Weightlessness in space wants to kill you

In movies we often can see astronauts facing struggles during their space journey. And sometimes this can result into very cool plot. But Let’s have a reality check here… What problems are real astronauts facing when being in space?

Absence of gravity would shock our blood vessels

And this is a big deal! Imagine yourself suddenly losing all your weight… but not just your hands and legs, but also your internal organs, veins, bones and internal body fluids. Our body naturally evolved with various systems, which count on gravity being present – Earth’s gravity is the main reason, why blood flows through our lower body. That being said, most of our blood and body fluids would concentrate around our chest instead. Imagine your body is suddenly bloated around your chest and neck, and also you would feel much higher internal pressure in your chest and neck. This could be very weird feeling…

Body fluids not being on their place would also alter functioning of astronaut’s body senses – His abilities to smell, taste, or to see would decrease. Furthermore nausea and feeling disoriented could be present.

Muscles and bones are useless if your weight is zero

The bigger impact would be on your muscles and bones. It is kind of strange how our body reacts to no gravity state. After a few weeks of weightlessness you would notice how your body changes… and how quick your body looses muscle and calcium from your bones! This could leave you prone to injury and bone fractures or permanent muscle decay (atrophy).

NASA researchers found our, that in 5 to 11 days, astronauts are about to lose up to 20% of their muscle mass! Also, trip in space for 2 or 3 months can reduce your bone density in a way, so you would fully recover it after 2 – 3 years of life on earth. These effects can be mitigated if you would properly eat and do a hard exercise… Or to be exposed to some kind of artificial gravity.

Astronaut’s eyes are having hard times

However there is still one catch here… and the perhaps the most dangerous. Since gravity would stop pulling our internal fluids to bottom, this would have very bad effect for our head. Yo would feel increased pressure inside your head, which would result in increased pressure on optic nerve, resulting in your gradual loss of vision resulting into blindness. Unluckily, no exercises could prevent this, but at least this would not happen fast – the noticeable weakness of astronaut’s vision could happen anytime after 2 months.

There were few astronauts who spent in time large amount of time. But there are few. Astronaut Scott Kelly spent in space more than one year. John Phillips is famous for his presence on International Space Station. Guess what these two astronauts (any many more) have in common? They now need strong glasses to read!