Humans have been venturing into space for over 50 years. Starting in 1961 when the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space, by 1969 Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans on the moon, and by 1998 the International Space Station had launched its first module. More recently our exploration of space has started to reach new heights, with 2011 seeing the launch of the Mars One company and its mission to produce the first human colony on Mars by 2033.
Despite our half century of space exploration, scientists have only recently started researching the effects of space travel on the brain. The question of what our brains will look like after spending an extended amount of time in space is increasingly pressing with the impending inception of the Mars colony. The first group of Mars colonists are expected to begin training later this year and will undergo 14 years of training before departing Earth in 2031 and finally landing on Mars in 2032. Though establishing a human colony on Mars will be another giant leap for mankind, will the colonists that travel to and live on Mars have the same brains as when they left Earth?
Scientists have known for some time that space travel is hard on the body. As astronauts become farther away from Earth, the pull coming from Earth’s gravitational field becomes weaker and astronauts experience weightlessness; however, the human body is not designed to live in a weightless state. When in microgravity (the condition colloquially called “zero gravity”), the orientation information provided by Earth’s gravitational pull is lost, causing the way that you perceive your environment to alter. Furthermore, your bones decrease in density at a rate of about 1% per month while in microgravity. By comparison, elderly men and women living on Earth experience bone loss at a rate of 1-1.5% per year. Moreover, without the need for walking and standing in microgravity, the muscles lose strength and endurance. As a result, astronauts must exercise at least two hours a day while in space and must undergo rehabilitation once they return to Earth.
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