Talk:Effect of spaceflight on the human body

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Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 20:16, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

The information in this article has been gleaned from a number of sources as can be seen from the references. I have considered space as a zero gravity environment but this is only the first step in a journey to the stars. The long term effect of low gravity environments is as yet completely unknown, but some ideas can be extrapolated from the information we have now.

I would appreciate any feedback, comments and ammendments to the article from experts or laymen interested in this field

Regarding whether the space is cold
"While space is typically very cold, due to the lack of a medium to allow conduction or convection, loss of heat is by radiation only, which would take place in a very slow process. Therefore, there is no danger of immediately freezing."

First of all it links to an article that says that the temperature of a perfect vacuum is undefined which doesen't support the statement and makes it overly ambigous. And space is a nearly perfect vacuum thus it shouldn't be considered cold or warm, because being cold or hot is a property of matter.

I will make my changes now. If you disapprove, discuss the changes here please.

SwedishPsycho 23:24, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

Implied predictions
Parts of this article imply that humans will definitely colonize off-world someday. As much as it pains me to do so (since I agree with this opinion), I believe this article should be changed to be more impartial on this issue, since many hotly disagree. For example, "Future prospects" once said "When the time comes for off-world colonisation families will be exposed to these dangers and the effects on the elderly and on the very young are completely unknown." I don't believe this holds true to the neutral ideals of Wikipedia. 129.79.148.26 02:28, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Other physical effects
In the section on other physical effects, aesthenia is mentioned as a possible effect. What is aesthenia? --CyberPolymerase 11:31, 7 May 2006 (UTC)


 * I myself have no idea, but perhaps the writer meant "Asthenia", which means a loss of strength. I'm pretty sure this applies to this situation, but I'm not positive. Pgiii 21:28, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

Unprotected effects
It says that the blood does boil, though the Armstrong Limit page contradicts this?

Toned down
I tried to reword the article to sound a bit more encyclopedic, but there are still a lot of uncited statements. -- Noclevername 16:06, 1 February 2007 (UTC)

Title
Should this article be moved? I'm not quite sure where to, but humans quite clearly are not adapted to space. How about Effects of space on humans? --Tango 23:47, 21 May 2007 (UTC)


 * Personally I think that it's fine here. I think that the title Human adaptation to space reflects that humans aren't adapted to space, rather under go adaptions. Human adaptations to space however would be misleading. it's all semantics really. But "if it ain't broke..." FRA 14:13, 5 June 2007 (UTC)


 * I don't think the things than happen to humans in space are adaptations. An adaptation is something that makes you better suited to your environment. Losing muscle mass doesn't make you better suited to space, it's just a negative consequence. --Tango 14:27, 5 June 2007 (UTC)

loss of taste in space.
I haven't seen any mention of how some people lose their sense of taste in microgravity. So I'll just add a section under Protected effects. (maybe it should go under 'Other physical effects'?) NASAexplores article 5-8 "a matter of taste." FRA 14:08, 5 June 2007 (UTC)
 * I'm curious, is this "loss of taste" solved by using stronger tasting foods? Viriditas (talk) 08:58, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:2001-discovery-inside1.jpg
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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:20, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Title again
I think the name of this article should be changed to "Human adaptation to spaceflight". The effects of human adaptation to space are brief and well-understood: hypoxia, barotrauma and death. Spaceflight isn't just limited to rockets and shuttles; stations are spacecraft too, and nothing in space stands still.

Objections? -- jhf (talk) 23:36, 19 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Good move! (post facto) (sdsds - talk) 04:54, 20 April 2009 (UTC)

Length of time for death
In the Soyuz 11 article it says that death occured within 40 seconds of pressure loss, yet in this article it says that exposure up to 90 seconds can be recovered from. Does anyone have more information on this?Thecker (talk) 22:32, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

Several articles needing overhaul
See Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spaceflight - Anxietycello (talk) 20:10, 22 April 2012 (UTC)

Valentin Lebedev's eyesight
In this interview: tvzvezda from 2012, the cosmonaut appears to have normal vision, I believe that cataract would be visible if it were there. "Pravda" is not a reliable source of information. If there are no objections, I will remove the relevant part in the article.

Bakulenko (talk) 13:44, 14 June 2015 (UTC)

B class assessment
Working on the WikiProject Spaceflight backlog of assessments. Way back in 2012, there was a request to assess this page. It looks like it didn't meet two criteria at the time, one of which I just fixed (feel free to edit my work), and another that i believe is also adequately addressed.

However, in that time some citation needed tags have popped up, as well as dubious, etc.

I believe the article could also be much improved with more relevant pictures, for example, we don't have any images of 'moonface' or treadmills in space. I think those are highly relevant to the article and shouldn't be too difficult to dig up.

With those two issues addressed, this article will finally be granted a B class assessment.

Let me know if you disagree at all, and please try to work on it if you have time. I will get back to it in a few weeks if no one has the chance. Thanks! Kees08 (talk) 00:23, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

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Magnetic fields?
Hi, I recall an article a few years back suggesting that with advanced technology it may be possible to generate a steady state magnetic field that somewhat (in space) generates a force on the body imitating gravity. If so then the sort of field needed may be quite small in the 18-25 Tesla range well within what MgB2 can safely generate.

If so then it may also help somewhat with the radiation by deflecting energy away from the body as well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 185.3.100.9 (talk) 06:22, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Ebullism - Body expanding to twice the size?
There is a citation to a report from 1973 for the claim that the body size will double in the vacuum. I think this is a highly suspicious claim, and I would like to have a more convincing citation than a report from 1973 that is very hard to access. The known cases of humans in vacuum, for example the 1966 case with Jim LeBlanc, did not involve the human expanding to twice the size.

This same claim has been repeated in a number of articles on the topic in the popular press, but they are likely to be based on the same (suspect) source.

Article about device to counteract flattened eyeballs
Space sleeping bag to solve astronauts' squashed eyeball disorder Mapsax (talk) 01:46, 12 December 2021 (UTC) [Added] No link to study there so here it is: Effect of Nightly Lower Body Negative Pressure on Choroid Engorgement in a Model of Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-ocular Syndrome, A Randomized Crossover Trial Mapsax (talk) 00:47, 13 December 2021 (UTC)