Travel to the moon is not good for the heart – lagranepoca

An astronaut walking on the surface of the moon during the Apollo 11 mission / NASA

successful participants Apollo space program, which in the 60s and 70s made it several times to the moon, are experiencing high rates of cardiovascular disease and the cause could be the cosmic radiation to which they were subjected during space travel.

This is the conclusion that says a team of researchers, led by professor Michael Delp from State University of Florida (USA), in the study published this week in the journal Science Reports.

“We know very little about the effects of deep-space radiation on human health, particularly in the cardiovascular system, but this work provides a first approximation of its adverse effects “said Delp.

the authors compared the cause of death of seven astronauts of the Apollo missions to the moon with those of 35 astronauts who never fly and others who did the so-called low earth orbit (LEO, for its acronym in English), an area that reaches approximately 2,000 kilometers from Earth and where the geomagnetic Earth’s field protects the . space radiation

the death rate from cardiovascular disease among astronauts of the Apollo lunar missions was 43% compared with 9% and 11% of those who did not fly or they did in low orbits

the results reveal that the mortality rate from cardiovascular disease among astronauts of the Apollo missions moles (43%) was almost five times higher than the they did not fly (9%) or did so in the LEO (11%).

These data suggest that travel beyond the magnetosphere protector of Earth has adverse health effects, but to test the physiological basis and mechanics behind the authors conducted experiments with 44 mice. The objective was to determine whether long-term effects of simulated weightlessness and irradiation as space were relevant to the vascular system.

The test results showed that the negative effects on the vascular system are the result of exposure to radiation and not by weightlessness. The authors suggest that damage induced by cosmic radiation in the endothelium lining the inside of blood vessels could be an important step in the development of cardiovascular disease experienced by astronauts factor.

“What show data with mice is that radiation from deep space is detrimental to vascular health, “concludes Delp.

This is the first study to analyze the mortality of the astronauts of the Apollo program, active from 1961 to 1972, with eleven manned flights between 1968 and 1972. Nine of them were spent in deep space beyond low Earth orbit. Those mythical flights included hits like the first man on the moon, but also failures as the Apollo 13 mission, which inspired the popular film Ron Howard.

Original article here