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Butch Wilmore gets help out of the Space X capsule and rolls away. Now he needs to learn to go again.
1 / 3foto: Space X AP / TT
They planned eight days at the International Space Station at nine months for Americans Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. On Tuesday, they steamed into the sea off the coast of Florida.
– I think they have quite a pain in the body today, says Lisa Westerberg at Karolinska Institutet in Solna.
The images that have been wired throughout the world show a capsule that seems to crash against the earth. The last bit is slowed down by first two and then four parachutes before it still sails into the sea.
A moment later, smiling astronauts are lifted out of the capsule and rolled away on stretcher, while waving happily against the cameras.
– I certainly think they are very happy and euphoric about being back. But their bodies will be very affected, says Lisa Westerberg, professor of experimental immunology at the Karolinska Institute.
Infections
She researches, among other things, how the body, more specifically the immune system, is affected by being in space.
Westerberg says most people have viruses that are latent. The so-called T cells are an important part of the body’s defense and keep the virus in check, but do not work optimally in space. It is not really proven yet, but the hypothesis is that the lack of gravity means that the cells cannot move normally.
– About 50 percent of astronauts have increased infections, both when in space and when they come down, she says, referring to a classic interview with a sniffy Neil Armstrong from 1969.
According to Rodrigo Fernandez Gonzalo, also he researchers at the Karolinska Institutet, there is significant changes in fluid settlement, weakened skeletons and disappeared muscles in astronauts as a result of the body not being exposed to the earth’s gravity.
“Practically all physiological systems in the human body are affected by nine months in space,” writes Fernandez Gonzalo, specialized in space and environmental physiology, in a comment.
Gets longer in space
According to the BBC, studies show that longer assignments in space of three to six months can result in reducing muscle mass by up to 30 percent – despite several hours of mandatory daily space training. In addition to weaker legs, you also get a little longer in space.
– When it is restored and goes back, it hurts quite pain, I think, if I should be completely honest, says Lisa Westerberg.
For the immune system, it seems to take quite a long time to recover, but there is a need for more research according to Lisa Westerberg. Building muscle is likely to go faster.
– We have done a study where you lie in water beds on earth. After lying for 21 days, it takes about a week before the test subjects can go again themselves, she says.
Facting stranded astronauts
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were sent up to the International Space Station (ISS) in the belief that they would stay there for eight days. Nine months later they are back on earth.
Although upturn with Boeing’s new spaceship Starliner in June last year went well, the vessel got far from approved.
Technical problems caused the US Space Agency’s NASA to decide that the two astronauts’ return for security reasons had to wait and the vehicle had to return to the earth without a crew. The Astronauts’ return journey has since been postponed several times.
On Tuesday, the duo along with two other astronauts in the capsule Crew Dragon from Elon Musk-owned Space X.
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