After spending one entire year in space, three astronauts returned to Earth. American astronaut Frank Rubio, and his two Russian colleagues, cosmonauts Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev parachuted into Kazakhstan, landing around 4:15 A.M. Pacific Time.
The mission was meant to last 180 days, in other words just 6 months long. But it more than doubled into a 371-day orbit. That’s more than a year of being suspended in space.
Well, at least on the bright side, NASA’s Rubio broke a US space record for the longest single spaceflight in history.
We spoke to a trained astronaut and USC Professor and Chair of the Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering department, Paul Ronney, about what space does to the human body.
PAUL D. RONNEY: One of the challenges of long term spaceflight is how to deal with these cosmic rays, as well as the deterioration of your, you know, of your muscle mass and especially your bone mass.
How does an astronaut maintain their muscle mass for that long without gravity? Ronney says it’s not easy.
RONNEY: Long term space really leads to a degeneration of bone and muscle. And even astronauts who have been in space for months, even though they exercise and work out really hard. In fact, I know a lot of astronauts have told me they were working out like 2 hours a day.
USC Lecturer in both the Astronautical Engineering department and the School of Architecture, Madhu Thangavelu, agrees.
MADHU THANGAVELU: What happens during a longer duration missions are more serious. Your you know, your heart rate is affected, your vision is affected. The bodily fluids cause changes even in the brain.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the emotional side.
THANGAVELU: I think frankly, take some time and I believe it may be a few months to perhaps even a year before he gets his legs back, you know, so that he can go play tennis or fly helicopters. And, you know, I. I am sure I’m sure he wants to have some pizza, hamburgers, because these are the things that the crew crave for and miss when they are on, on, on on the mission. They come back. They want to smell the green grass of home. They want to see the blue skies.
And now, hopefully, the three astronauts will get to enjoy just that. Blue skies, the sounds of home, the taste of junk food.