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Time-in-Space Record Broken
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."
748 days? Wow. Think about that - it's more than two years. Quite an accomplishment indeed.
Out of curiosity, what's the record amount of time spent in space by a US-American astronaut?
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
In Soviet space, bone loses you!
Did you know subscribers can see articles in the future? Holy shit!
Frequent Flyer miles he accumulated?
(And Sergei, man, I'm so sorry you had to hear about it like this...)
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
I thought there was a problem with the space-time continuum.
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.
:)
They better make those soon-to-be-here flight to moon & mars entertaining, otherwise, they might get sued by guys who are able to pay 10+ milion for a vacation
Actually, do astronauts get plain vanilla worker's comp like the rest of us here in the states, or does NASA have some custom designed insurance policy?
Then you would understand just how short a time 748 days in space truly is.
A simple Troll, born of Rock and Fire, leaving in the basement of my parents volcano and typing on an asbestos keyboard.
"Sergei Krikalev has taken the record for most time spent in space away from fellow Russian Sergei Avdeyev"
Man- that Sergei Avdeyev must be pretty annoying if Sergei K has to go to space to stay away from him.
And growing the bone mass lost from a 6 month stint back, can take a long time.
. over..whelming......
I hate comments like that. Immediately I want to know how long, but all I know is that it's the ever-subjective "a long time". Gee, thanks.
From TFA
"And it takes a good long time to get it back," says Buckey, adding that it can take years to recover the bone mass lost from a six-month stay in orbit. Researchers are also not sure whether the quality of the new bone matches that of the bone mass lost, he told New Scientist.
Argh! The..strain...of..finding..this..infor..mation...
*gasp*
It would be an easy experiment. Put somebody in a small room for 6 months and make them execute similar tasks as an astronaut.
Or... take a sampling of Slashdot readers.
Calcium suppliments don't help. The problem is your body realises that you have too much muscle mass and that you are too strong for microgravity, so it stops reinforcing your bones until it percieves a need to strengthen your bones. It's not a lack of available calcium. It is the exact same phenomenon that plagues people on bedrest. Even though they are given the best food and nutrition available when they are off bedrest they are weak and frail.
-everphilski-
In previous discussions about a mission to Mars, the suggestion often comes up about a one-way trip -- one or more explorers who make the trip with no intention of coming back. Pioneers, really, rather than explorers.
This poor guy, who keeps getting tapped for "hey, ya think you can spend another year or so in zero-g, tovarisch?" is probably having it worse and worse when he comes back to Terra. How much of his "stamina" is due to some freak of biology, and how much comes straight from a Soviet-era "We invented it first, and better!" mindset?
If he's starting to feel those months in space when he's back on Earth, maybe Krikalev might want to take it easy in his retirement. Like, about 62% easier? Although medical facilities on Mars might be a bit lacking, even by Soviet standards.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
"I'm going to orbit Disneyland!"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
That's not a bad uptime!
It was a really good paper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaceflight_records#T otal_time_in_space_-_top_50_space_travelers
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
RIMMER: How are we fuel-wise?
KRYTEN: Unchanged for today, sir. However, the supply situation grows
increasingly bleak. We've recycled the water so often, it's beginning
to taste like Dutch lager.
It's a simple question, I know, but if the exercise program isn't doing it, what else makes the bone mass come back?
Centripetal-force-generated artificial gravity systems, like those envitioned by Arthur C. Clarke shown in the film 2001, have been studied by NASA and the Air Force for decades. Basically, it would require a structure of a few hundred meters radius rotating at a few rpm. The scale of such a habitat would be enormous, and the cost associated has not been shown to be warranted as of yet. However, the commercialization of space will probably bring about such an innovation out of necessity (for comfort).
Links here, here, and here.
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?
Yeah, but the amenities in Russia make ISS look like a 5-star hotel and a submarine look like Club Med.
There is no simple artificial gravity solution.
I'm sure every slashdotter has seen multiple sci-fi examples of a huge spinning doohickey that replaces gravity with centrifugal[1] force.
Four problems I can see:
1) If the radial arm is too short, there are tons of biological side effects. Coriolis forces and angular momentum are the two major factors causing these side effects, which can be mediated by intermittent spinning.
2) An engineering nightmare, especially if done intermittenly.
3) A logistical nightmare. If the radial arm is long enough to prevent the side effects, construction and maintenace service would, I believe, be beyond acceptable costs.
4) Would make impossible all the long-term zero-g experiments we need to continue doing.
However, there is currently renewed research into the idea. I was able to find an entry for the Mars Gravity Biosatellite in Wikipedia, but there is not much information there.
Anyone know more info (such as projected launch date) about the MGBS or other artificial gravity experiments?
[1] Yeah, yeah, it doesn't really exist. But it's a useful term.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Besides, that last one to show up there wasn't a bus at all. It arrived with a load of freight, and left with a load of trash. In most writings, this is a class of vessel commonly referred to as the 'garbage scow'.
