Astronautical hygiene facts for kids
Astronautical hygiene is all about keeping astronauts healthy and safe when they work in space or other low-gravity places. It's like a special kind of health and safety for space explorers! This field looks at dangers and health risks, and then figures out how to prevent them.
Astronautical hygiene covers many things. For example, it deals with how to use and take care of life support systems, the dangers of spacewalks, and the risks of being around chemicals or radiation. It also helps identify dangers, looks at how humans react to space, and creates plans to manage risks. Astronautical hygiene works closely with space medicine to make sure astronauts stay well and safe.
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Keeping Astronauts Safe in Space
When astronauts travel in space, they face many dangers. These can include radiation, tiny living things (microbes) inside the spacecraft, and even dusty surfaces on planets or moons.
Astronautical hygienists collect information during space trips. They then study this information to find out how different chemicals or other harmful things might affect an astronaut's health. Based on their findings, they figure out the best ways to protect astronauts from these dangers.
If astronauts land on a moon or planet, hygienists also gather data about the dust and radiation levels there. This helps them understand the health risks and decide how to control or prevent exposure.
Here are some of the main jobs of an astronautical hygienist:
- They help with research to understand health risks, like finding ways to deal with moon dust.
- They help design ways to prevent dangers, such as making spacesuits that don't pick up much dust.
- They help solve problems during a flight, like figuring out what a danger is and how to fix it.
- They give advice to governments, like the UK Space Agency, on the best ways to keep astronauts safe.
- They share information and train astronauts on how to stay safe and healthy in space.
- They work to protect an astronaut's health in every possible way.
The Orion spacecraft is being built to carry astronauts to places beyond Earth. This spacecraft will have some potentially dangerous materials inside, like ammonia and hydrazine. Astronautical hygienists are working together to make sure astronauts are protected from these substances during their missions.
Dr. John R. Cain, a health risk expert from the UK, was the first scientist to describe this new field of astronautical hygiene. Organizations like the UK Space Agency see astronautical hygiene as a very important way to keep astronauts healthy while they work and eventually live in space.
Staying Clean and Managing Waste
In space, cleaning and dealing with waste are different because there's very little gravity.
Personal Hygiene in Space
On the International Space Station (ISS), there are no showers. Astronauts take quick sponge baths using very little water. They use special soaps and shampoos that don't need to be rinsed off.
Regular toilets don't work in space. So, a special space toilet was designed that uses air suction instead of water to move waste. Waste water from the space shuttle is released into space, and solid waste is squashed and stored until the shuttle returns to Earth. Newer space toilets can store waste for a long time and don't smell bad.
Astronauts on the ISS wear normal clothes. They don't wash their clothes. Instead, they wear them until they are too dirty, then send them back to Earth as trash or let them burn up in the atmosphere. However, scientists are now researching special detergents that could be used to wash clothes in space.
Controlling Gases in Spacecraft
Harmful gases can come from astronauts themselves or from materials inside the spacecraft, like paints, glues, and cleaning products. If astronauts breathe in too much of these gases, it could affect their ability to do their jobs.
Most information about gas exposure is based on people working on Earth for 8 hours. This isn't helpful for space missions where astronauts might be exposed to gases for weeks without a break. So, new safety limits have been set for space travel.
These limits are based on:
- Normal conditions inside the spacecraft.
- Emergency situations.
In normal conditions, small amounts of gases like ammonia can be released. Other gases come from the air supply or the crew. In emergencies, gases can come from things overheating, spills, or fires. Carbon monoxide was a big worry during the Apollo missions. To control these gases, special filters are used. For example, lithium hydroxide filters trap carbon dioxide, and activated carbon filters trap other gases.
Scientists can test the air in the cabin using special tools. They check air samples before and after flights to see what gases are present. If the levels of harmful gases are too high, it means there's a greater risk to health. Regularly checking these substances is important so that action can be taken if needed.
Dangers from Moon Dust
Moon dust, also called regolith, is a layer of tiny particles on the Moon's surface. These dust particles are very small and often have sharp, elongated shapes. Breathing in this dust can cause breathing problems because it's toxic. It can also make it hard for astronauts to see by clouding their visors.
Moon dust also sticks to spacesuits very easily, both because of its shape and because of static electricity. During the Apollo missions, astronauts found that the dust wore down their spacesuits.
When exploring the Moon, it's important to understand the risks of moon dust and how to control exposure. This might involve measuring how much dust is in the air, how it moves, and how it's charged.
How Inhaled Dust Affects Lungs
The way moon dust affects the lungs depends on where the particles land. On Earth, larger particles tend to get caught in the main airways. But on the Moon, with its lower gravity, tiny dust particles can travel deeper into the lungs. This means there's a greater chance of lung damage.
Controlling Dust Exposure
Scientists are looking into ways to remove dust from spacesuits after astronauts explore. One idea is to use strong magnets, because the fine moon dust is magnetic. Vacuum cleaners can also be used to remove dust from spacesuits.
Special equipment can also check the air quality inside spacecraft. This helps assess risks during spaceflight, for example, by comparing gas levels to safe limits. If levels are too high, steps must be taken to reduce them and protect health.
Dangers from Microbes
During spaceflight, tiny living things called microbes can easily spread between crew members. For example, astronauts on Skylab had several diseases caused by bacteria. The amount of microbes in Skylab was very high. Common microbes found in space include Staphylococcus aureus and Aspergillus (a type of mold).
In microgravity, microbes don't settle down. This means they can float around in the air, leading to high amounts of microbes in the cabin, especially if air filters aren't kept clean.
Urine collection devices can build up a bacterium called Proteus mirabilis, which can cause urinary tract infections. Astronauts might be more likely to get these infections. For example, an astronaut on the Apollo 13 mission got a severe urinary tract infection.
Slimy layers of microbes called biofilms, which can contain bacteria and fungi, might damage electronic equipment. These organisms grow because they feed on organic matter from astronaut's skin. Acids produced by microbes can also corrode metal, glass, and plastic. Also, because astronauts are exposed to more radiation in space, microbes might change (mutate) more easily.
Because microbes can cause infections and damage spacecraft parts, their risks must be checked. Astronautical hygiene helps control microbial growth. This includes regularly testing the air and surfaces in the spacecraft to find early signs of contamination. It also means keeping surfaces clean, maintaining equipment (especially life support systems), and regularly vacuuming the spacecraft. It's important to keep studying this area to make sure astronauts are safe from microbes on future missions, like to Mars.
Microbes and Microgravity in Space
More than a hundred types of bacteria and fungi have been found on crewed space missions. These tiny organisms can survive and grow in space. A lot of effort goes into reducing the risks from these microbes.
Spacecraft are cleaned with special chemicals before launch, and astronauts are kept separate (quarantined) for several days before a mission. However, these steps only reduce microbes; they don't get rid of them completely. Microgravity might even make some microbes more harmful. So, it's important to study how this happens and put controls in place to protect astronauts, especially those whose immune systems are weaker.
Body Changes Due to Space Environment
Working in a low-gravity environment causes changes to the human body. For example, things like weight, fluid pressure, and how things settle are different. These changes affect body fluids, how our bodies sense gravity, and our bones and muscles. The body adapts to these changes over time in space.
There are also mental and social changes from living in the small space of a spacecraft. Astronautical hygiene and space medicine need to address these issues, especially how they might affect the crew's behavior. If communication, performance, or problem-solving skills decrease, it could have serious effects on a mission.
During space exploration, astronauts might also develop skin rashes, especially if they touch skin-sensitizing chemicals. This could put a mission at risk unless the cause is found, the health risks are assessed, and steps are taken to prevent exposure.
Noise in Space
Fans, compressors, motors, and pumps on the International Space Station (ISS) all make noise. As more equipment is added, there's a chance for more noise. Astronaut Tom Jones said noise was a bigger problem in the early days of the space station, and astronauts wore hearing protection. Today, hearing protection isn't usually needed, and sleeping areas are soundproofed.
The Russian space program didn't always focus on noise levels. On the Mir space station, noise reached 70–72 decibels. Noise levels below 75 decibels are usually not harmful to hearing. However, loud noise could make it hard to hear alarm signals. To reduce noise, NASA engineers build hardware with noise reduction features. For example, a loud pump can be made much quieter by adding special mounts. Hearing protectors are not encouraged because they can block out important alarms. More research is needed to make space environments quieter and safer.
Radiation Dangers
Space radiation is made of high-energy particles like protons and other heavier particles. These come from sources like galactic cosmic rays (from outside our solar system), energetic particles from solar flares, and trapped radiation belts around Earth. Astronauts in space are exposed to much higher levels of radiation than people on Earth. Without protection, they could face serious health problems. Galactic cosmic radiation is very strong, and it might be impossible to build shields thick enough to block it completely.
Trapped Radiation
Earth's magnetic field creates trapped radiation belts around our planet. The ISS orbits within these belts. Radiation doses in this orbit actually decrease when the sun is very active and increase when it's less active. The highest exposures happen in a region called the South Atlantic Anomaly.
Galactic Cosmic Radiation
This radiation comes from outside our solar system. It's made of charged particles from elements like hydrogen, helium, and uranium. Because it has so much energy, galactic cosmic radiation can pass through many things. Thin to medium shielding can help reduce the dose, but as shields get thicker, they become less effective against this type of radiation.
Solar Particle Events
These are bursts of energetic particles like electrons and protons that are shot into space during solar flare eruptions. When the sun is very active, solar flares happen more often and are more intense. These solar proton events usually happen only once or twice during a solar cycle.
The strength of these events greatly affects how well shields work. Solar flares happen with little warning, making them hard to predict. Solar Particle Events (SPEs) pose the biggest threat to unprotected crews in certain orbits. Luckily, most SPEs are short, lasting less than 1 to 2 days. This means small "storm shelters" could be a good solution.
Other Radiation Sources
Radiation dangers can also come from human-made sources, like medical equipment, power generators that use radioactive materials, or small experiments. Future missions to the Moon and Mars might use nuclear reactors for power or propulsion. Astronautical hygienists will need to assess the risks from these sources and take steps to reduce exposure.
Scientists are researching a magnetic "umbrella" that could protect spacecraft from harmful space radiation. This "umbrella" would create a protective field around the spacecraft, similar to Earth's magnetosphere. This kind of protection against solar radiation will be important if humans are to explore other planets and reduce the health risks from radiation. More research is needed to develop and test this system.
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