iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
The two-stage rocketship, taller than the Statue of Liberty, blasted off from the company's Starbase launch site near Boca Chica
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Video: After 6 months of not walking on his feet, UAE's Sultan AlNeyadi gets ready for life on Earth
Floating around in microgravity may look fun but for astronauts, life in space is challenging, even dangerous
Reuters file photo
UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi is set to return home in a fortnight from the International Space Station (ISS) — his abode for almost six months.
From the orbital station, he has been sharing an immersive experience, answering questions about life in space. In a video he shared on Thursday on X (formerly Twitter), AlNeyadi explained how space travel affects humans, physically and psychologically, and what it would take to adjust to life back on Earth.
Space is a completely different environment than Earth, said first Arab astronaut on a long-duration space mission.
He said in Arabic: “Here, we don’t walk with our feet but use our hands when moving from one place to another. This does not fully utilise the muscles of our body, which may lead to muscle atrophy.”
“Also, the lack of pressure on our bones and the lower part of the body may cause osteoporosis (which can lead to a decrease in bone strength and increase the risk of broken bones or fractures),” he added.
AlNeyadi noted: “This (living in microgravity) is a matter of concern on long mission such as the six-month duration we are undertaking.”
Exercise regimen
The situation, however, is remedied by doing daily exercises. “We train daily for two hours to avoid these health problems such as muscle atrophy, osteoporosis and loss of physical mass,” AlNeyadi continued.
Back in March, a week after he and his Crew-6 colleagues Nasa astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev – docked on the ISS on March 3, AlNeyadi posted a photo of himself running on one of the two treadmills aboard the ISS.
He captioned it: “On Earth, exercising is important. In space, it's vital. Aboard the International Space Station, we exercise for 2.5 hours every day to avoid muscle atrophy and bone loss triggered by microgravity.”
Psychological challenge
Another aspect that AlNeyadi shed light on is the psychological challenge astronauts like him may face. He said: “It can occur if a person lives in isolation. (But) on the ISS, we are able to communicate with our family and friends on Earth.”
“We also work here as a crew and we are currently seven people on board (AlNeyadi, Bowen, Hoburg, Fedyaev, Frank Rubio, Dmitri Petelin and Sergey Prokopyev). This further softens the psychological impact,” AlNeyadi noted.
However, if in the future, an astronaut is sent to Mars, the scenario would be different, he said.
"A message from Earth would need at least 20 minutes to reach Mars. If there is a person or a friend of yours on Mars, for example, and you need to say to him ‘Peace be upon you’, this message will take about 20 minutes. The response also may take another 20 minutes and this may cause a kind of isolation and some psychological impact on the astronaut," he explained.
Return to Earth
AlNeyadi earlier said in a separate message from ISS that it will take at least two weeks of training to readjust to life on Earth.
He noted: “After spending six months in space, when we return, we must adapt to walking and life in general. Typically, it takes about two weeks of training to readjust to life on Earth. During this time, we will conduct scientific experiments and physical exercises to return to a normal state.”
ALSO READ:
More news from Space
Burning debris was seen falling onto mountain slopes as sprinklers began spraying water
They moved into the space station last August; their replacements arrived last week in their own SpaceX capsule
Nora AlMatrooshi and Mohammad AlMulla graduated from the 2021 NASA Astronaut Candidate Class training programme on Tuesday
Abdulla Al Shehhi and Fatima Al Shamsi shed light on the urgency of debris mitigation to secure the future of space exploration
According to previous estimates from the company and Nasa, the spacecraft was supposed to operate on the moon for seven to 10 days
Odysseus descended from an orbit and guided itself to the surface, aiming for a relatively flat spot among all the cliffs and craters near the south pole
It will pass over Saudi Arabia during its descent