14 DAY TRIAL // Ever wonder what would happen if you were to suddenly change address and move, say, to outer space? Well, US space agency NASA is now hard at work trying to solve this riddle.
So far, it's figured out that your brain probably wouldn't be very happy about it. On the contrary, odds are it would loathe the experience. You see, space does strange things to this organ of ours.
No, really, space isn't a good place for the human brain
One of the reasons NASA keeps sending people to live aboard the International Space Station is to study them and see how their body responds to microgravity.
Of the experiments and the tests now ongoing, the Spaceflight Effects on Neurocognitive Performance: Extent, Longevity and Neural Bases aims to document how space conditions affect the human brain and how long it usually takes astronauts to recover once they get back to Earth.
As part of this investigation, researchers are closely monitoring astronauts to detect even the slightest changes in their behavior. Brain imaging is also involved.
The astronauts' psyche is tested before being launched to the International Space Station, mid-way through their stay aboard the orbital complex and then at the end of a 6-month trip to space. As for the anatomy of their brain, researchers closely examine it to pin down any changes both before and after space flight.
So far, it's been revealed that, because in space there is no “up” or “down,” the human brain tends to get seriously confused. In turn, this affects the way astronauts move and think. More precisely, they find it more difficult to control their movements and complete mental tasks.
By the looks of it, space conditions can also cause astronauts to have trouble keeping their balance, maybe even induce perceptual illusions, specialists explain.
“On Earth, your vestibular - or balance - system tells you how your head moves relative to gravity, but in space, the gravity reference is gone. That causes these perceptual illusions, as well as difficulty coordinating movement of the eyes and head,” says researcher Rachel D. Seidler with the University of Michigan.
Why is NASA performing these tests and experiments?
NASA has high hopes that, a few years from now, it will successfully land a crew of astronauts on the Red Planet. To launch people all the way to Mars and then bring them back home safe and sound, however, the space agency must take all risk factors into account.
The effects of space conditions on the human body count themselves among these risk factors. The trouble is that, before it can attempt to mitigate them, NASA scientists must know exactly what it is they are dealing with. Hence the tests and experiments now ongoing aboard the International Space Station.