Astronaut Scott Kelly for the year in space grew by 5 cm

Various changes occur in space with the human body, especially if you spend a long time there. These changes were experienced in full by the American astronaut Scott Kelly, who recently returned from the ISS after spending a little less than a year there.

To begin with, in space, he grew up to five centimeters.

This is a completely natural process: in the absence of gravity, the spine does not experience a vertical load and the intervertebral discs expand.
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Now the astronaut needs to be very careful, because the bones and muscles have not experienced earthly loads for a long time. Scott Kelly will be under the supervision of doctors for another year, he will not be able to lift weights for a long time, etc.

Observing the astronaut will also help you to understand how a long journey to Mars, which is planned for the next decades, will affect human health.

There is another interesting effect: thanks to the theory of relativity, time on the fast moving ISS flows a little slower than on the surface of the Earth. According to the formula, it appears that he is now about 0.01 seconds younger than his peers on Earth.



The same effects will be experienced by astronauts who are sent on a 250-day or longer flight to install a base on Mars: stretching the spine, weakening bones and muscles. You can avoid this if you drastically reduce flight time. For example, the Russian corporation Rosatom proposes the use of a nuclear power plant . In this case, the spacecraft will reach Mars in one and a half months, and on the way will be able to maneuver.

Rosatom plans to produce a prototype of a megawatt class nuclear electromotive system designed for flying in deep space by 2018.

In the meantime, it remains to wish Scott Kelly a successful recovery in earth gravity.