NASA astronaut Frank Rubio returned to Earth on Wednesday after 371 days in space.
After his planned six-month mission at the International Space Station was extended by six months, the 47-year-old set a record for the most time spent in space by a US astronaut earlier this year.
NASA said in an announcement that Rubio and his crewmates landed at 7:17 a.m. ET southeast of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan.
In August, he informed “Good Morning America” that upon his arrival, he will be inspected by a medical team and that he may require some time to readapt to Earth’s gravity and readjust his equilibrium for ordinary duties like walking and standing upright.
According to experts, spending a long period of time in space, particularly one year, causes significant changes in human physiology and behavior.
Spending time in microgravity, which allows astronauts to float inside a spaceship or outside during spacewalks, is one of the most significant changes.
During this time, there is a loss of muscle mass and bone mass due to decreasing utilization and absence of stimulus from exercise equipment.
According to Dr. Jennifer Fogarty, chief scientific officer of Baylor College of Medicine’s Translational Research Institute for Space Health, the major alterations in bone and muscle loss occur in the first few months of a mission and subsequently level off.
She described neurovestibular problems, or how the body maintains a sense of place and balance when gravity changes, as one of the issues she sees crew members battle with upon their return to Earth.
“How do you coordinate movement, such as walking, which you haven’t done in a long time, and then the concept of balance?” “When you combine those two, it can create a bit of a precarious situation and something that’s very closely monitored with the crew members when they land on Earth,” she explained.
According to Fogarty, the longer the mission, the longer it can take to adapt. Missions lasting four to six months may take two to three days. Longer missions would almost certainly take significantly longer. Additionally, you can also read about- How Mars Mapping Help Us? Could Reveal Resources for Human Settlement
Furthermore, because to the weightlessness of microgravity, blood and cerebrospinal fluid frequently migrate upward from the lower extremities to the head and eyes, causing anatomical abnormalities in the eyes and brain.
This is a phenomenon known as Spaceflight Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome and long-duration astronauts may experience a variety of changes including an upward shift of the brain or eye swelling and blurry vision.
When we stand up, our veins have valves that prevent blood from flowing backwards, but when we’re in a weightless environment, there’s a big fluid shift from the body up into the head,” explained Dr. Michael Decker, co-director of the Center for Aerospace Physiology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “Some of the increased intracranial pressure can affect the eye and cause visual impairment.” When astronauts land, their vision impairment does not always go away.”
“That is one of the most foreign things biologically that the body has to deal with,” Fogarty, a former NASA Human Research Program chief scientist, noted. “I think that is the one where I would say crew members who do extended durations do get much greater monitoring, because we really don’t know what to anticipate.”
There are also physical and psychological consequences of being isolated and in a restricted environment for an extended period of time.
According to research, this type of setting, regardless of whether someone is in space, can trigger behavioral changes as well as weariness, stress, and sleep loss.
According to Fogarty, changes to the immune system occur during this time, frequently as a result of chronic stress, which is why it is critical to establish as healthy an environment as possible for astronauts embarking on missions.
Scientists will also seek to see if Rubio’s genes have changed, particularly those associated to the immune system, as happened with astronaut Scott Kelley during his 340-day stay in space in 2015 and 2016.
Decker stated that 90% of these changes were fixed within a few months of Kelley’s return, so it will be fascinating to see whether Rubio experiences the same results.
“Isolation also creates a stressor and another sensory deprivation issue,” she added. “Anywhere where you don’t have the smell of the grass or the rain or colors to look at, look at the water versus the mountains, like when your choices are very limited.”
She went on to say that, while space is a challenging environment, the changes astronauts face are not unexpected, and that NASA teams conduct rigorous preparations before venturing into space.
“We can select people, train them and make sure they’re very healthy before they go,” Fogarty stated. “We do the research to understand where we can make different choices with the environments we build for these people to live and work in, so that we are not tapping into those reserves … and compromising them.”