Teaming Up with
NASA Ball State scientists work with NASA to find the effects of spaceflight on the muscles. story: michele whitehair
One of Ball State’s lesser-known areas of research takes place not only at the university, but also in space. For over ten years, the Human Performance Lab at Ball State has worked with NASA to research the long-term effects of spaceflight on the body’s muscles. The lab has performed research on astronauts who flew on the space shuttle Columbia in 1996. This 17-day-long Life and Microgravity Spacelab mission completed 40 experiments on human physiology, space biology, and microgravity science. According to the mission’s website, it looked at the causes behind the physiological changes a body experiences in space. The Human Performance Lab has also worked with astronauts aboard the International Space Station on six-month trips. According to a 2013 published study Scott Trappe, the director of the Human Performance Lab, contributed to, the results of those experiments “are the first to evaluate the effects of prolonged space travel on the activity of metabolic enzymes and muscle substrates.” Astronauts, according to the lab’s research, experience fatigue while they are weightless. This is partly because of declines in the body’s rate of oxygen consumption and muscle tissue wasting away. In 2009, the researchers looked at the effects of lower body exercises on the body’s muscles while in space. The researchers had nine astronauts perform different amounts of squats, heel raises, and deadlifts at different frequencies each week for the six months they were in space. They found that those exercises didn’t completely protect calf muscles, but that it did decrease muscle loss compared to a previous mission. Researchers at the Human Performance Lab continue to work with astronauts aboard the International Space Station. So far, researchers have published three articles on the changes muscles go through during spaceflight. Through this research at Ball State, NASA can work with astronauts to ensure that their muscles are kept intact while in space.
DEEP SPACE EFFECT A 2011 report from NASA shows the need to examine the influences sex and gender have on physical or behavioral changes that occur due to space flights. As NASA sets its sights on longer-duration spaceflight deeper into the solar system, the health effects for astronauts grow more complex.
SPACE
EARTH
WOMEN: astronauts (to date) do not exhibit clinically significant visual impairment
MEN: Show slight bias towards speed vs. accuracy in response to alertness test
MEN: astronauts exhibit clinically significant visual impairment
WOMEN: Show slight bias towards accuracy vs. speed in response to alertness test
WOMEN: astronauts are more susceptible to orthostatic intolerance MEN: astronauts are less susceptible to orthostatic intolerance
MEN: suffer more from hearing loss with advanced age WOMEN: suffer less from hearing loss with advanced age
WOMEN: Urinary tract infections are more common in astronauts MEN: Urinary tract infections are less common in astronauts
WOMEN : Large individual variability to muscle and bone loss MEN: Large individual variability to muscle and bone loss
MEN: mount less potent immune responses WOMEN: mount more potent immune responses
MEN: Calcium oxalate kidney stones more common WOMEN: Struvite kidney stones more common source: NASA graphic/illustration: megan axsom/thinkstock
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