Cells Need Gravity to Develop

grytpype writes "According to a recent news article, a team of French researchers has reported that cells that develop in zero-G conditions fail to form critical "microtubules" needed for proper cell structure. The problem persists even after the affected cells are returned to gravity. The implications for long-term human space travel are interesting."

Comments

Re:Your station would have to be huge!!

[boarder]

But fuel/money IS one of the big issues. The new International Space Station will be around 360 feet long and costs billions of dollars. Imagine something that had to have a DIAMETER of 360 ft. It would cost 10x as much (I'm guessing).

You also aren't considering the incredibly large effects of spin on the system. All the systems have to be more complex, not to mention the thermal gradients and all the other wacky things that happen to a space vehicle (I'm an engineer working on the ISS's guidance and control so I know some of the odd things that happen). We're currently spin stabilizing the ISS (we have to stop for thermal reasons once the Z1 truss gets there and for obvious reasons once humans inhabit it in January) and it takes fuel for spins and reboosts and other station keeping maneuvers.

"spining a space station up to 1G wouldn't be particularly expensive or difficult."

To spin something up to 1G to simulate gravity to a decent degree of normality would be require a sizable system. I won't do the math because nobody really cares, but I have seen the numbers and they ain't small. A large system costs more to put in space than a small one (gotta love our gravity hole) so cost is the major issue. If it were reasonable, trust me, they probably would've tried it.

Applicability is not clear...

[IdahoEv]

I looked up the abstract of the original article because the news article reference wasn't all that clear. It's listed in P.N.A.S. as a chemistry study, not a biology study.

It appears the researchers were examining self-organization of microtubules in solution, but not actually sending living cells into space. And it's pretty big stretch to extrapolate from a simple chemical solution to living cells in a human body.

I'd hold off for now on calling this study the solution to the question long-term health deterioration in space.

so what happend to all the mice?

[thogard]

There have been plenty of healty mice born in space. Mice have been studied for a long time by both the US and Russian space programs.

I like the bit about the supressed immune system. The the theory for that (in the 1960s) was that the astronauts were all issolated in a germ free areas for long periods before and after flights.