User:Joeygaig/sandbox/articledraft

Physical, mental and emotional health risks to colonizers[edit]
Main article: Effect of spaceflight on the human body An additional concern is the health of the humans who may participate in a colonization venture, including a range of physical, mental and emotional health risks.

NASA discovered that without gravity weighing down your body, bones lose minerals that reduce it's strength. This results in your bone density to drop at over 1% per month. By comparison, elderly people on Earth lose about 1 to 1.5% per year. With a 1,200% bone loss increase, rehabilitation will be more complex which will lead to a greater risk of osteoporosis-related fractures later in life. The fluids in your body shift towards to your head as well in space which put pressure on your eyes, crushing your optic nerves and leaving a high chance to cause vision problems.

NASA has also conducted studies on isolation in closed environments aboard the International Space Station(ISS). Depression, sleep disorders, and interpersonal interactions were affected, caused by confined spaces and loneliness that comes with a long duration in space. This problem will be compounded by any long-term space travel in colonization.

The human body's circadian rhythm is also susceptible to the effects of space, as your body loses track of the hours without a sunset and sunrise to correlate your sleep schedule to. As Dinges said, "We are a circadian species, and if you don't have the proper lighting to maintain that chronobiology, it can create significant problems for crew members". This can lead to exhaustion, as well as other sleep problems such as insomnia.

high-energy radiation is a major health risk that colonizers will face, as radiation in deep space is deadlier then what astronauts face now in low earth orbit. This hazard can damage human tissue, cells, and DNA, causing permanent damage. The shielding on shuttles now only protect against 25 to 30% of space radiation using metals, exposing astronauts to the remaining 70% of radiation.

Solutions to health risks
Although there are many physical, mental, and emotional health risks for future colonizers and pioneers, studies have been created by multiple organizations to find a solution.

Mars500, HI-SEAS, and SMART-OP are programs and studies designed to help reduce the effects of loneliness and confinement for long periods of time. Keeping contact with family members, celebrating holidays, and maintaining cultural identities all had an impact on reducing deterioration of the subject's mental health.

Health tools are in development, such as myCompass, which can use information entered via user to deliver psychological interventions for depression and anxiety. Using this, they can develop cognitive behavior therapy(CBT) programs to help astronauts reduce anxiety, and helpful tips to reduce the spread of germs and bacteria in a closed environment.

thirty-eight trials of reactive medicine experiments were given to astronauts on the ISS to eliminate high-energy radiation in an astronaut's body. This approach focuses away from a proactive approach, such as the shielding on the shuttle towards removing the radiation afterwards. Future space agencies can also ensure that every colonizer would have a mandatory amount of exercise everyday, to prevent degradation of muscle.