Can you sneeze into space?

The abbreviation "Apollo", which took American astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, was a high-altitude telescope. Technique of nails, wires and circuits.

It is hard to imagine that three men in giant space jackets spent eleven days floating in the capsule in the media of his space trip and his return.

Now imagine that the three astronauts got sick one by one, coughing, coughing and sneezing intermittently.

This is what happened in 1968, when the crew of Apollo 7 tested the cockpit in Earth orbit.

Astronauts Wally Schirra (Walt Cunningham) and Donn Eisele all returned with colds at the same time.

It was so bad that they could not wear their helmets when they got back in the vehicle because of the pain of their clogged ears.

For most of the trip, the three people sneezed, coughed, and suffered from all the other things that accompany colds.

Although actor George Clooney and actress Sandra Bullock did not sneeze into Gravity, real astronauts do, cough and wash their noses.

Frank Borman in Apollo 8, the first inhabited mission of the moon, vomited and suffered from diarrhea.

All this beautiful news can occur in the warmth of a spaceship, or wear a helmet when traveling on foot in space.

The thing that makes an astronaut sneeze into space is the same thing that makes us all sneeze here on Earth.

Are you ready to discover what is this thing?

Space sprouts:

Our noses look like vacuum cleaners.

Whenever we breathe air through our nostrils, we breathe in parts of dust, dirt, bacteria and viruses.

The hairs in the nose, known as eyelashes, purify most irritants, as well as the bony shelves of our nose called carbinates.

Despite these defenses, certain microbes escape and move in the nasal passage.

When this happens, a tiny nerve in the nose sends signals to the cerebral cortex, which is at the bottom of the brain.

The brain, which is the center of the body, orders the closure of the muscles of the chest, constrictions of the throat, eyes and mouth.

When the throat and chest shrink, the person sneezes. Sneezing is not as bad as coughing and vomiting, sneezing allows our body to get rid of things that make us sick, clearing the nasal cavity of a stream of saliva and mucus enclosed in irritants.

But sneezing is boring and even more so in space. This is because space capsules and space stations are "Petri dishes in microgravity".

Narrow housing with low gravity provides an ideal environment for breeding germs.

If a person sneezes or coughs on the ground, the germs will fly off his mouth for a distance of 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 meters) before being captured by gravity and falling by Earth.

In space, the germs stay too long suspended. When the germs are installed, they fall on planks of machines, vases, laboratory tools, toilet seats and even on dining tables.

In addition, low gravity destroys the immune system in humans, making astronauts more susceptible to these slow-moving, high-flying bacteria.

According to Dr. Leonard Mermel of Brown University, who studied the effect of low severity on infectious diseases, of the 106 NASA flights, 29 cases were reported among 742 members of the 39; crew.

Scientists do not fully understand why spaceflight causes immune decline. Wound healing is more difficult and the cells that control the diseases do not work as effectively as on the ground.

Meanwhile, pathogens, which make astronauts sick, become stronger.

In 2006 and 2008, NASA sent Salmonella bacteria into a space shuttle to see how gravity weakens infectious bacteria responsible for food poisoning.

Mice exposed to the spatial version of the bacteria were three times more likely to be infected.

Mice died faster than those exposed to the terrestrial strain of bacteria.

Salmonella and other space-borne germs hang better on the surface and make fun of antimicrobial agents that are less effective in space than on Earth.

God bless you!

Nevertheless, sneezing continues and the astronaut must be prepared when this happens, especially when he is surrounded by a narrower space suit than the Egyptian mummy rollers.

Astronauts can not simply cover their mouths and say, "Excuse me."

Dave Wolf, a seasoned astronaut, had to sneeze several times as he was moving outside the International Space Station. The key, Wolf says, is to keep your head down when you want to sneeze.

If you can not, there is no compromise to eliminate saliva and mucus from the glass helmet.

Scientists say the side effects of all these sneezes, intermittent coughing and coughing can be disastrous for a long flight of Mars or any other celestial body.

A latent disease or infection in a single astronaut can reactivate in space, infecting the entire crew.

What should an astronaut do?

The solution is to reduce total irritants, bacteria and other bacteria in the space.

NASA uses high tech filters to purify the air inside a spacecraft.

Astronauts are also equipped with sterile handkerchiefs, surgical masks and respiratory equipment.

However, this may not be enough.

Using larger filters can work, but it is useless to use these power grids in the space, where each voltage of electricity is important.

Scientists say the best way to contain the problem is probably to vaccinate astronauts with the flu and other diseases, while others are examined.

The expert in infectious diseases (Mermel) also recommends applying antibacterial substances to the walls of living and working places, and to rearrange bathrooms with the help of pedals as on the ground.

The International Space Station's toilets are dirty and full of bacteria that can escape weightlessness in space capsules.

Indeed, in 2011, astronauts had to repair their toilet after a foul odor spread around the space station.

The astronauts had to handle plumbing equipment that cost $ 90 million to repair the toilet.

Of course, germs are troublesome and all these reserves may not work. In this case, the following space travel should be equipped with towels and cold medicine.

---

• Source: