Microgravity

Context

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) have developed a 3D computational model that simulates how microgravity affects human thermoregulation, with implications for long-duration space missions and astronaut health.

Key Findings:

Microgravity increases core body temperature, with fluid shifts playing a crucial role in thermal balance.
Blood redistribution in microgravity significantly affects temperature distribution, making the core and head warmer while the feet and hands cool down.
The model predicts a 8ºC increase in core body temperature over 2.5 months in microgravity, with higher temperatures during exercise.
The model validated predictions by comparing them to real-world astronaut data from the Mir and ISS space stations.

Fact-Box: Microgravity

Gravity is a fundamental force that is measured as the attraction between any two objects with mass.
It pulls more strongly between objects with larger masses. It also weakens the farther apart objects are.
Microgravity refers to very small gravity. It exists wherever gravity’s pull is much smaller than we’re used to feeling on Earth’s surface.
Earth’s gravitational pull exists even out in space.
It does get weaker for astronauts in orbit, but only by a little bit.
- Astronauts orbit about 400 to 480 kilometers (250 to 300 miles) above Earth’s surface.
- At that distance, a 45-kilogram object, which weighs 100 pounds on the ground, would weigh about 90 pounds.
Simply put, microgravity refers to the condition in which objects appear to be weightless and experience very small gravitational forces, typically encountered in space environments like the International Space Station (ISS), where gravity is nearly absent.