If you're going to go for Red Dwarf quotes, I would have gone for: Lister: You know what the problem is. Every day it's the same old slot in deep space. No variety. Take Christmas. What did we do Christmas day? Kryten: Oh, ah, you remember, sir. Christmas day, we were attacked by that pan-dimensional liquid beast from the Mogagon Cluster. Lister: Maybe that wasn't such a great example. I'm trying to say our lives are dull, repetitive. We never take time out to smell the roses. We never celebrate anything. Cat: We got nothing to celebrate with, bud. Kryten: Oh, not true, sir. There's a whole case of that wine I brewed out of urine recyc, just lying there, practically untouched. Lister: Call me pretentious if you like, but for me, a truly great wine should not leave you with a moustache that you can only remove with turps.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
well except for the, ahem, *view* ;-)
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
Calcium supplements wouldn't help, but there is work being done that may one day lead to a suppliment that would prevent bone loss.
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
Even more impressive, Sergei can write English better than the average Slashdot editor. He doesnt have too many or too few commas, his clauses match their antecedents, and adverbs are not nine words away from their verb. That is something the up of which he will not put.
I keep hearing this over and over. So, make the spacecraft be able to split into two equal parts. Include a few hundred meters of cable to connect the parts. Rotate.
What's the problem?
I choose to remain celibate, like my father and his father before him.
Exercise generally does squat to retain or build bone mass. NASA research has been indicating that it's the vibrations which occur while you're exercising that actually stimulate the bone growth.
w eak_knees.html
http://www.nasa.gov/lb/vision/earth/everydaylife/
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/34/1728_85890
http://www.galileo2000.nl/home/Eng-galileo.htm
Astronauts will still have to do exercise to keep from losing excessive muscles but in the future we'll just vibrate them a bit while they're in orbit to keep them from losing bone density.
The Russian Space agency would probably have more accomplishments if they didn't seem to require every cosmonaut to be named Sergei.
How about a small spinning doohickey?
:^). On the other hand, from what I understand, the body "detects" that you don't need such tough bones if you're in zero-G so would being in 1G--even asleep--make the body realize that you do need the bone mass? Maybe all they need is a spinning bedroom?
One of those things that, in my opinion, NASA should be studying is how much gravity is needed and how often.
For example, could the astronauts sleep in gravity for eight hours? One would assume not, since when you're sleeping you're not moving around (okay, give them uncomfortable mattresses
What about prolonged exposure to 1/8th G, like on the Moon? Will that be attenuated by people going outside in big bulky spacesuits? If I remember my trivia correctly, the astronauts on the moon "weighed" about 180 pounds (moon weight) but were carrying 300 some-odd pounds (earth weight) of equipment to get to that 180. Will people working in "shirt-sleeve" conditions on the moon need to put rocks in their pockets?
This is one of those things that sort of torques me off with NASA. They have done countless studies on the effects of weightlessness on the human body. They've found various problems. But they don't seem to be doing anything to solve the problems.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, I sometimes think that NASA hasn't solved this problem "on purpose." Why? Because, hey, let's face it--weightlessness is cool. I caught a little bit of NASA TV over the weekend when they were replaying the video taken when the Shuttle astronauts came aboard ISS. People were floating around, bouncing off the walls, etc. It looked really cool. If everything looked "normal" with people walking around, it's a little less interesting to the TV viewer.
> Immediately I want to know how long, but all I know is that it's the ever-subjective "a long time".
I could look up how long it takes for you, but it'll take a while.
The reason why Krikalev has all this mission time is that he's shockingly competent and comfortable in the very stressful environment of space. They've tried out many people, but from what I read, conditions that would cripple an ordinary tough guy don't get to Krikalev. I mean, come on, his other job is stunt pilot. This guy is a badass and I hope he fathers a superior race of superspacebeings.
Would a person in a high-gravity situation (relative to earth's gravity) gain far more bone mass? Perhaps in the future days of commercial space travel we will see professional athletes going on sabbaticals to space stations around Jupiter to take advantage of the increased gravity. When they come back to earth with higher bone mass they could then proceed to gain more muscle mass when working out, in order to gain an edge over their competition.
Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
I do bone density measurments for a living so here are some comparisons.
If he has been loosing 1.5% of his bone mass a month (this is measured from a baseline prior to flight) he's down around 36%. This would put him 6-7 standard deviations below what's normal for his age. While this is very very serious consider these two things.
1. The younger you are the better your bones are at avoiding fracture regardless of bone mass. Low bone mass doesn't help of course, but he's still probably better off than a 75 year old woman.
2. People with various diseases like celiac sprue are seen to have densities this low and recover very well when the cause is eliminated. Thus when he returns to normal g he should see rapid bone remineralization. However
This process will take two or more years. So if you wanted to know what "a long time" means. There it is. After two years at 1 g, I suspect his bone mass will be 95% of what it was at baseline.
In the meantime he has a hugely increased risk of fracture and will/should probably have to wear all sorts of special padding just in case he falls over.
As Re-entry can easily hit 5g, I think that would be the scariest part of the whole ordeal.
I would be interested to know if he will be put on an anti-resorptive thearapy such as Fosamax or even Forteo, though they would probably only do that if he wasn't regrowing bone on his own.
-Ian, CDT.
Of the 33 top place getters, 31 are Russian.