For many millennia man has been dreaming of stars. However, more than half a century has passed since the beginning of the conquest of space, and people have not been able to step, let alone outside the solar system, but have not even been to Mars, and travel to the moon in the middle of the 20th century is constantly questioned and, it is possible, are just the fruits of the labors of Hollywood filmmakers.
Recently, experts have been talking more and more about the conquest of the Red Planet, however, a lot of objective factors, including the issues of protection from cosmic radiation and asteroids, make one wonder whether it is really possible to fly somewhere further than into Earth's orbit.
The health of astronauts is generally a very serious issue. Long-term space flights, even if technically feasible, can cause irreversible changes in the human body and people simply will not reach their destination. So, in conditions of reduced gravity, the body begins to suffer from premature aging. The skin dries up and becomes thinner, bones weaken, become more fragile, and muscles suffer. Every month spent in space, an astronaut loses about 1 percent of muscle mass and up to 2 percent of bone. A four-month stay on the International Space Station will result in a loss of about 11 percent of the total pelvic bone mass.
Veins and arteries are subject to severe wear. They lose elasticity, which is fraught with cardiac problems - up to a heart attack and stroke.
To prevent premature aging, astronauts are advised to exercise at least two hours a day.
Also, today it is impossible to provide cosmonauts with prompt medical assistance and any emergency health situation, even on the ISS, can lead to sad consequences. In addition, most medicines in space do not work as effectively as they do on Earth. In one study, researchers combined eight first aid kits with 35 different drugs, including sleeping pills and antibiotics. Four sets were sent to the International Space Station, and four more were placed in a special chamber at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
After 28 months, the drugs sent to the ISS turned out to be less effective than those stored at the space center. In addition, six drugs changed their consistency or color; in the space center, such changes occurred with only two drugs. The researchers believe that the loss of effectiveness is caused by the excessive vibration and radiation that drugs are exposed to in outer space.
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Another problem is the supply of water in space. With solid food, everything is easier: the supply of canned food, freeze-dried foods can be calculated and taken with you. It is difficult to take a lot of water with you. Already today, American astronauts on expeditions to the ISS receive most of their water through the so-called Water Recovery System. This system has been in use since 2009, thanks to which astronauts use water to make tea and coffee, which they lose along with sweat and urine. According to participants in space missions, this water tastes no different from ordinary bottled water.
On the one hand, such a system is a way out when organizing a long space travel. On the other hand, its safety margin is limited, and if it breaks down and the installation fails, space travelers will suffer painful death from thirst.
And one more problem that specialists are trying to solve, but so far they are not doing very well, to put it mildly, - the problem of an increased concentration of carbon dioxide on a spacecraft. To date, the concentration of CO2 on the ISS can exceed the maximum permissible norms by 20 times at once. This leads to headaches, sleep problems - this has become almost the norm for the inhabitants of the space station.
Unlike Earth, where exhaled carbon dioxide dissipates into the air, the CO2 exhaled by astronauts forms a cloud over their heads. The ISS has special fans that push these clouds over the astronauts' heads. Now NASA is working to reduce the total CO2 concentration by at least one and a half times. However, this will still significantly exceed the recommended concentration.
This problem has not yet been resolved. In such a situation, a deep space flight seems to be an extremely difficult and dangerous undertaking. We can only hope that scientists will be able to solve this problem.