Costume Help Astronauts
Weightlessness, reigning in orbit, reflects badly on the human skeleton. Even when the astronauts are trying to compensate for her regular exercise, inevitably loses 1.5 kg of bone mass in just a month. More most affected femur and lower spine. The same mass as women lose each year after menopause. To prevent this problem, the Russian cosmonauts are on the orbital station, special costumes, that compensate for the absence of gravity. Insert heavier suit, mimicking the body's weight.
But to wear those costumes constantly impossible, so it remains unclear how effective they are in the fight against bone loss. Costume developed Weldy and his colleagues, is more comfortable to wear. It is made from flexible material, and when first worn, straps under the feet make the suit to stretch, and the shoulders have the same load as the at the Earth's gravity. Also, insertion of non-elastic material, allow you to adjust the load on the legs and torso, as in normal torso to withstand less weight than the legs. Conducted in 2009 tested showed that the suit could not yet provide a sufficient load on the calves, while the rest does its job a substitute for gravity. In the near future the team plans to test the creators of whether a suit prevent excessive elongation of the spine, as from a long stay in weightlessness, astronauts sometimes spine increased by more than 7 cm in length. Nevertheless, the idea has its critics. Gene Sibonga, for example, believes that the suit will not help astronauts maintain bone mass, because "the muscles play in this case a much larger role."
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Tags: science
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