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Thursday, October 15 Dr. Rick Chappell
Living and Working in Space
[REMEMBER that all students should prepare questions to ask presenter during videoconference.]
Are your students preparing for jobs that are "out of this world"? But what about doing the laundry, going to the toilet, and eating dinner while living in space?
Lunar bases, Martian rover vehicles, and a zero gravity exercise room are realities right now. Astronauts living and working on the International Space Station today are preparing for missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. Understanding the unique microgravity environment that astronauts experience in orbit is the goal of the "Living and Working in Space" videoconference.
What does it take to survive and work in Space? Come and hear Dr. Rick Chappell describe adaptations that must be made when we travel beyond earth’s atmosphere to the extreme and hostile environment of Space.
TEACHERS: Please discuss questions with your students and have students write out their questions to ask Rick Chappell during the Q & A session.
Lesson on Space Exploration
Living in Space—How Does Our Body Adapt?
--How high do you have to go to be in space?
--Most of the atmosphere is below 100 kilometers (65 miles) and the spacecraft
needs to be above the atmosphere to stay in space.
--Is there gravity in space?
--If there were no gravity, what would keep the satellites going around the Earth
and the Moon going around the Earth and the Earth going around the Sun?
--Yes, there is gravity in space.
--If there is gravity in space, why do you float around?
--Have you ever “floated around” on Earth? When and how?
--Swimming pool, diving board, trampoline, sky-diving
--You float when you fall in gravity—like jumping from a diving board or
jumping on a trampoline when you can do twists and flips.
--When you are “falling around the Earth” in a spacecraft does your body change the way
it works?
--Yes, fluids in your body like blood move around differently.
--How does your heart and blood circulation change?
--Your heart normally pumps blood from your feet up to your head. If you and
your blood are floating around, the heart will pump too much blood to
your head and your neck and face will swell up. Your body will think
that you have too much blood and will reduce the amount of liquid in
your body through your urine output.
--Your body will also not produce as much red blood cell material
--How do your muscles and bones change while you are floating in space?
--Since you don’t need to walk around, you do not use the muscles and bones in
your legs and back. As a result, you muscles weaken and your bones
lose calcium and get weaker.
--To reduce the loss of muscle and bone, you can do exercises during your flight.
--How do you exercise in space if you are floating around?
--You can ride a stationary bicycle or run on a treadmill, but how do you stay on
the bicycle or treadmill?
--You can use a seat belt to stay on the bike and bungees to stay on the treadmill.
--You can also pull against rubber straps or push between two stationary walls to
strengthen your muscles.
--How does your brain tell you which way is up if you can’t feel the gravity?
--Your brain uses your eyes, your inner ear (otolith organ) and the nerves in your
legs and back (proprioceptive nerves).
--In space, none of these really works, but your brain learns to depend on your
eyes to tell it which way is “up” to the ceiling and “down” to the floor.
--Most people who fly in space for the first time become motion sick, since the
brain has to adjust to using the eyes only and gets no useful information
from the otolith organs and the proprioceptive nerves since you are
floating around (falling around the Earth).
--Do you get a backache in space?
--When you are floating in space, your spine does not have to support the weight
of your body, so your back often lengthens—you get taller.
--This change in the length of your spine can cause backaches in space or when
you return to Earth and gravity begins to put force on the spine again.
--Are you subject to getting diseases in space?
--There is some evidence that your immune system which protects you from
sickness does not function like it does on Earth so you might be subject to
disease.
--Are there dangers in going away from the Earth and the protection of its magnetic
field, the “magnetospher.”?
--The magnetosphere is a region of space around the Earth in which the Earth’s
magnetic field keeps some high energy electrified particles away from
Earth. The magnetosphere extends about 60,000 miles from Earth in the
direction of the Sun and more than one million miles in the direction
away from the Sun. It is shaped like a comet, but is invisible to our eyes.
--The magnetosphere and our atmosphere protect us from high energy electrons
and ions which come from the Sun and from interplanetary space.
--If we leave the protection of the magnetosphere to go to the Moon or to Mars,
we will have to protect the astronauts from these particles which can
damage the genetic information in their cells.
--Is there gravity throughout space?
--Yes. Gravity comes from the pull of the mass of the different objects around us.
--The bigger the object, the larger the gravity pull. The farther away the object is,
the smaller the pull.
--When we are on the Earth or near it in space, the Earth’s gravity dominates.
However, the Sun and the Moon affect things on Earth as well like the
ocean tides.
--As long as you are “falling through space,” you will be in the gravitational pull
of one object and sometimes many. This combined pull will determine
your course or “trajectory” through space. Only when the rocket engines
fire will you feel a force pressing you into your seat or into the floor, wall,
or ceiling.
Website Questions/Comments
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Email: michael.majett@Vanderbilt.edu
Phone: (615) 343-1018 IP:129.59.139.23
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