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Asked by SherlockLives to John, Laura, Luke, Rob, Ruth on 20 Jun 2016.
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Laura Finney answered on 20 Jun 2016:
I do believe your muscles weaken as we are adapted to living on earth with the earth’s gravity. Therefore, when you are floating about in space and not using those muscles in the same way as on earth, they are no longer needed and so become weaker. This is why Tim Peake had to do a lot of exercise in space when he was on the international space station and probably a lot now he is back too!
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Ruth Patchett answered on 20 Jun 2016:
Great question, I have spent some time of the NASA website looking for the answer which is not something I thought I would do today (http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/index.html).
Basically on earth things are difficult to lift and carry because of gravity, this includes our limbs (arms/legs/body) so in space where there is less gravity it is much easier for astonauts to move their bodies and objects around. Our muscles need to be used in order to stay strong (which actually is pretty unusal in itself!) therefore they can get weak if they are not used enough. This can be pretty dangerous when the astronauts return to Earth if they are not strong enough to do emergancy work on landing so they do a lot of exercise in space to keep fit (2-3 hours every day!). -
Robert Williams answered on 20 Jun 2016:
Yes – space does weaken muscles – because most muscles in the human body are designed for counteracting gravity and the effect of gravity such as fluid flow.
Muscles are designed to ‘pull’ and the human body has many sets of muscles in the legs, arms etc., that are paired to allow pulls in two ways – in and out.
Without gravity the muscles have no resistance to pull against and so they weaken over time. The biggest effect is on the heart muscle.
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