Why kidneys are damaged in space. According to scientists, astronauts will experience kidney problems for two reasons. The main cause is galactic cosmic rays (GCR), or simply cosmic radiation. Additionally, microgravity has a negative impact. Scientists report this in the journal Nature Communications. You might think of astronauts who spend extended periods on the ISS without kidney issues. In reality, the ISS is not fully exposed to GCR, as it is located in low Earth orbit under the protection of the Earth’s magnetic field. However, even on the ISS, an astronaut receives the same dose of radiation in a year as a nuclear power plant worker does in five years. Currently, the only people who have been fully exposed to GCR are the astronauts who participated in NASA’s Apollo missions, meaning the 24 individuals who went to the Moon. However, these journeys never lasted longer than 12 days. A mission to Mars would require spending several years in space. As a result, astronauts would receive an enormous dose of radiation.
What happens to the kidneys in space? As mentioned earlier, scientists have previously determined what happens to blood in space and human DNA, as well as other body systems. For example, researchers recently discovered a phenomenon known as “space migraine,” which astronauts seldom discuss. However, kidneys have not received much attention. Therefore, it was not anticipated that these organs could be severely damaged by radiation.
In a recent study, scientists analyzed kidney function and related biomarkers in more than 60 astronauts. Additionally, they thoroughly examined the kidneys of rodents that had been on the International Space Station (ISS). They also simulated the effects of long space journeys by bombarding mice and rats with a dose of radiation similar to what astronauts would receive during a trip to Mars.
As it turns out, serious changes in the kidneys can occur in astronauts in less than a month of being in space. These changes will lead to progressive and irreversible loss of kidney function. However, astronauts will experience symptoms much later.
The issue is that the kidneys are organs whose problems become noticeable only in the later stages. For example, kidneys can lose 75% of their function without a person feeling any symptoms, or symptoms may just begin to appear. Therefore, it is quite possible that astronauts will feel health problems not in space, but upon returning to Earth, and these issues will be irreversible. In fact, they could become disabled.
But that’s not all — another problem is the formation of kidney stones, and astronauts will face this issue much earlier than kidney failure. Scientists have long known that the risk of developing kidney stones in space is 14 times higher. Previously, this problem was associated with bone demineralization due to microgravity. Now, however, scientists believe that kidney failure, which gradually develops in astronauts, is partly to blame.
People won’t be able to fly to Mars? The conclusions drawn so far are only preliminary, as they are primarily based on experiments with rats in laboratory conditions. If confirmed, long-duration space flights will become impossible without addressing this issue. It may not be possible to protect the kidneys from radiation, but it is possible that scientists could develop drugs to mitigate its negative effects. However, solutions to other health problems, both mentioned above and less serious ones like nail detachment, have not yet been found. Therefore, a manned flight to Mars is unlikely to take place in the near future.
Comment: Even after reading this essay by Gregory Roitman, I’d still like to spend a couple of days in space, either on the ISS or on a capsule beyond the ISS. But only a few days. I’d pass on one of those up to the edge of space for a few minutes and down again.
I wonder how much thought and effort Musk is putting into this problem of human physiology. Living in lunar lava tubes may allow longer stays there, but for how long? Colonizing Mars will be a far more difficult challenge.
This doesn’t mean we should give up on manned space flight. If nothing else, it sparks the human imagination and instinct to explore. But we can do much of that through robotic exploration. Look at the Perseverance rover and the Ingenuity helicopter. Hell, the Voyager missions still get me excited.
TTG
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/284275main_radiation_hs_mod3.pdf?
“The conclusions drawn so far are only preliminary, as they are primarily based on experiments with rats in laboratory conditions.”
So the author threw some clickbait out there based on ‘lab rat’ experiments. Thanks.
Fred,
In addition to the lab rats, they analyzed kidney function and related biomarkers in more than 60 astronauts and thoroughly examined the kidneys of rodents that had been on the ISS.
My dad was one of the foremost Cosmic Ray physicists of his day. (Discontinued his research in 1983 or so and became vice chancellor of a university). He said distant space travel was probably doomed to be a sci-fi writer’s fantasy because Cosmic Rays pose such severe health problems. Last time Iooked in the year 2000 or so the highest energy cosmic rays were protons with energies so high they were equivalent to being hit with a tennis ball traveling 100 miles per hour (or 170 km per hour). That’s one infinitesimally tiny proton. Now imagine being bombarded with hundreds of thousands of them. I’d rather not.
Addendum. I should have clarified that those are only the highest energy cosmic rays, not the common garden variety ones.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_ray
I don’t know very much about physics. At all. But if there is a significant amount of energy striking an interplanetary spacecraft via cosmic rays then isn’t that a source of free energy that the designers of such craft should be attempting to tap into?
A two-fer: not only are they shielding the occupants from harm, but are turning that energy into good use.
