[QUOTE]It’s not really why he signed up to be an astronaut, but like it or not, Mike Barratt and his eyes have become a science project.
The eye charts he reads, the red drops that turn his eyes yellow and the ultrasounds being performed on him could determine whether he or any other astronaut ever journeys into deep space or sets foot on other worlds.
NASA’s new priority is how to protect astronauts from going blind on the years-long trip to get wherever they are going.
“I absolutely agree that this is our number one priority,” Barratt said.
Why?
Because when Barratt blasted off to the international space station, he needed eyeglasses for distance. When he returned to Earth, his distance vision was fine, but he needed reading glasses. That was more than two years ago. And he’s not getting better.
“We really need to understand this. This is a critical point for understanding how humans adapt to spaceflight,” he said.
In the past few years, about half of the astronauts aboard the international space station have developed an increasing pressure inside their heads, an intracranial pressure that reshapes their optic nerve, causing a significant shift in the eyesight of male astronauts. Doctors call it papilledema.
Female space travelers have not been affected.
Some of the astronauts slowly recover. Others have not.
Space station astronauts typically spend about six months in orbit.
Barratt is one of 10 male astronauts, all older than 45, who have not recovered. Barratt returned from a six-month stint aboard the station in October 2009 and has experienced a profound change in his sight.
He used to be nearsighted. But now, the space veteran says he’s eagle-eyed at long distance but needs glasses for reading. There is no treatment and no answers as to why female space flyers are not affected.
CNN spent part of a day with Barratt, watching as doctors monitored his progress with high-resolution testing as they try to understand how the weightless environment of space is causing half of all space station astronauts to have this vision change. Today, space station astronauts fly with specially designed variable focus glasses to help combat the vision shift.
“The big benefit of these is that they allow us to adjust for significant prescription changes,” said Dr. Robert Gibson, a senior vision consultant, who was brought in to help study the problem.
Doctors have found that Barratt’s retinas have microscopic folds or wrinkles on them, and the back of his eye, the optic nerve, is no longer round but has flattened.
“I think this is showing that there are physiologic aspects of adaption to spaceflight we weren’t seeing before,” said Barratt.
This raises a red flag for all of NASA’s plans for long-duration human space flight. The space station is supposed to be the test bed for how humans would learn to live in space, but it opens profound questions on whether humans will ever venture to Mars or to an asteroid if they are unable to figure out how the outer-space environment is affecting the eyes.
“This has all of our attention,” said Terry Taddeo, the acting chief of space medicine at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“It is a serious problem and one we are going to have to understand more about before we would be able to send somebody into a long-duration mission away from Earth, where they would be away for years,” he said.
Right now, the only data that doctors have are from six-month tours of duty on the space station.
NASA has begun doing extensive preflight and postflight eye exams, including high-resolution MRIs of the eyes. There have been anecdotes from some space shuttle astronauts who also complained about vision change, but it does not appear they had long-lasting effects from the much shorter space flights that typically lasted up to about three weeks.
“What we’re seeing appears to occur within the first couple of months of flight and appears to level off, plateau after about four to five months,” Gibson said.
“If it’s just a matter of giving them a stronger prescription, we can live with that,” he said. “But if there is an elevated intracranial pressure as the cause of this, we have to be concerned about other neurologic effects."
That means there could be other effects on the body that haven’t become apparent.
This is why a three-year mission to Mars is in question.
It would be humans' next great leap, and NASA is spending almost $18 billion over the next five years to develop a heavy lift rocket that would take astronauts to the Red Planet or even to an asteroid. They would travel in a new spacecraft, Orion.
But right now, a trip to Mars is still more science fiction than fact. No one is calling this vision problem a showstopper, yet the program’s price tag begs for a solution to be found fast so NASA won’t be building the world’s largest, fastest rocket to nowhere.
Dr. Bruce Ehni, a neurosurgeon at the VA Medical Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has consulted with NASA and is the only neurosurgeon on their panel.
“If they can’t predict who is at risk ... they put his health in jeopardy. They put, possibly, the mission in jeopardy if he can’t see or do his job effectively,” he said.
But Barratt thinks that any deep space venture to Mars is still 20 years away. He’s hoping that spacecraft will be a whole lot faster than anything the space agency can fly now.
“You fly fast, and you don’t worry,” he said, with a grin.
