• Question: Around how many ways of keeping astronauts healthy over long periods of time have you come up with (or at least contributed to)?

    Asked by Cibohpogre to Charlie 🚀 on 14 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Charles Laing

      Charles Laing answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      Hi Cibohpogre,

      I work with the human centrifuge at the German Space Agency. Our goal is to explore how spinning people can be beneficial to future astronauts so when we launch one into space we know how to best use it.

      Spinning people in space as an idea has been around a long time and we also call it artificial gravity (AG) as by spinning we can create the same forces we feel on Earth.

      My research has found that if we spin people in a smaller centrifuge they are able to tolerate it better and this is great news as it is expensive sending big things into space! A small centrifuge spinning future astronauts during their trip to Mars may hold the key to keeping them fit and healthy and making sure they don’t faint when they arrive.

      Charlie 😀🚀

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