Space travel is challenging. When it comes to the biochemistry of the human body, astronauts who travel on long-duration missions to the International Space Station (ISS) must make a lot of adaptations. One of them is weightlessness, a state in space where gravity has no effect and you feel lighter.
Researchers have used Vivaldi, a special experiment created by the European Space Agency SciSpacE team and scientists, to better understand the effects this illness has.
It is one of the few facilities in Europe that can examine the effects of weightlessness on the human body during space travel, and it is situated in Toulouse, France.
‘Though astronauts exercise and take supplements to mitigate some of these effects, understanding more about deconditioning in microgravity could allow physicians to design better treatments,’ the European Space Agency said in a statement.
The Vivaldi experiment simulates the effects of zero gravity on the body by using dry immersion to mimic similar conditions on the ground. The subject must spend a lot of time submerged in water while remaining dry for the experiment to work.
The ESA states that participants are covered in waterproof fabric, laid in water baths that have been properly developed, and then submerged above the torso while having their arms and head kept above water by a fitted waterproof tarp.
Participants are forced to the unusual position for a period of five days during which they are provided meals using the floating board and a neck cushion.
The experiment does endure not just for hours, but for days. For relieving themselves, participants are assisted onto a trolley, maintaining their laid-back position, and temporarily removed from the water by staff.
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