your body or muscles were previously adapted to. Muscular tension also affects the connection of the motor units with the muscle cells. After workout, our body repairs or replaces the damaged muscle fibres. Muscle fibres are fused together to form New muscle protein strands for myofibrils. These repaired myofibrils increased thickness as well as number to create muscle hypertrophy. Thus muscle growth occurs whenever the rate of muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. This adoptions, however, occur during sleep and not when you lift weight.



So if you do not provide your body with adequate rest or nutrition you can actually reverse the anabolic process and put your body into a catabolic or destructive state. For muscle breakdown and growth to occur you must force your muscles to adapt by creating stress. Gravity on the earth is the continuous tension on your muscle that helps continuous muscle growth. But in microgravity muscles gradually weakens due to lack of tension and proper sleep.

Why Can't Astronauts Sleep Well And Are Able To Dream?

While traveling around the earth, astronauts orbit Earth once every 90 minutes. It means they see sunrise and sunset every 90 minutes but on earth our body is adapted to 24 hour circadian cycle. So any change in circadian cycle disturbs biological clock leading to reduce sleep and causing feeling of fatigue, disorientation, insomnia as you may experience while jetlag. So changes in sleep cycle also make muscles, bones, immune system weak, less RBC formation, which are signs of aging as well.



How Does The Extreme Variations In Temperature Effects The Astronauts?

Exposure to intense radiation of direct unfiltered sunlight, particularly UV rays may cause severe sunburn in a few seconds. These high level of radiation exposure without protection of Earth's atmosphere may damage lymphocytes, bone marrow stem cells which create blood. As theese cells are Central to the immune system any damage to the cells and weakens immune power. Viruses already present in the body becomes active over time. This immunodeficiency results in spread of infection among crew members.


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How Microgravity Affects Astronauts' Hearts In Space?

When astronauts spend a long time at zero gravity in space their hearts become more spherical and lose muscle mass, a new study finds, which could lead to cardiac problems. This leads to serious consequences after their return to Earth.

The spherical shape of the heart could mean the heart is functioning less efficiently. The condition appears to be temporary – the astronauts' hearts return to a normal elongated shape after they return to Earth. Scientist don't know if the change has any long-term effects.

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