Climate change, war and fascism got you down? Wish you could buy a ticket on the Europa Clipper spacecraft that’s on its way to check if there’s living slime on a Jupiterian moon? Before you decide to leave Earth behind and move to outer space, consider the life of an astronaut on the International Space Station.
Imagine cohabitating with eight other people in an enclosed area the size of a large airplane. You live on a strict schedule broken into 15 minute increments, using a red marker on a computer tablet to keep pace with the daily routine of experiments and maintenance all on an average six hours of sleep. You never shower, and instead rely on wet wipes for personal hygiene. Every human odor remains trapped around you in a cloud of stench that U.K. astronaut Tim Peake has compared to “a barbecue that’s gone wrong.” You drink processed urine. Things only get more uncomfortable from here.
Stranded NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore have been living aboard the ISS for 170 days since their departure from Earth on June 5. Their mission, originally meant to last around a week, will have gone on for over eight months by the time the two are picked up by a SpaceX Dragon at the end of February 2025. NASA’s accepted odds for loss of crew during the extended stay, or the chances Wilmore and Williams won’t make it back to Earth alive, are 1 in 270. Although chances of death on their mission are relatively low, the effects of their long term stay in space will likely have an impact on their bodies for the rest of their lives.
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To get a better idea of how the unexpected extra months in space may impact Williams and Wilmore, Salon interviewed NASA’s lead flight surgeon, Dr. Steven Gilmore, who supported Captain Scott Kelly during the longest planned space mission in NASA’s history: 340 days. While one mission was going on in space, another was conducted down here on Earth. NASA was monitoring changes in Captain Kelly's body while comparing to his twin brother, Mark, now an Arizona senator, who remained on the ground during the experiment in order to determine the effects microgravity has on humans over extended periods of time.
“Essentially you can look at each of the body systems and start quantifying and characterizing the changes that the human body goes through [in space] as it's in this different environment for longer and longer periods,” Gilmore said.
"Our optometrists can estimate before they fly by what degree their prescription will change."
It’s easy to forget the joys of gravity while going to sleep or using the toilet on Earth, but the constant force that keeps us on the ground also helps us maintain bone structure and keep bodily fluids flowing where we want them. Living in microgravity causes bodily fluids to become more evenly distributed, with up to two extra liters of blood becoming unnaturally congested in the upper body, triggering constant feelings of puffiness and congestion, especially in the head and face. In Captain Kelly’s memoir, “Endurance: A Year In Space, A Lifetime of Discovery,” he describes the feeling of “space brain,” writing, “The full head sensation never completely goes away. It feels a little like standing on your head 24 hours a day, mild pressure in your ears, congestion, round face, flushed skin.”
The way fluids redistribute themselves in space is also why astronauts can’t burp without throwing up — the contents of their stomach become evenly pressed to the sides of the organ instead of settling at the bottom. This effect also causes urine to float along the sides of the bladder, which can prevent astronauts from feeling a need to pee until their bladders become completely full, leading to an unexpected, spontaneous need to urinate.
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