Thursday, June 22, 2006
During a practice journey through space, astronauts spend their days hovering in micro-gravity, the virtual lack of gravitational pull. That weightlessness affects a lot of systems in the human body. One established effect is the provisional impairment of the immune system. Wounds, for example, take longer to cure in space.
At the same time, certain bacteria could transform and become more powerful--a bad mixture. Even if risks are slight during a 12-day mission like the future shuttle flight, they merit to be explored said Cecilia Wigley, load manager of a new immunity research project at NASA.
"We are looking down the road to the president's vision of eventually going to Mars," she said. "As we go into longer-duration flight, as well as longer distances, the body's ability to fight off infection becomes quite critical to the health of astronauts."
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@ 1:56 AM
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