Apollo program astronauts are more likely to have cardiovascular diseases

Possible cause - exposure to ionizing radiation in deep space

Astronauts of the Apollo program, who came out from under the protection of the magnetosphere of their planet, more often colleagues (for example, astronauts from the ISS) die because of cardiovascular diseases. There is not much data available for analysis now, since there are only 77 astronauts of the USA (both flying somewhere and working on the Earth). But experts who have studied the histories of diseases of these people believe that the cause of the problem can be ionizing radiation in deep space, which has a stronger effect on the human body than previously expected. Their assumption is also based on the results of a study with mice. The latter were irradiated with hard ionizing radiation and other experiments were carried out. An article about the work done was published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports.

The author of the study is Michael Delp from Florida State University. He says that the conclusions made by his team on the results of studying the histories of astronauts and experiments with mice cannot be considered final. But they should be taken into account when developing programs to send people beyond the Earth’s magnetosphere.

“The results of our work suggest that a man’s journey into deep space can cause more damage to his cardiovascular system than previously thought,” he says.
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NASA usually tries to minimize the astronaut's stay in space conditions. But to avoid this completely impossible. According to the agency , the radiation power in deep space is higher than originally thought. This conclusion was made on the return of astronauts to Earth.

Since the return of the last Apollo crew, many scientists have tried to assess the consequences of being in deep space for humans. In many cases, studies have not yielded any significant results. Perhaps, according to Delp and colleagues, this situation arose because the authors of previous studies compared the health of astronauts with the health of ordinary people. The problem is that the health of an astronaut is much better than the health of an average person. Therefore, the number of deaths of astronauts who have been adversely affected by external factors and ordinary people from cardiovascular diseases is approximately equal. But what if to compare not with ordinary people, but with other astronauts? The results in this case are very different from the data of previous work.

In his study, Delp and co-workers compared the medical indicators of 42 people in space. Of these 42 people, 7 left the Earth’s magnetosphere and visited the Moon. The data of these 42 people compared with the figures of 35 other astronauts who trained on a par with everyone, but did not fly anywhere due to a number of circumstances (other work tasks, a change of specialization, etc.). As it turned out, 43% of the participants of the Apollo program expeditions died due to cardiovascular diseases. This is 4-5 times higher than in the case of people who have never flown at all or worked within the Earth’s magnetosphere on the ISS (9% and 11%, respectively).



In order to find out the main risk factor (it can be ionizing radiation or weightlessness), which is critical for the health of astronauts, scientists conducted an experiment with mice. The initially homogeneous group of mice was divided into three parts. The first received certain doses of ionizing radiation. The hind limbs of mice of the second group were hung on special mounts to avoid the effect of weight on the animal's body. Mice from the third group received irradiation with ionizing radiation, plus were in "weightlessness". Then the mice were transferred to the usual conditions for them, and waited for about 6-7 months (this is comparable to 20 years for humans).

It turned out that mice that were exposed to ionizing radiation, as well as mice that were in "weightlessness" with radiation exposure, had significant health problems. Their circulatory system was in poor condition: dilation of blood vessels, abnormal blood pressure, and other such problems. They can lead to heart attacks, strokes and heart attacks. Mice that were in conditions of "weightlessness" had no particular health problems.

The authors of the study are aware that the analysis was carried out on too little data, if we are talking about astronauts. Here it would be possible to speak about a simple coincidence, if not the results of experiments on mice. Perhaps, scientists say, in deep space there are other factors that negatively affect people's health. In addition, there is another caveat - ionizing radiation, which exposed the mouse, differs from cosmic radiation, where the astronauts visited.

Now Delp and his colleagues are working with NASA, discussing the results of the study and its next stages.

PS It was interesting to find out whether these scientists considered the likelihood that the health of the Apollo program’s astronauts was adversely affected by the activities of the supporters of the "lunar conspiracy"? The stream of accusations that, in fact, the participants of this program did not fly anywhere, over time, not only did not dry out, but even became wider and more powerful.