Tarek's Blog

My goal is to answer the question, “How does the adventures of astronauts in space affect their physical and mental health? Can we use this information to prepare the next generation of astronauts?” By doing this, I will be able to create a better understanding of how space voyages impact astronauts’ behavioural and physical health. 

For many years now, astronauts have been humanities living proof of what earth looks like from above and many other aspects that affect our lives daily. When taken into consideration, there must be a developed answer to how these tense adventures affect astronauts’ mental and physical health. 

When adventuring into space, astronauts live in a shuttle for around 6-months. There are many things that change about an astronaut’s life in space, for example, no sense of proper time, improper diets, distance from family and friends (etc.) With all this information, the appropriate question is how astronauts’ mental health is affected in space.

For every twenty-four hours, astronauts orbit the earth, they see 16 sunrises and sunsets. With this information, there is a moment of question, how does time work in space? Time does not work in space as it does on earth. With earth having different timezones, we experience mornings, afternoons, evenings (etc.) However, in space, humans do not share this, making it hard for the body to discover how to sleep like people on earth usually do. Not only does not having a helpful source of time affects how astronauts sleep, but it is also reported that when a human is exposed to blue light, the brain tells the body to stay up later. With this, your body does not release the melatonin you need to go to sleep, making it twice as hard for humans to fall asleep in space. With the lack of sleep, astronauts mental health can potentially be damaged. While being sleep-deprived can put the other astronauts in danger, making it dangerous for that astronaut to operate appropriately. In addition, the lack of sleep can cause depression, anxiety and stress, which impacts mental and physical health.

With being away from family for an extended amount of time, it is reported that the feeling of crew members living in tight spaces can be affected by the distance between them. Astronauts can have a sense of fear while being in space and especially knowing that there is a possibility that they can get lost and never be found again. As well, pressure can overthrow astronauts mental health and can have ability to cause humans in space to do unwanted events. 

Further research shows astronauts have a three to fifty-eight percent chance of developing PTSD. When a human obtains post-traumatic stress disorder, there is an eighty-four percent chance of that person becoming an alcoholic, a four-two perfect chance of drug abuse, and sixty-eight chance of depression with a twenty-six percent chance of antisocial personality disorder. This can cause austoranuats in the long run after returning to earth. Some astronauts say that their depression has lasted for seven months, and others say longer than a year. 

Although not everyone says that mental health is supposedly ruined by going to space, some specialists say this is a good chance for astronauts to improve their mental health. It is said in an article that, “being in space is a meaningful experience that makes an enduring positive impression on astronauts and cosmonauts” (Ihle, Ritsher, & Kanas, 2006). With further research, it is arguable that being in space can affect your mental health positively and disdainfully. 

To the continuation of answering my wonder question, the sub-question of how are astronauts physical health affected in space must be answered.

The atmosphere that earth contains allows for space radiation to be shielded. However, when it comes to space, no atmosphere around astronauts will stop this radiation from affecting their physical health. Space radiation is different from the ones we experience on earth. It is made up of three kinds of radiation, and astronauts are exposed to ionizing radiation. The effect of this ranges from 50 to 2,000 mSv, equal to having 150 to 6,000 chest x-rays.   Association with this radiation can cause long and short-term health conditions dependent on the amount of radiation that astronauts may be exposed to. This radiation can put humans in space at risk of cancer, central nervous system damage, bone loss, and some cardiovascular diseases. Also, the distance from the earth can be very unbeneficial for an astronaut. With maintaining a special diet, astronauts must watch what they eat and how balanced their meals are. 

When taking the example of astronaut Scott Kelly with an identical twin brother, you can see his differences from his brother. He spent more than a year on the ISS before returning to earth. When returning to earth, it was recognized that the identical twins’ DNA diverged, with almost one thousand of Kelly’s genes and chromosomes working differently. However, most effects went away after a few months, reports The Washington Post. Scientists say that the more an astronaut remains in space, the more significant changes there are. 

Astronauts must exercise to keep their bodies in the correct shape while in space. Due to space having zero gravity, astronauts can experience up to twenty percent loss of muscle mass. This is because they do not use the standard human muscles daily on earth. When astronauts come back from space, their muscle mass will not be the same, and they will have a hard time walking and using their muscles which will make them need to go through a period of physical therapy, which will allow them to use their muscles properly again. 

Furthermost, when it comes to the physical health of astronauts, some excessive impacts happen to astronauts in space, which can be long-lasting. However, when coming back to earth, the physical health of astronauts can be regained, but there are more risks of health concerns, shown in great examples of identical twins where one goes to space and the other stays on Earth.

Now, to answer the last sub-question within my wonder question, how can we use this information to prepare the next generation of astronauts?

Modern-day astronauts seem very advanced in how they treat their bodies and mental health in space. However, with all the information written above, researchers can use this information and team up with specialists such as psychologists and physiologists to create a more efficient way for the next generation of astronauts to be better prepared for space. Taking that information into knowledge, I believe that there could be a significant difference in how the next generation of astronauts will prepare for space since specialists can test astronauts and see how they can improve the way that humans in space may be able to take care of themselves better.

Why does this matter?

1. I rely on the fact that the occupation of an astronaut is going nowhere, and many are interested in becoming one. However, mental health is an aspect that has become significantly more important this last decade, and there must be an understanding of how astronauts may take care of themselves in space and how to make these adventures not impact their behavioural health. By doing this, astronauts can gather and contain more information better than astronauts dealing with many mental issues. This will move humankind with information on space that is still being discovered by humans up there in space.
2. There must be an understanding of how the physical health of astronauts works because, without proper health, a human is not complete. There is much research on how the physical health of humans works in space. However, it is exciting to see if there will ever be a better way for humans to maintain their physical activity in space. Astronauts must be able to stay healthy to continue to do their tasks. They must do so that space research will continue to be of even better quality.

For our project, my group and I decided to create it on homelessness rates in the lower mainland of British Columbia. We gathered information such as average house pricing, income, and homelessness in each area. We chose this specific element because homelessness is not improving in Vancouver, and our generation is the future of this country. We wanted to demonstrate data so people could somehow help the issue/victims of homelessness by using our specific project. With a 3D project, we decided to use objects such as homes. Using homes, we represented every city in a small neighbourhood. I believe that my group and I represented it well by including trees and colours in the house to represent the average homelessness rate more. Therefore, in conclusion, morality played a significant role in this project as well projecting the problem to other students and teachers.

Results of the Investigation:

I believe that the results of Vlads and I investigation were successful. We were able to understand the difference between a paper airplane with weights and without. I learned that the more weight you add to a vehicle or anything moving, it will not be able to show its full speed and power. In some way, it explains why airlines prohibit people from bringing as much baggage as they want, it wastes fuel and does not allow the plane to achieve its fullest. Next time, I would personally use a new way of designing the paper airplane. This is due to the fact there were many loops and it did not fly straight while throwing the airplane. Therefore, we were able to successfully investigate our hypothesis.