Space Travel And Health Reading Passage
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Space Travel And Health Reading Passage
Paragraph A
Both in the United States and Europe, space biomedicine is a relatively new field of study. Its primary goals are to investigate how space travel affects the human body, pinpoint the most pressing medical issues, and come up with solutions for those issues. NASA and/or the European Space Agency are providing more direct funding to space biomedicine centres. (ESA).
Paragraph B
NASA and the ESA's involvement reflects a growing concern that human endurance limits rather than engineering limitations are limiting the viability of travel to other planets and beyond. For example, the discovery of ice on Mars eliminates the need to design and build a spacecraft that is both large and powerful enough to transport the enormous quantities of water required to keep the crew alive during journeys that could last for many years. However, without proper safeguards and medical care, the relentlessly hostile space environment would wreak havoc on their bodies.
Paragraph C
In many cases, the most noticeable physical changes people experience in zero gravity are harmless or even amusing. Because Earth's gravity no longer pulls blood and other bodily fluids downward toward the feet, they accumulate higher up in the body, resulting in what is sometimes referred to as a "fat face" and the contrasting "chicken legs" syndrome as the lower limbs become thinner.
Paragraph D
The unobserved effects following months or years in space are much more severe. Without gravity, the body doesn't need a strong skeleton to support it, which causes the bones to deteriorate and release calcium into the bloodstream. The kidneys may become overloaded by the extra calcium, which ultimately results in renal failure. Muscles also lose strength from inactivity. The lungs lose their ability to fully expand while the heart gets smaller, losing the ability to pump oxygenated blood to every part of the body. The immune system weakens, the digestive system becomes less effective, and high levels of solar and cosmic radiation can result in different types of cancer.
Paragraph E
To make matters worse, in the event of an accident or serious illness, a variety of medical challenges may present themselves to the patient while they are millions of kilometres away from Earth. Simply put, the equipment from a hospital's casualty unit cannot be transported inside a spacecraft because there is not enough room for it, and some of it would not function properly in space anyway. Even simple things like a drip rely on gravity to work, whereas standard resuscitation techniques fail if enough weight is not applied. The only option appears to be to develop incredibly tiny medical tools and "smart" gadgets that can, for instance, use ultrasound to identify and treat internal injuries. The price of creating and manufacturing this type of equipment is inevitably astronomical.
Paragraph F
Given these factors, some have questioned the morality of spending enormous sums of money to aid a small group of individuals who are willingly risking their health in space when there is a great need for assistance much closer to home. However, it is now obvious that every issue with space travel has an equivalent issue on Earth that will be gained from the knowledge amassed and the expertise honed through space biomedical research. For instance, the difficulty of treating astronauts in space has accelerated the field of telemedicine's development, allowing surgeons to communicate with patients in inhospitable locations around the world. Another illustration: Systems developed to purify wastewater on spacecraft could be used by rescue personnel to filter contaminated water at the scene of earthquakes and floods. Similar to how tiny monitoring devices are. However, there is still a significant barrier to conducting studies into the effects of space travel: how to do so without incurring the astronomical costs of working in space. Working underwater is a tried-and-true method to simulate conditions in zero gravity, but the space biomedicine centres are also considering other approaches. In one experiment, scientists look at the deterioration of bones brought on by extended inactivity. This would require volunteers to spend three months in bed, but the centre in question is confident that it shouldn't be too difficult to find volunteers willing to spend a month lying down. Of course, AII was created in the name of science to reduce the weight of spacecraft. These will eventually become monitors that patients on Earth can wear comfortably wherever they go.
Paragraph G
However, there is still a significant barrier to conducting studies into the effects of space travel: how to do so without incurring the astronomical costs of working in space. Working underwater is a tried-and-true method to simulate conditions in zero gravity, but the space biomedicine centres are also considering other approaches. In one experiment, scientists look at the deterioration of bones brought on by extended inactivity. This would require volunteers to spend three months in bed, but the centre in question is confident that it shouldn't be too difficult to find volunteers willing to spend a month lying down. Of course, AII was done in the name of science.
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