After feeding upon the thrills of Star Trek, Star Wars, Avatar and their ilk, we (that is, people of the entertainment soaked portion of the world) are conditioned to be optimistic about human beings in space. There’s also the reality of landing on the Moon, the International Space Station, and the inspiring history of astronauts and cosmonauts. We’re also at least dimly aware that occupying space can be unexciting, routine – a grind. What most people don’t know, including many people very interested in human exploration of space, is that there are ‘show stoppers,’ ‘elephants in the room,’ – some very real problems with sustaining human life in outer space. If these problems aren’t overcome, there will be no ‘colonization of space’ or even missions to Mars.

It’s been known for quite some time, at least back to the early days of cosmonauts and astronauts in the 1960’s and 70’s, that there are two huge physical problems with extended living in space: Loss of bone and muscle mass due to weightlessness, and cumulative exposure to radiation, especially solar and cosmic radiation. A third problem generally ignored by Americans in space (NASA) but somewhat explored by the old Soviet space program is psychological: The negative effects of living in extreme close quarters for months on end in a very risky and hostile environment.

There have been many studies of all the problems (just throw any phrase like ‘muscle loss in space’ into a search engine), so it’s disconcerting to see a news release like “Astronauts muscles waste in space” (Marquette University, Wisconsin USA) that goes on about a new study as if it were something of a revelation. Worse yet is the tendency of credulous media to echo the revelation angle without the slightest effort to put it into context or weigh its significance. More »