• Question: Do you grow faster/slower in space?

    Asked by 384tch48 to Charlie 🚀, Andrea, Col Op, Kirsty, Vinita on 15 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Sabrina.
    • Photo: Charles Laing

      Charles Laing answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Hi 384tch48,

      Some people say that spaceflight causes accelerated aging as the muscles and bones get weaker in a similar way to someone getting older.

      In fact we conduct experiments on returning astronauts and see their muscle and bone are much weaker as if they have become an old man or woman.

      However, it is different from aging as the weaknesses can be reversed once they are back on Earth and hit the gym after a couple of weeks.

      If we look at physics, (and this is where things get a little strange) the faster someone travels the slower time goes for that person. Astronauts travel at 17,500 mph on the International Space Station (ISS) and traveling at this speed for 6 months means they do actually age slower than someone on Earth.

      Albert Einstein discovered this and it is part of his theory of relativity but only works with really really high speeds. After 6 months on the ISS an astronaut would have aged less by only 0.005 seconds!

      Charlie 😀🚀

    • Photo: Kirsty Lindsay

      Kirsty Lindsay answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      Only adults have flown in space so far- and they have stopped growing already. You do get taller in space, but it isn’t really growing.. more like stretching.

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 19 Jun 2016:

      All the astronauts have finished growing when they fly to space (25 – 77 years old) but they definitely get taller! Spinal elongation – About 20cm. Until they return to Eath then they turn back to normal height again in a few seconds!

Comments