Earth.com – Crews heading for Mars will face conditions quite different from those on Earth, and researchers have been working to figure out what might happen to the human body during these extended voyages.
Kidneys have been a big question mark. Recent work reveals that these important organs could face more trouble than previously assumed, including a higher risk of stones and lasting damage.
Several studies have hinted at health concerns for astronauts ever since humans first ventured outside Earth’s protective zone, but the new findings shed light on why such problems arise in the kidneys.
Dr. Keith Siew from the London Tubular Centre, based at the UCL Department of Renal Medicine, and his colleagues have pieced together a detailed picture of what happens when living beings – human and otherwise – experience space-like conditions for weeks to years.
Space missions and human kidneys
The latest study was conducted under a UCL-led initiative involving over 40 institutions on five continents.
The team considered data from 20 different research cohorts and samples linked to over 40 Low Earth orbit missions to the International Space Station, plus 11 simulations with mice and rats.
The work is described as the largest analysis of kidney health in spaceflight so far and includes the first health dataset for commercial astronauts.
It also involved seven simulations in which mice were exposed to radiation that mimicked up to 2.5 years of cosmic travel beyond Earth’s magnetic field.
Findings revealed that the structure and function of the kidneys are altered by spaceflight, with galactic radiation causing permanent damage that would jeopardize any long-distance mission.
Kidneys and deep space radiation
Astronauts in Low Earth orbit still benefit from partial shielding by our planet’s magnetic field.
Only 24 people – the ones who went to the moon – have been exposed to the full brunt of Galactic Cosmic Radiation for short trips of about 6-12 days.
