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Time-in-Space Record Broken

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the and-you-thought-you-had-a-rough-couple-of-years dept.

NoFrance writes "Russian cosmonaut, Sergei Krikalev has taken the record for most time spent in space away from fellow Russian Sergei Avdeyev. At 748 days in space, Krikalev has an impressive list of accomplishments to his name, including : back-to-back 6 month tours on mir, he flew on the first joint US-Russian space shuttle mission, and a member of the first crew to live on ISS. He is currently commander of the ISS in a six-month stint that began on 14 April. Most impressive is his ability to deal with the physical hardships in space. In space most people lose around 1.5% of their bone mass per month, even with a disciplined exercise regime. And growing the bone mass lost from a 6 month stint back, can take a long time."

5 of 325 comments (clear)

  1. Bone loss calculation by TildeMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    He's been in space more than two full years (24 months). So at an average loss of 1.5% per month, he now would be expected to have less than (1-0.015)^24 = 69.577614% of his original bone mass. That's not insignificant. So how much has he actually lost, and how has he been beating this?

  2. Re:10m+ by grozzie2 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How about we exclude you from the candidate list of folks to go, and restrict it to people that _can_ deal with the claustriphobic conditions. Makes much more sense to choose crew capable of operating within the mission parameters, rather than change the mission parameters to fit a crew.

  3. Re:This is just astounding by pixelpusher220 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    well except for the, ahem, *view* ;-)


    --
    People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people :-D
  4. Re:748 days? by ryanov · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think these folks mean "consecutive" but don't seem to be able to find the word.

  5. Re:748 days? by DerekLyons · · Score: 3, Insightful
    748 days? Wow. Think about that - it's more than two years. Quite an accomplishment indeed.
    [yawn] I know a dozen or more submariners in the US alone that have spent three or more years submerged and isolated. Heck, I accumulated a hair over a year (372 days) in a span of four years.

    From TFA

    There are also individual differences in the ability to handle the psychological hardships of long-term spaceflight, says Musson. Many space-farers go through a syndrome similar to depression after the novelty and excitement of the first few weeks in space wears off. It is marked by fatigue, lack of motivation, irritability, and problems sleeping.
    As I've been saying for years - recruit submariners, not pilots. They're already partially screened for resistance to this syndrome. They are already used to living in confined spaces, isolation, etc.. etc..