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Asked by Maty👾🇵🇱 to Jake, James, Pete, Senga, Simonne, Pete on 8 Nov 2017. This question was also asked by tumblebum.
Question: How long does rehabilitation take after astronauts return to Earth?
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Jake Langham answered on 8 Nov 2017:
Ok, I didn’t know much about this so I’ll admit I looked it up (and now I need to get back to work!). For astronauts on the International Space Station, they usually spend 6 months in space. The main problem when they get back is that their muscles and joints aren’t used to Earth’s gravity. If you’ve ever broken a bone, it’s apparently a bit like when they take the cast off – you feel a bit sore and your muscles and whatnot need time to adapt to moving around again. There are other effects too, like your heart will be a bit weaker because it didn’t have to pump blood as hard when in space.
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Anyway, the length of time it takes to get better depends on the astronaut – some people feel fine in a few weeks, for others it takes months or even a year before they feel completely normal.
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Senga Robertson answered on 8 Nov 2017:
Hi Maty!
oooh that’s a brilliant question! I know that because astronauts are in zero gravity their muscles can deteriorate so depending on how long they are in space and how old/ fit they are it can take a different length of time for each astronaut to recover…..then I looked on the internet because I wanted to know more!
This is what I found out:
In space zero gravity can also make the skeleton deteriorate, slow down your cardiovascular functions (cardiovascular means your blood and blood vessels), make your balance weird, give you eyesight problems and make your immune system weak. It can also cause sleep problems and losing a concept of time a bit. These all take varying time to resolve but unfortunately, sometimes the bone deterioration can’t be fixed….I’m not sure if I want to go to space now! ha ha
I found this link on the NASA website that you might find interesting 🙂
https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace
Senga 🙂
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