Over the six decades of the space age, more than half a thousand people have visited the expanses of the Universe, space flights have become considered commonplace and almost a routine.
Despite significant technological advances, space flight is still a very difficult and dangerous job, which is not in vain called a feat.
Space is dangerous.
553 people have been in space since 1961 (as of May 29, 2018), and one in twenty-two of them have died. Among them are five Soviet cosmonauts, 13 US astronauts and the first Israeli cosmonaut. In total, 25 cosmonauts and astronauts died in space and in preparation for space flights on Earth.
Space is an aggressive environment, unfriendly to people, and never has a positive effect on health. Vice versa.
From the first second of weightlessness, processes harmful to humans begin to occur in the body.
Motion sickness manifests itself in a space form (analogous to seasickness), the interaction of sensory systems changes and sensory conflicts develop in the body, the functioning of the vestibular apparatus and coordination of movements are disrupted, calcium begins to leach out of the bones, the mineral density of various parts of the skeleton decreases, redistribution of minerals occurs, and the bones legs lose less than the lumbar vertebrae, pelvic bones and femur. The femoral neck is most at risk for fracture.
Changes in metabolism (negative nitrogen balance and the prevalence of catabolism processes; changes in the secretion of a number of hormones; a progressive slowdown in glucose utilization during sugar load as the duration of flights increases) and water-salt balance (a decrease in the volume of plasma and intercellular fluid; the establishment of a negative balance of a number of ions) in blood, pathological forms of erythrocytes appear. In weightlessness, not only arterial, but also venous tone decreases, which is fraught with the development of varicose veins of the lower extremities in the early post-flight period.
Let's not forget about large doses of radiation.
In weightlessness, fluid and blood rush to the head, which causes headaches. When you watch reports from space and see cosmonauts with somewhat puffy faces in the orbital module, this is not because they ate there, but because of the redistribution of body fluids
In space, immunity also decreases, even taste sensations change. In the most critical areas of the flight (launching into orbit, docking, spacewalk, descent from orbit, landing, emergency situations), neuropsychic and emotional stress has a negative impact on the body.
Constant noise at the orbital station from operating equipment, the magnitude of which reaches the maximum permissible values - 70–80 dB (this noise level can easily be imagined by a reader who lives on the second floor right above the tram stop), cannot but affect the state of the auditory analyzer. And given the hemodynamic disturbances in the area of the inner ear in weightlessness, the resulting shift in hearing thresholds will manifest itself in the future, after the astronaut retires, in varying degrees of sensorineural hearing loss, which can be called one of the astronaut's occupational diseases.
Hypokinesia (limitation of the number and volume of movements) and hypodynamia (underload of the muscular system), despite the fact that the modules of orbital stations have a large enough volume so as not to hinder movement - and cosmonauts are required to exercise on weight simulators in flight - entails a decrease in volumetric and strength characteristics of the muscles, especially the muscles of the back and the entire muscular corset. This circumstance in almost all astronauts leads to osteoporosis with subsequent exacerbation (after the flight) of osteochondrosis of the lumbosacral spine.
Indeed, lunatics, prisoners and astronauts are similar in that their freedom is restricted by being placed in small enclosed spaces, from where it is usually not possible to escape. I have also heard opinions that only a madman would agree to such a life and work as an astronaut.
Indeed, an astronaut is no longer a person. Over the years of training in performing and assigned tasks in space, he acquires the features of a biorobot.
I say this without any intention of offending the cosmonauts, I am simply stating the accuracy of automatic actions during complex operations with a danger to life.
Yes, over the years of training and in the course of a space flight, a healthy cosmonaut gradually acquires functional disorders and diseases. Health is lost and it is possible to fully restore it after a flight not to the initial level, but to a state that allows you to send an astronaut on the next and next flight, until it turns out that, alas, it is no longer possible to fly.
What about pre-flight preparation? Astronauts' health suffers not only during flights, but also during special training on Earth. When they put you in a centrifuge and spin it around a little at 8g, you might burst a blood vessel in your brain. And after a stroke, you will not only not fly into space, but you can spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair.
Astronauts are the same people as representatives of other professions, and they suffer from the same diseases, but doctors cannot say how a common illness will proceed in such unusual patients until there are sufficient statistics. You can only try to find trends.
So, astronauts die more often from oncological diseases, and even more often from heart disease. And these are the people who were selected, finding fault with the work of the heart as nowhere else!
Astronauts are rigorously selected, including for health reasons, and have access to very high-quality medical care, so their health is usually better than the national average.
That is why the profession of an astronaut is considered risky and dangerous. But not as an adventure (although, perhaps, for someone from Earth it looks like an adventure), but as a hard work in unusual, threatening conditions, sometimes fraught with death. It is because of this that astronauts are awarded, because they not only risk their lives, but also consciously give up their health for the sake of promoting humanity into space. This means that they understand that their work brings something more valuable to the world than a single life, no matter how ruthless it may sound.
Nevertheless, it is not worth the task of heroically sacrificing one's life. On the contrary, saving the life of the crew is the priority of any emergency exit algorithm.
This profession includes a constant readiness for a feat. There is no training to accomplish a feat, but the ability to control oneself in dangerous circumstances, often under time pressure, arises in the process of professional training of an astronaut. True, they may object: is it really heroism to take precise actions in conditions of danger, which the astronauts are trained to do?
The phenomenon of the feat of an astronaut is born on the border of consciousness and soul, it is accomplished by the command of the heart, feelings, and is not realized as such. A feat is a deeply personal process, it is based on individual motivation, it requires discussion only with oneself, understanding the inner meaning of what is being done, considerable internal efforts. “But,” others will object, “isn’t that what psychologists worked with astronauts for?”
The feat is accomplished in the interaction of man with the world. And no matter how unusual the dangerous circumstances that have arisen, they are produced by our world. Such is the daily but heroic work of rescuers, firefighters... Situations faced by astronauts can arise in contact with the other world.
They develop according to a logic unknown to us, and only professionally and psychologically prepared cosmonauts, who are determined not for a one-time outstanding deed, but for a long-term overcoming of the dangers that space flights cannot do without, can cope with them. That is why their daily ordinary work in unusual conditions is tantamount to a feat.
Perhaps it is the constant readiness to go beyond one's own capabilities (which means accomplishing a feat), deep inner work that changes the personality of an astronaut to no lesser extent than communication with space or observation of it.
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