7
spaceflights, and researchers want to learn more about its root causes and
develop countermeasures to minimize this risk.
The duo will also have to combat bone and muscle loss (which happens to
every astronaut when they fly in space for several months) by exercising for
2.5 hours each day, using the station’s treadmills, bike machine known as
CEVIS(stands for Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization
System) and a weights machine called ARED(stands for Advanced Resistive Exercise Device). For a six month mission, astronauts can lose up to 15% muscle
volume.
Just in case you were wondering, this will not be the first time human
beings will be sent into orbit for a year-long mission. In 1994, cosmonaut
Valeri Polyakov spent over 437 days living aboard the Russian space station
Mir, before returning to Earth in 1995. Despite suffering from a clear decline in
morale for the first two months of his mission, Polyakov was able to regain his
pre-flight mood for the rest of the mission.
Scott Kelly with Robonaut 2 during Expedition 26
Upon returning to Earth in his Soyuz capsule after a successful mission,
Polyakov decided he would rather walk the small distance from his spacecraft
to a nearby reclining chair, demonstrating that humans would be able to walk
on the surface of Mars after several weightless months in transit from Earth.
This extra-long duration mission showed that the human body could deal with
the strains and stresses of living in space for such an extended period of time.
However, Kelly and Kornienko will be the first space farers to spend a year living on the International Space Station.
ICY SCIENCE | QTR 1 2014