{"id":4986,"date":"2015-07-03T06:01:39","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T06:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=4986"},"modified":"2015-07-03T06:01:39","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T06:01:39","slug":"working-out-in-artificial-gravity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/working-out-in-artificial-gravity\/","title":{"rendered":"Working out in artificial gravity"},"content":{"rendered":"

A combination of exercise and artificial gravity may lessen negative effects of weightlessness in space.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>
These illustrations depict how the researchers’ new centrifuge could be used in space.
Courtesy of the researchers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

CAMBRIDGE, Mass<\/strong>—\u00a0Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have a number of exercise options, including a mechanical bicycle bolted to the floor, a weightlifting machine strapped to the wall, and a strap-down treadmill. They spend a significant portion of each day working out to ward off the long-term effects of weightlessness, but many still suffer bone loss, muscle atrophy, and issues with balance and their cardiovascular systems.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To counteract such debilitating effects, research groups around the world are investigating artificial gravity \u2014 the notion that astronauts, exposed to strong centrifugal forces, may experience the effects of gravity, even in space. Engineers have been building and testing human centrifuges \u2014 spinning platforms that, at high speeds, generate G-forces strong enough to mimic gravity. An astronaut, riding in a centrifuge, would presumably feel gravity\u2019s reinforcing effects.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now engineers at MIT have built a compact human centrifuge with an exercise component: a cycle ergometer that a person can pedal as the centrifuge spins. The centrifuge was sized to just fit inside a module of the ISS. After testing the setup on healthy participants, the team found the combination of exercise and artificial gravity could significantly lessen the effects of extended weightlessness in space \u2014 more so than exercise alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laurence Young, the Apollo Program Professor in MIT\u2019s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, says artificial gravity would be a huge benefit for astronauts, particularly those embarking on long-duration space missions, such as a journey to Mars. The risks, he says, are uncertain, but potentially significant.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith exploration-class missions, like Mars, where you\u2019re gone for three years, you could run the risk of having astronauts not sufficiently conditioned to perform effectively, and also to not be in good health when they finally get to the surface of Mars,\u201d says Young, a former NASA payload specialist. \u201cYou really don\u2019t want to send a jellyfish to represent us on another planet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Young says a human centrifuge aboard a Mars-bound spacecraft would help keep an astronaut in shape over the many months it would take to get to the Red Planet. He and his colleagues, former graduate students Ana Diaz and Chris Trigg, have published results from their experiments in the journal\u00a0Acta Astronautica<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Spinning up artificial gravity<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s compact centrifuge resembles a rotating metal cage with three main elements: a chair; a cycle ergometer, or the mechanical portion of a stationary bicycle; and a suite of sensors to measure cardiovascular variables such as blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate, muscle activity, and foot forces.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers conducted experiments to test human responses and exercise performance at varying levels of artificial gravity. The experiments involved 12 healthy subjects, who participated in three sessions, each consisting of a bicycling workout under one of three artificial gravity levels: zero G, in which the centrifuge did not rotate; 1 G, measured at the feet, in which the centrifuge spun at 28 revolutions per minute (rpm); and 1.4 G, also measured at the feet, at 32 rpm.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it spins around, we create centrifugal force, which depends on the angular velocity, or how fast we are rotating \u2014 the higher the angular velocity, the greater the artificial gravity,\u201d Diaz says.<\/span><\/p>\n

During each session, participants were asked to pedal for 15 minutes at three workout intensities, or levels of resistance, set by the cycle ergometer. The remaining 10 minutes involved spinning up and slowing down the centrifuge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Beyond a \u201cuniversal solution\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

After each session, participants filled out a survey to gauge symptoms such as motion sickness and light-headedness. Overall, Diaz found that participants tolerated the experiments well, suffering little motion sickness even while spinning at relatively high velocities. Participants only reported feelings of discomfort while initially speeding up and slowing down.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the spinning process, participants were pushed against the chair due to the centrifugal force, making them sit comfortably, and facilitating their leg biomechanics for biking,\u201d Diaz says.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the researchers increased the centrifuge\u2019s spin, raising its artificial gravity, participants used correspondingly more force to pedal \u2014 an unsurprising but encouraging result.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat tells us that if we use artificial gravity, we\u2019re able to get higher foot forces, and we know higher foot forces are good for bones, and help you generate more bone,\u201d Diaz says. \u201cEven if we expected this, we were able to quantify it and find a relationship between foot forces and artificial gravity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Similarly, as artificial gravity intensified, so did participants\u2019 overall cardiovascular activity, a response that Diaz says may be beneficial over the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n

Young says the study may begin to bridge two seemingly opposing camps: those who believe exercise alone will prevent bone loss, muscle atrophy, and other effects of extended weightlessness, and those who believe in artificial gravity as the solution.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think the principal finding here is supporting the conclusion that exercise alone is not a sufficient countermeasure,\u201d Young says. \u201cFor the first time, we\u2019re showing there\u2019s a symbiosis when one combines the best aspects of exercise, and the best aspects of artificial gravity. So I feel this is an important demonstration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This research was funded in part by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute and a Skoltech\/MIT seed grant.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A combination of exercise and artificial gravity may lessen negative effects of weightlessness in space. CAMBRIDGE, Mass—\u00a0Astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) have a number of exercise options, including a mechanical bicycle bolted to the floor, a weightlifting machine strapped to the wall, and a strap-down treadmill. They spend a significant portion of each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-innovation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",807,426,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",750,396,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",750,396,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",807,426,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",807,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",807,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",807,426,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",600,317,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",600,317,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",760,401,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",550,290,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",95,50,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",640,338,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",96,51,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/MIT-Ergo-2.jpg",150,79,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Innovation<\/a>","tag_info":"Innovation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}