Talk:Space adaptation syndrome/Archive 1

Latest comment: 6 years ago by InternetArchiveBot in topic External links modified

Why Do Astronauts Suffer From Space Sickness? edit

I found a very interesting and informative article here. I am adding this link to the article. Embhee (talk) 15:01, 28 May 2008 (UTC)Reply

Interesting source edit

I came across this while researching for the Vostok 3 and Vostok 4 articles − it seems the Soviets were theorizing the causes of SAS as early as 1961, just after Titov was sick on Vostok 2, and a good part of the -3 and -4 missions were research into the condition. It makes since that they were worried, since Titov was the only person to spend any length of time in space at that point. It's discussed in an interview with the cosmonauts after the latter two missions. Here's the cite template, since I've got it:

""Group Space Flight" Described" (PDF). Flight. 82 (2791). London: Iliffe Transport Publications: pp. 389-391. 6 September 1962. Retrieved 2009-03-17. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)

jhf (talk) 09:09, 17 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

reentry edit

Not sure how relevant this would be to the article itself,but as I watch NASA's internet feed, about to follow the deorbit burn, I wonder if there's a danger of sickness from going back into gravity, justas there is from entering weighlessness. YellowAries2010 (talk) 05:02, 1 June 2011 (UTC)Reply

I know this is a year back, on the off chance you will read this its worth typing since its interesting. While weightless astronautics experience bone and muscle loss and will have trouble standing on return (the long in space the more loss of function). This is because humans (and animals) are adapted to optimize their energy use depending on their requirements for the environment. In space you don't need to carry your own weight, so less effort is used to keep that strength. This loss of function also happens to people who are confined to a bed or chair for a long period for any reason (some illnesses can make the process go faster or slower).

Lifting weights to get stronger is the opposite process. Putting stress on the body so it adapts and increases muscle mass. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.246.40.139 (talk) 19:08, 6 May 2012 (UTC)Reply


Text moved from page edit

Moved from the page, originally from User:108.87.162.50:

This article is entitled Space Adaptation Syndrome, which according to my experience means that virtually every word in this article is wrong because this article is actually about motion sickness - and Space Adaptation Syndrome is absolutely NOT about motion sickness. Space Adaptation Syndrome (which usually takes several hours in 0-G before it manifests itself) is about higher than normal fluid pressure in the upper body, especially in the head because the heart no longer has fight against gravity to pump blood "uphill", and it has nothing to do with motion - such as the motion sickness you experience while flying parabolas in the NASA KC-135 aircraft. I have personally flown in the KC-135 vomit comet as an experiment PI, so I can speak from experience. In fact flying multiple 20-second parabolas in the KC-135 (as mentioned in this article) is absolutely NOT an example of SAS. Yes, Jake Garn is an extreme example of someone suffering from SAS, but it was not from motion sickness. Therefore I suggest the name of this article be changed, and a new article be written by someone who knows about real "space adaptation syndrome".

Meanwhile, here an example of what an article entitled "Space Adaptation Syndrome" should say. I cannot provide citations because most of this was told to me by astronauts and/or medical techs at JSC while I was flying aboard the NASA KC-135 in the 90s at Ellington Field.

0-G nausea, aka “space adaptation syndrome” (SAS) as it will come to be known, will affect some 70% of all future space travelers after the first several hours of reaching zero gravity as the human body suddenly realizes it no longer has to fight gravity to pump blood to the upper part of the body, and as a result excess amounts of blood begin to pool in the head. The body’s automatic response over the next 48 hours or so is for the kidneys to excrete copious urine to lower the excessive blood volume - which for most people ends the period of nausea. SAS initially results in a puffy face, a feeling of excess pressure in the head similar to but more intense than what a person experiences if placed upside down for an extended time on earth, and disruption of the vestibular system - which leads to feelings similar to those of motion sickness. These symptoms can vary person-to-person from mild nausea and disorientation, to vomiting and intense discomfort, headaches and severe nausea. About half of the sufferers experience relatively mild symptoms, while about 10% suffer severely. There is no reliable way to predict which person will suffer severe symptoms, since SAS is distinctly different from normal earth motion sickness and cannot be simulated on the ground; and whether or not a person is susceptible to motion sickness on the ground (car sickness or sea sickness) is not an indicator of susceptibility to SAS, because SAS is not caused by motion, but only by prolonged exposure to 0-G. Then shortly before returning to Earth, astronauts found they needed to drink several liters of water to increase blood volume again so as not to faint upon standing upright once back in 1-G, as their circulatory system readjusts again to pumping blood uphill.

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According to astronaut folklore, the most extreme case of SAS was experienced by US Senator Jake Garn during his 1985 shuttle flight. Garn had coerced NASA (by threatening to delay funding) to appoint him a “guest astronaut” on a shuttle orbital mission as the ultimate political junket, and so he could claim during future elections that he had been “an astronaut”. This was resented by real astronauts, so the rest of the crew on his mission quietly delighted in his intense SAS discomfort aboard flight STS-23. In fact after Garn’s flight, astronauts (again according to folklore) began to compare human reaction to space sickness by assigning numbers on the “Garn scale” (meaning number of “barfs-per-hour”), since Senator Garn had apparently set the highest possible number, along with the most intense nausea while in 0-G.

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