• Question: Do you know what happens if astronauts don't do exercise?

    Asked by Bob123 to Jake, James, Pete, Senga, Simonne on 9 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Jake Langham

      Jake Langham answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      If they spend a long time in space and don’t exercise then their muscles and bones will waste away. (The scientific word is ‘atrophy’.) This also happens with internal muscles like the heart. I think this is because in very low gravity your body doesn’t need strong muscles or bones so it stops making them to save energy. On the International Space Station they have exercise equipment like special treadmills that pull on your body to simulate the effect of gravity. But even with this exercise it can take them a long time to recover when they return to Earth and they’re not allowed to stay in space for too long.

    • Photo: Senga Robertson

      Senga Robertson answered on 9 Nov 2017:

      Hi Bob123

      I do….but Jake has answered your question with all of the things I was going to say about physical health.

      All I would add is that astronauts don’t just need to be physically healthy, NASA do a lot of tests to make sure that astronauts are very healthy mentally before space travel. (Mental health covers a lot of things like how you think, feel and act). A problem that astronauts can face is that after coming back down to earth after something so incredible it can cause mental health issues like depression, alcohol abuse and difficulty adjusting to “normal life”, there is less chance of that happening if they are mentally healthy before launch.

      Senga 🙂

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