You may not find yourself on Cloud Nine after all if you get a chance to travel in space. Space travel has its own occupational hazards. As if eating freeze-dried food and other lot more disgusting stuff wasn’t enough, space travelers now have yet another hazard to contend with.
Researchers have now revealed that bacteria such as E. coli, staphylococcus and salmonella can make you sick aboard a spacecraft. This is because human immune system becomes weaker in space and bacteria thrive readily in conditions where gravity is zero or negligible.
Nathan Gueguinou, Cecile Huin-Schohn, and their fellow researchers at Nancy-University in France and the University of Luxembourg have argued that it is important to consider the weakening of the immune system in space before embarking on any prolonged space voyage. They have published their report in the November 1 issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.
Earlier, Russian scientists had conducted a study on board Mir and Photon 2 and found that bacilli and E. coli underwent significant changes in space to become much more aggressive — to the point that that they even ate spacecraft components.
Gueguinou, Huin-Schohn, and their team members reviewed over 150 studies dating to the Apollo era, and found that human immune system becomes weaker even during short voyages. Worse still, bacteria become more virulent and grow faster in space making antibiotics ineffective unless used in much higher concentrations.
NASA, well aware of the problem, has diet and exercise regimens designed to boost astronauts’ weakened immune systems. The authors of the study also recommend taking a mushroom-based immune booster drug, among other therapies.
Luis Montaner, editor of the journal, believes that in spite of those efforts, astronauts are likely to fall sick when leaving Earth for prolonged periods. Because spacecraft technology is more advanced than our expertise in maintaining human health, Montaner thinks disease-free survival after reaching Mars or establishing a colony on the Moon may pose problems.
If you are an aspiring space traveler, you might want to remember these things before asking for the boarding card.
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