X-ray medicine blasts off to space

• Autores: Aviva Rutkin
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2974, 2014, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The International Space Station (ISS) is about to get its first medical X-ray scanner. Astronauts will use the device to study the effects on rodents of extended periods of time spent in microgravity. Bones deteriorate quickly in space, losing about to 1 to 2 per cent of their mass for every month away from Earth. Muscles and organs also suffer in low gravity. No astronaut has spent more than six months at a stretch on the ISS, so direct medical studies only cover relatively short-term effects. A good diet and strenuous exercise minimize the damage, but no one knows how the human body will fare on long-term missions to an asteroid, for example, or Mars.