Cosmic rays pass through the material cover of the space ship and through everything including the human passengers. But they have variable decay rates and where and when they decay no one knows but when they do their decay products are deadly because of their ionization effects. For example, neutral pi mesons have an incredibly small lifetime in their own rest frames. I need to look it up but for instance a plain old neutron in it’s rest frame decays into an electron plus a proton plus a neutrino in about 17 seconds. A neutral pi meson on the other hand has a lifetime of 8 divided by 10 to the 17th power seconds approximately. Compared to which a nanosecond is an eternity. That’s why they are promising therapeutically because if you do the math correctly and measure the distance to a patient’s tumor accurately you can shoot a neutral pion at the patient’s head and it will penetrate effortlessly till it reaches the target point at which point it ineluctably undergoes decay and the decay products damage/destroy the diseased tissue. Same with the spacemen – it’s the decay products which damage tissue, not the cosmic rays themselves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pion
Why “in their own rest frame?” Relativistic time dilation. A prediction of Einstein’s Special Theory of relativity. A particle which has a lifetime of say a nanosecond — how can it even be observed? Because it travels at such a highly relativistic speed (means nearly the speed of light) it may travel through our atmosphere for quite a while as measured in our rest frame, but in it’s own frame it lives for only a billionth of a second. You’d need impossible to obtain reams of data on all the cosmic rays nearing your spaceship, unfortunately, to even begin to realize your very interesting idea.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation
So basically the article is saying these space rays travel through anything.
This has a profound effect on long spaceflight.
Dejah Thoris will have to pine away for my arrival on Mars just a few more years for me until bioengineers successfully develop an implantable bioartificial kidney.
They are really quite close to doing that.
Thanks Peter. My kidney probably needs one now even without a trip to Mars. My Doc is saying the megacups of coffee I still drink every morning are disastrous for kidney function. And then the past abuse of Jack Daniels back 60 years ago when I thought I was indestructible didn’t help either.
There is only one way off this planet and that is the human brain connected to a robotic body with a interface.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41928-023-01041-8
Elon musk is one of a few companies work on a neural link.
From blade runner
https://youtu.be/HU7Ga7qTLDU
Yes,
I was thinking along similar lines – the Neurolink combined with a robotic body sent to Mars… and from there – doing thought experiments – I get to the plots of several unsettling science fiction stories that might one day become a ‘cautionary tale.’ Granted. science fiction novels that have mundane and ordinary outcomes would not sell very well. Mars is well within our reach, in one way or another; this makes for interesting times.
kj
We know how to protect ourselves from cosmic rays. Lead is currently the most effective, but it’s too heavy. A synthetic material, with a high density of atoms but not too heavy, should do the trick. Chemistry or physical chemistry has not said its last word.
As Yeah, Right says an electric field around the ship should eliminate the harshest cosmic rays. Add a small magnetic field and you’ve got a self-sustaining electrical generator. This is what our spaceship Earth does to protect us.
In the real world, going to Mars will be a nightmare, not a dream.
And there’s no reason to go messing up Mars after making Earth unlivable.
I agree with TGG. Sending humans into space is far too expensive a handicap. Flexible automatons will do much better and for 10 times less.
Long ago, the silicon dioxide in moondust was theorized to be a usable barrier against cosmic rays for building moon colony shelters. Not clear to me what thickness was required.
Borated Polyethylene is used to shield neutron radiation in medical devices. Might be impractical for use in spaceflight?
There have been a few proposals for a spaceship magnetic field. Here is one from two years ago: https://phys.org/news/2022-05-magnetic-astronauts-dangerous-space.html
leith,
Thanks.
I think this boat has sailed. A couple of years ago, I was interviewing young women for a scholarship opportunity and one high school senior with outstanding qualifications said she wanted to be an astronaut. Then she went on to say she wanted to go to Mars because “We are the Mars generation.” Said with total sincerity and matter-of-factness.
First time I had ever heard that! I am sure she will be part of the cohort that figures out how to get there safely.
TTG, thought I would drop in this unrelated article. From deep in the Lithuanian woods during WWII a diary emerges of murder…………
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/09/polish-journalist-kazimierz-sakowicz-holocaust-witness-diary/680020/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the-atlantic-am&utm_term=The+Atlantic+AM
Al
Thats interesting.Thanks for the link.My family originally came from Raseiniai but left in the late 1800’s for South Africa.Unfortunately very few Lithuanians were convicted of their crimes after the 2nd World War.Most of the investigations centred around the nazis.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raseiniai
Interestingly enough the town was the connected to the Haskalah movement
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haskalah
TTG, I was not aware of the “clothing exchange”. The Nazi killers providing the dead Jews’ coats, shoes, etc. to the Lithuanians.
al,
It’s truly a macabre part of the story. I sensed the Lithuanians were ambiguous about the horrid plight of their Jewish neighbors at best, but antisemitism was a real part of Lithuanian society at the time.
My paternal Great Grandfather snuck out of Lithuania right after the American civil war, mcohen. He was running away from the Czar’s military conscription, one of 13 sons of a man named Chaim. I wonder if he ever suspected it would be Lithuanians and maybe a Kraut or two who would have butchered his family’s descendants if he didn’t escape rather than the Russians who left the Jews in peace for 200 years. If you ever watched Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah you know that the Poles of the pig farmer class were sweethearts too. The eldest son of the 13 came over first and was named Abraham.
