I’ve heard that astronauts are very ill upon return from space. What exactly is the nature of their illnesses?
None, so far as I’m aware. They’re generally in good health, though they may lose bone and muscle mass during an extended excursion. Where did you hear they are very ill after a mission?
**what illness do returning astronauts suffer? **
Asteroids?
Ha Ha Redsland!
Q.E.D. I didn’t really hear it anyplace particular. Some ladies at work were saying that the returning astronausts were so ill as to always require to be carried off the tarmac, and about how someone had to sit in the craft for a while before exiting due to illness.
According to the ladies, the astronauts are very debilitated. I was wondering if it was true and why.
If you spend a very long time in space, you lose bone mass. Your bones don’t build themselves up, even if you get lots of calcium, because you just don’t need strong bones in microgravity.
Russian cosmonauts have often been carried off on stretchers after landing, simply because after spending eight months or so in space (as they did on the late great space station Mir) their bodies were not strong enough to support them in Earth gravity. I also seem to remember a report of a guy lying on a stretcher with one hand resting on his chest; his hand slipped off and landed on the edge of the stretcher beside him, and he actually broke a bone.
I don’t know about the American shuttle astronauts-- they only ever spent two weeks or so in orbit, and they generally were able to walk down the tarmac and wave to the cameras after their missions. The current International Space Station crews are up there for a few months at a time, but nowhere near as long as the Mir guys did.
One of the Apollo 13 astronauts had a bladder infection that may have caused him to receive extra care upon return.
I seem to recall a capsule-era splashdown that was particularly violent. IIRC, one or more crewmen suffered a back injury as a result.
Upon rereading your post, you appear to be refering to Shuttle-era illnesses, though, so the ones I’m remembering are probably not the rights ones.
Perhaps we brought one or more cosmonauts back from a long-endurance mission?
It’s probable that the ladies at work just had old Appollo era info. I don’t think they really knew what they were talking about (because they never really do) (uh, don’t tell em I said that- I have to work with them).