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Author
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Topic: Space Sickness
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ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-03-2007 04:40 AM
   
Hi EveryoneI am not sure that this has ever been covered before but Do crew members who have lived in space on long duration flights for example 3 months or more at a time still get Space Adaptation Syndrome(space sickness) when they return to space on a later flight?
Edited by ASCAN1984 |
lewarren
Member Posts: 269
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 07-03-2007 03:30 PM
In general, previous spaceflight experience greatly expedites the adaptation to spaceflight. |
mjanovec
Member Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted 07-03-2007 03:41 PM
quote:
Originally posted by lewarren:
In general, previous spaceflight experience greatly expedites the adaptation to spaceflight.
One notable exception was the sickness of Frank Borman on Apollo 8...the first real publicized case of space sickness. Despite his 14 days on Gemini VII, Borman still got ill on Apollo 8. However, the tight confines of the Gemini craft probably prevented any illness because there wasn't enough room to get that "floating" sensation. The Apollo Command Module, in contrast, was just big enough to make people lose their cookies as they floated around. In retrospect, one has to be grateful that a bad case of space sickness didn't arise on the EVAs during the Gemini program. The results could have been fatal. (Which brings up another question...have there been any cases of space sickness during EVA activities...and are current suits designed to handle that?)
Edited by mjanovec |
ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-03-2007 04:09 PM
Oh i see. Just as i thought. My theory was that for previous long duration spaceflight experience crew members it would just be as if you never left spaceflight as it would have become second nature |
kimmern123
Member Posts: 83
From: Norway
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted 07-04-2007 09:47 AM
No one has ever experienced space sickness during an EVA. EVA's are always (at least in the shuttle-era) scheduled to take place a few days into the mission so the crew will have adapted to zero-g. No one has ever experienced the bends on an EVA either. According to Robert Curbeam NASA originally expected about 1 of 5 spacewalks ending with someone getting the bends. |
lewarren
Member Posts: 269
From: Houston, TX, USA
Registered: Aug 2001
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posted 07-04-2007 10:58 AM
I'm not aware of any space suit that can accommodate emesis. The hazards of upchucking in your EVA suit include vision obstruction (vomit getting in the eyes or on the visor), asphyxiation (inhalation of vomit), and suffocation (if the vomit clogs the air inlet/outlet). |
Tom
Member Posts: 1597
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 07-04-2007 11:42 AM
quote:
EVA's are always (at least in the shuttle-era) scheduled to take place a few days into the mission so the crew will have adapted to zero-g.
...and to think, on Gemini 4, Ed White was originally scheduled to perform EVA on the 2nd orbit...eventually delayed to the 3rd. |
John Charles
Member Posts: 339
From: Houston, Texas, USA
Registered: Jun 2004
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posted 07-04-2007 02:51 PM
quote:
Originally posted by kimmern123:
No one has ever experienced space sickness during an EVA. ...
Probably technically true, but consider two facts:
- First, that Schweickart's planned EVA on Apollo 9 was allegedly delayed and decreased in scope when he experienced space motion sickness in-flight.
- Second, NASA flight surgeons currently speak of at least one episode of emesis in the space suit, the implication clearly being inside the helmet, but they don't give any more details, so this might just be a garbled reference to the Schweickart episode. According to TIME magazine, March 14, 1969 (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,839839,00.html) Schweickart's illness occurred the day before his planned EVA. So, who knows?
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John Charles
Houston, Texas |
FFrench
Member Posts: 3161
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 07-04-2007 03:36 PM
To my knowledge, Rusty was not sick in the suit. Certainly, he and his crewmates say the opposite. Rusty gave us a brutally honest account of his space sickness experiences for our forthcoming book "In The Shadow of the Moon" - including when he felt sick, why he thinks it happened, how it passed and when they decided to do the EVA. He's an extremely honest and forthright guy. To quote one particularly vivid line: "If you are in the suit, outside in the vacuum, and you barf - you die! It's not approximately, it's not maybe, it's - you die! So it is not something you fool around with."
http://unp.unl.edu/bookinfo/5223.html |
kr4mula
Member Posts: 642
From: Cinci, OH
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted 07-05-2007 02:36 PM
I've got some interesting records of the original attempts to develop a "vomit removal apparatus" and similarly-named devices for the Apollo program. If you talk to any of the original suit engineers, they were very much concerned with this problem, as there was no obvious solution and they ahd no idea how often (if ever) this would be a problem. As others have stated, a real load of emesis in a suit helmet could cause all sorts of badness, including choking. There was quite a bit of effort poured into this. The most plausible candidate seemed to involve some sort of funnel you could extend in an emergency, vomit into, and then expel the results through the foodport (planned for at the time). No practical solution resulted and eventually they gave up and just hoped it wouldn't be a problem. I think the Gemini experience, particularly in EVA helped in this regard. I haven't heard any mention from the suit engineers or techs (more forgotten heroes!) about anyone actually vomiting during Mercury, Gemini, or Apollo while completely enclosed in the suit (EVA or IVA).Cheers, Kevin |
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