“I’m still hopeful that in 20 years, we’ll have advanced propulsion capabilities that can get us there in a matter of weeks to a few months. Then, a lot of these problems go away,” he said.[/QUOTE]
Source: [url]http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/10/astronaut-feels-spaces-toll-on-his-body/?hpt=hp_bn1[/url]
Saw this on the news.. his retina has a flat edge.
Yeah, but check out his back. Going to space relieves all the pressure between the disks increasing height and letting everything realign. However, at least he didn't go blind that would have been awful. I could live with just changing the types of glasses I wear.
I wouldn't mind taking his job!
suddenly thousands of near sighted men go to space to see far, reading glasses prices skyrocket.
Oh wow, I just learned about this yesterday in one of my classes.
Space radiation fucks you up.
Man, i just can't imagine how disappointing it would be if the first people to fly to the mars would die because of something weird like this.
[QUOTE=Atlascore;34636832]
Suddenly all future astronauts are women.[/QUOTE]
Setting the precursor for an entire new line of porn.
Did this post even make sense, wow
my automerge :saddowns:
[QUOTE=The Jackal;34637427]suddenly thousands of near sighted men go to space to see far, reading glasses prices skyrocket.[/QUOTE]
I can see boobs from a mile away now, thanks space!
And here come the 'reasons why we shouldn't go to space' sheet from the idiots in charge with 'health concerns' at number one. Ugh.
this just in, an increase in female astronaut applicants flood NASA
[QUOTE=Atlascore;34636832]"Female space travelers have not been affected."
Suddenly all future astronauts are women.[/QUOTE]
[IMG]http://filesmelt.com/dl/MFqgG.gif[/IMG]
The future.
[QUOTE=Atlascore;34636832]"Female space travelers have not been affected."
Suddenly all future astronauts are women.[/QUOTE]
All uniforms replaced with tighter fitting designs, guys with a thing for wrench wenches rejoice.
we're not meant to be in space
[QUOTE=TheChantzGuy;34640845]we're not meant to be in space[/QUOTE]
We will find a way. Then all of space is ours.
On another note, I wonder if this is a result of zero gravity, if it is it could be easily fixed by having astronauts in a rotating environment, if from radiation then well shit lesbian astronauts for the future.
[QUOTE=TheChantzGuy;34640845]we're not meant to be in space[/QUOTE]
Weren't meant to fly or drive cars, but we found a way around that. We're innovative, not adaptive.
Maybe time to create artificial gravity then. I still can't understand why they haven't added such a module to ISS yet.
I know it's not really feasible yet, but if we want to fly to another system for example we need the ship to have a spinning living section for gravity. This shouldn't cause any problems then.
[QUOTE=Dysgalt;34641580]We will find a way. Then all of space is ours.
[/QUOTE]
[img]http://images.wikia.com/masseffect/images/1/1b/Citadel_Council-Turian_council_member.png[/img]
America, please put more money into NASA's budget. They do far more than just send shuttles into space.
Durrhurr but War
[QUOTE=Reds;34642631]America, please put more money into NASA's budget. They do far more than just send shuttles into space.[/QUOTE]
Yo, other nations can do it. But I agree NASA needs money.
Doesn't matter. Where we're going, we don't need eyes.
Russia had a great space program.
They also kind of won the space race.
[QUOTE=TheChantzGuy;34640845]we're not meant to be in space[/QUOTE]
Says who?
You?
Centuries of Man's innovation has proved your statement wrong before you even made it.
Very strange that this happens. I personally wish that NASA's funding would be pumped up more. I would love to see advancements in space propulsion and others. Also, about humans not belonging in space. Yes we were not born there, yes our biological machinery doesn't tolerate vacuum well (or at all), and yes by many ways we were not designed to go to space. However, in the grand scheme of things, we don't really belong anywhere, so if we can do it? Well then, why not? It has been proven it can be done safely and it vastly improves our understanding of the universe, adds a possibility of human expansion beyond this planet as well as a load of new things to discover. Space is not a place we should ignore or fear going to because it wasn't meant for us, it is the final frontier and the ultimate challenge.
[QUOTE=TheChantzGuy;34640845]we're not meant to be in space[/QUOTE]
You're not meant to be this stupid.
[QUOTE=TheChantzGuy;34640845]we're not meant to be in space[/QUOTE]
That's the worst possible mindset to have.
I'm agreeing with Chantz, we adapted to be inside an atmosphere and we adapted to this gravity.
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