“Spacebound Struggles: Why Doctors Are Racing Against Time to Reach Stranded Astronauts”
“It is hard to imagine their mental state. although they are professional trained, staying in outer space for such an unexpectedly long time is truly beyond imagination,” one said.
Image credits: NASA/Keegan Barber
It may have been unusual for some people to see the astronauts being carried out of the SpaceX Dragon in stretchers.
However, it was nothing more than the protocol to be followed after space travelers return from prolonged periods of living without gravity.
“A lot of them don’t want to be brought out on a stretcher, but they’re told they have to be,” John DeWitt, director of applied sports science at Rice University in Texas and a former senior scientist at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, told Live Science.
It is protocol to carry out space travelers on stretchers as they may not immediately be able to walk
Image credits: NASA/Keegan Barber
DeWitt explained that astronauts may experience dizziness and nausea after touchdown and may not be able to walk right away.
The human body is designed to function in a world with gravity, and many parts of the body and its sensory organs have evolved to respond to gravity’s pull.
Image credits: NASA/Keegan Barber
When in space, the brain adjusts to the weightlessness in different ways. And once the space travelers return back to Earth, their body once again starts readjusting to life with gravity and may experience “space motion sickness” from their journey, DeWitt said.
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