Health and Exercise in Space

 

Health Background:

Feeling sick? How do you get a doctor in space? Either a doctor or an astronaut with paramedic training is on board the Space Shuttle to take care of the astronauts. This mission specialist can give medicine to astronauts who are suffering from motion sickness. The medicine relieves feelings of nausea, dizziness, headache, and drowsiness. Other medicines are available for a stuffy nose or for not being able to sleep. The mission specialist can talk with a doctor at Mission Control at all times. They can consult about injuries and illnesses. The astronauts can always depend upon the mission specialists.

Activity 1:

How does motion cause disorientation? You need: a swivel chair, a blindfold, a pencil, a friend

Step 1. Ask a friend to sit in a swivel chair and put on a blindfold. The friend places arms out in front of the body, holding a pencil in an upright position.

Step 2. Ask your friend to point the pencil in the direction of rotation as you turn the chair. Slowly stop the chair. Then turn the chair in the opposite direction. Watch the pencil.

Step 3. Stop the chair. Watch the pencil. In what direction did your friend point the pencil after the first rotation? When the chair was stopped? After the second rotation? How do our senses help orient us in space?

Activity 2:

Astronaut John had motion sickness during the space flight. John felt very sick on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. John felt a little better on Thursday. John felt well on Monday, Saturday and Sunday. Plot the points on the line graph to show how astronaut John felt each day. Doctors on the Ground keep careful track of the day to day health of the astronauts in order to look for positive or negative health trends.

 

Exercise in Space

Resistance exercise is as necessary as proper food and sleep to maintain your good health in microgravity. On past missions, astronauts have suffered some bone and muscle deterioration despite their hard physical exertion in space, because their bodies were not getting -the resistance they were accustomed to in gravity.

To help offset this, you will walk a treadmill on the orbiter and on the ISS. Flight physicians recommend at least 15 minutes daily on the treadmill for missions lasting from seven to 14 days. On 30-day missions, the time should be extended to 30 minutes. In addition to the healthful effect on your bones and muscles, it will help you readjust more quickly to Earth gravity on your return home.

When not in use, the treadmill is kept in a locker. Set it near the hatch window so you can overcome the monotony of the exercise by looking out occasionally on the passing world -- or turn on some music. The treadmill consists of a teflon-coated aluminum sheet on a roller. Its bottom plugs lock into the holes in the floor to make it secure. Straps come from its base to tie around your waist. The tighter the straps the greater the resistance encountered during the workout. Other straps attach from a bar in front of you to your waist. This lets you exercise your arms by pushing upward on the bar as you trudge.

Make sure the air is circulating well about you by turning up the duct close to you. Otherwise, when you perspire, you may be creating a nightmare. For the perspiration will cling to your skin just as water always does to a solid surface in microgravity. It does not drip off, but only grows thicker. On Skylab, astronauts used a hose blower to get it off their skins. This created a new problem because the moisture came off in sheets. Finally, they were forced to use a vacuum cleaner to suck it out of the air.

 

Activity 1:

It is necessary for astronauts traveling in space to maintain good physical fitness. Due to limited space in the cabin, activities to maintain good physical fitness must be designed for these areas.

To simulate exercises done by the astronauts while in flight, try the following basic isometrics:

Grasp right hand in left hand and pull in opposite directions while hands are held together for 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 20 seconds.

Grasp left leg at the knee with clasped hands. Pull leg toward chest 10 times. Repeat procedure with other leg.

Clasp hands behind head. Pull in opposite directions.

In a seated position, clasp hands under legs..

Pull in opposite direction

 

Human Reaction Time

Background

During a space flight astronauts are required to be able to respond quickly to any given situation. Unexpected problems may arise during a space flight that require a rapid response to the problem. The faster the reaction time of an astronaut and the crew, the better chance they will have in dealing with a given situation.

Students can measure their reaction time by using the reaction time card (following page) in this manner:

1.Divide the class into teams of two students each. While one does the activity, the other student times his/her responses.

2.Have one student start with a finger on square one and touch each square in numerical order. The other student should record the time. Then have the same student touch the squares in reverse order. Record the time again.

Students should then reverse roles.

4.Allow the students to do the activity for 2 or 3 days in a row to see if their reaction time improves.

5.Compare results of boys versus girls, age groups, left-handed versus right-handed students, etc., by recording group averages on the blackboard.

6. Allow students to put their own symbols in the blank squares. They might try to devise an ordering system which is faster than numbers.

10 seconds	slow
9 seconds	average
7-8 seconds	very good
5-6 seconds	excellent
<4 seconds	Call NASA Immediately for your place on the ISS!!!

Try using the other hand and see if there is a difference in reaction times

 

 

Pulse Rate Test

Astronauts must be in good physical condition to fly in space. To give students an understanding of some of the activities astronauts use to stay fit, let them check their pulse rate under various conditions.

In addition to locating a step approximately 18 inches high, you will need the fol lowing materials;chart for recording pulse rate (see below) and pencils.

1. Divide the class into teams. Have the students take their partner's pulse rate at rest, and record it for future reference. The teacher may need to assist the students in the beginning so the proper technique is used when the pulse rate is taken.

2. Have students step up onto the step and down again at a rapid rate for 2 or 3 minutes--approximately 20 times.

3. Have students take their partner's pulse rate again after the exercise; record and compare to pulse rate at rest. Wait 3 minutes; again take pulse and record it. Repeat after 5 minutes. Compare to the previous pulse rates.

 

PULSE RATE CHART

Name	At Rest	Immediately Following Exercise	3 Minutes After Exercise	5 Minutes After Exercise
1
2
3
4
5
6

 

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