He founded a secret society called the Odd-Ball club not far from.where Colonel Lang used to live. But my mom was goyim mcohen, several generations later. Her parents disowned her for marrying a Jew. With great regret my dad’s parents allowed him to marry the no good Shiksa. So it goes mcohen, so it goes.
Claude Lanzmann wept for hours when he heard the news of Stalin’s death mcohen. I bet you didn’t know that. But that’s ok.
Off Topic:
https://t.me/anatoly_nesmiyan/20778
There are reports of the wounding (and possibly death) of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a result of an Israeli strike. This is indirectly evidenced by the urgent meeting of Iran’s top leadership at the estate of Rahbar Khamenei and the statement by Khamenei’s adviser (verbatim): “… The resistance has strong leaders and cadres, and every leader who dies will be replaced…”
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https://t.me/logikamarkova/14121?comment=4537390
Arab journalists with millions of subscribers:
Anyone who heard the statements of the Iranian president in New York, especially his flirtations with the Americans and the Israelis, and his words about Iranians and Americans being brothers and Iran not wanting to get involved in the current conflict, considered these statements as a “green light” to eliminate Hezbollah, its leaders and other groups allied with Iran. Now we must ask the question: who killed Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, or who made it easier for the Israelis in Iran? We have said many times: there are no sacred pieces in chess and politics.
F&l thanks
Well i learnt a new good …..”No sacred pieces in chess or politics”.
You’re more than welcome Monsieur Emcee O’hen. Now do you want to know which receptacles for nocturnal emissions to massacre next? You need only read the entire Encyclopedia A thru Z and then say I a toll you so quickly 32 times while swinging a dead chicken held in a plastic bag around your counter-clockwise if you live in the Southern hemisphere. Don’t forget to check in with Larry, da Judge and Ray for the latest “Israel is Being Totally Destroyed” information video.
Or check with a person who isn’t a mental patient or a CIA trickster, our beloved friend Sergei Markov. It’s easier and it’s free.
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https://t.me/logikamarkova/14120
Today Israel launched a massive attack on Beirut, trying to kill the political and religious leader of Hezbollah, Sheikh Nasrallah. It is not yet known whether the Sheikh is alive or not.
The most surprising thing here is that Hezbollah is almost not responding. Many thought that Hezbollah was tough and cruel. But they act more like the heirs of Leo Tolstoy and Gandhi. Do they hope to defeat Israel with their humility and suffering? Experts around the world are amazed at how Hezbollah is not able to respond.
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https://t.me/logikamarkova/14121
Everyone thought that Hezbollah was the leader in toughness, but it turned out that it was the leader in meekness.
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Remember the very trustworthy Scott Ritter said that Israel was finished months ago. If only my stallion Trigger had his balls removed he’d be my gelding Trigger. What happened to Grandpa and Grandma, mcohen? I don’t get it. Neither do you but that’s ok.
Safed is a city close to my heart being once the home town of the Great kabbalist Isaac Luria.He was buried there on the July 25, 1572
Interesting man and a poet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Luria
Today I read that hez fired missiles at the city.Unbelievable.
Lament of an ed. (A request for issac)
My holy man
Come pray with me
Pray with me
As we walk down the fire road
Souls burn in hells abode
My holy man
Write his name with the Letters in sand
Bring out the marching band
Its our destiny
Look for no pity
My holy man
I have ridden on the winged horse
To the holy land
Saw cities burning
Salt turn to sand
Rivers filled with poison
The land a scarred lesion
The killing season
The sabbath bride stripped bare
In the suns bright glare
False words mouths blare
Yes my holy man
Come stand with me before the Lord
Where we will judged to the man
Ask forgiveness from the burning sword
Have we heeded the word of Dan
As our neighbours suffer in pain
Do we point and laugh
Sell our brothers for profit and gain
Yes my holy man
Come pray with me
Pray with me
For souls lost so that they may be found
May they be guided with a righteous hand
These three companions eternally bound
mcohen do you live on Doggerel Lane? Doggerel is the proper name for these compositions of yours, not poetry. Just as Delusional Schizophrenic is the proper term for people like your venerated rabbit, not Holy Man.
He worshipped Exploding-Pager Yahweh centuries before the invention of pagers – a rabbit ahead of his time. And the.proper term for Kabbalist is superstitious.driveling nutjob, by the way. All the psychotic old ladies in Long Island Hadassah think the “kabbalists” discovered quarks, leptons and antimatter, btw. They didn’t. Paul Andre Maurice Dirac discovered antimatter in 1928.
Saying at Cambridge University:
“There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.”
Paul Dirac’s closest friend was Abraham Pais, btw, a brilliant theoretical physicist and Jewish individual. His dying words were “The Nazis nearly killed Pais ..” repeatedly, while weeping. Paul Dirac was an actual friend to the Jews, mcohen. You’re not. Neither is the worst us president in history Joe Biden who receives his orders from a shadowy group of billionaires.
You and your work cannot be taken seriously when you write this without any ironic touch: “Currently, the only people who have been fully exposed to GCR are the astronauts who participated in NASA’s Apollo missions, meaning the 24 individuals who went to the Moon. However, these journeys never lasted longer than 12 days.”