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Skin-Tight Bodysuits Could Protect Astronauts From Bone Loss
jamie passes along a report about research from MIT's Man-Vehicle Laboratory into using "superhero-style" skinsuits to combat the effects of extended stays in microgravity on bone density in astronauts. (Abstract.) Quoting:
"Astronauts lose 1 to 2 percent of their bone mass for each month they spend in space. As far back as the Gemini missions, conditioning exercise regimes have been used to slow the rate of bone loss, but a 2001-2004 NASA-sponsored study showed that crew members aboard the International Space Station were still losing up to 2.7 percent of their interior bone material and 1.7 percent of outer hipbone material for each month they spent in space. ... With stirrups that loop around the feet, the elastic gravity skinsuit is purposely cut too short for the astronaut so that it stretches when put on — pulling the wearer's shoulders towards the feet. In normal gravity conditions on Earth, a human's legs bear more weight than the torso. Because the suit's legs stretch more than the torso section, the wearer's legs are subjected to a greater force — replicating gravity effects on Earth."
See? Seven of Nine's outfit was inspired by science after all.
sounds damned uncomfortable
Probably less uncomfortable than having paperweight bones with serious fracture risks
*insert pithy sig here*
I know that it would prevent losing my own bone, if they get these skintight outfits on... suitable female astronauts...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
So... you're telling me that a successful, smart, athletic, geeky female isn't attractive?
WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
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Problem is, we're not really at that scale yet. Takes a pretty big station to achieve a reasonable gravity with spin.
story: skin tight astronaut suits
guys born 1940-1960: snarky barbarella jokes
guys born 1960-1980: snarky seven of nine jokes
guys born 1980-2000: what's an astronaut? what's NASA? we landed on the moon? really?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Alright, the issue here is that if you don't make the ring fucking HUGE then you actually end up with the Coriolis effect causing extreme nausea and all the astronauts vomiting. So your "solution" would:
A) Cost a fuckload of money.
B) Be completely impractical to get into space and install
C) Not work anyway.
I find it funny that every Tom, Dick, and Harry without a high school education thinks that they're a brilliant engineer whenever they read about some problem that hundreds of experienced engineers couldn't solve. Seriously, take ten seconds and go google your idea BEFORE touting it as the magical solution that all of these foolish NASA engineers didn't think of.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Adding a rotating portion to the station would be introducing a gyroscope. Doing so would be problematic.
Take a bicycle wheel, spin it on its axis and then try to tilt it.
How much fuel are you willing to spend to keep the station oriented the right way?
How much mechanicals are you willing to spend money on to steer the solar panels if you aren't going to be using thrusters to orient the whole station?
How big is your budget? Funding isn't unlimited. You need to make choices. If you go with a rotating section, what are you going to eliminate elsewhere to compensate for the cost?
The only lack of thinking in this case is on your part.
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BMO
Of course, those other concerns are already disrupted in 0g as is...
One that hath name thou can not otter
Bodysuit dude, not bikini suit, leather vest, party dress or military fatigues.
So no Leya, no Lt Col Carter, no Teyla and no Cylons either.
Though a bit of Vala Mal Doran may fit the bill.
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
We can't afford to send much material up there, space stations have to be fairly small with sections having diameters of maybe 3-4 meters, you cannot make a centrifuge out of that.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
I have never seen a non-sexy astronaut.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I don't know if Buzz is a bigger hero for doing complex docking calculations without a computer or punching out a lunar landing denier :)
He can wear whatever he likes.
Thank the heavens they've finally worked it all out, at last! Can you believe, all of this time, we actually thought skin already did that?