Space: the final frontier for health

Human space travel is limited by one thing, says Jonathan Powell – the human body

Before Yuri Gagarin and that first generation of astronauts breached Earth's atmosphere to start a new era in space, nobody really knew just how humans would fare, either mentally or physically, in low Earth orbit. In those early days, data was collected from probes and a selection of animals, but until that pioneering generation flew, no one could say how astronauts would react. The medical profession is still researching the effects of space on the body today, both when in space and the after-effects upon returning to Earth. Of all the medical challenges facing life in space, the most fundamental remains the effects of weightlessness. John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth said that he “found weightlessness to be extremely unpleasant”. Ironically for Glenn, it wasn't until an…

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BBC Sky at Night United Kingdom (Digital) - 1 Issue, January 2025

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