{"id":8364,"date":"2021-10-14T10:25:01","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T10:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TheNextWeb=1369878"},"modified":"2021-10-14T10:25:01","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T10:25:01","slug":"william-shatner-is-the-oldest-person-in-space-but-we-shouldnt-promote-space-travel-to-the-elderly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.londonchiropracter.com\/?p=8364","title":{"rendered":"William Shatner is the oldest person in space \u2014 but we shouldn\u2019t promote space travel to the elderly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is space really the final frontier? William Shatner has found out after boldly going<\/a> where no 90-year-old has gone before. Some 55 years after Captain James T Kirk hit our screens in the original Star Trek<\/a>, Shatner recently launched to the edge of space aboardBlue Origin\u2019s New Shepard for a ten-minute sub-orbital flight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Aren\u2019t we all adorbs! \ud83d\ude18\ud83d\ude80 pic.twitter.com\/rYyEzOXfy5<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) October 11, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Shatner has become the oldest person to go to space, breaking the record set only recently by 82-year-old Wally Funk<\/a>, who travelled on the New Shepard\u2019s first crewed spaceflight in July. Funk was one of the Mercury 13<\/a> women who qualified for spaceflight in the 1960s but never flew.<\/p>\n

With commercial spaceflight companies now taking older people to space, it\u2019s timely to consider the potential physical impact space flight might have on them.<\/p>\n

In just a few days in space, the human body starts to adapt<\/a>. Astronauts\u2019 bones start to lose density and their muscles become smaller and weaker because they\u2019re not being used to stand up against gravity or to move around.<\/p>\n

While these changes aren\u2019t much of a problem in microgravity, they can lead to increased risk of injury<\/a>, such as back pain or bone fracture, when returning to Earth. Astronauts spend considerable time exercising in space<\/a> to minimise these adaptations, which are similar to age-related changes<\/a> affecting people on Earth, but happen much more quickly<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 90-year-old person with normal age-related health changes might arrive in space with their muscles and bones already deconditioned. This could present additional risks as their body adapts further when deprived of gravity. While we can speculate, not nearly enough older people have gone to space for us to know for sure how their bodies will cope.<\/p>\n

Anyone like Shatner who only spends a few minutes in microgravity won\u2019t need to worry about this too much. The greatest risks to their health are the mental and physical stresses experienced during launch, re-entry into Earth\u2019s atmosphere, and landing.<\/p>\n

During launch, Shatner and his three co-passengers would have experienced vibrations resulting from the thrust generated by New Shepard\u2019s BE-3 engine<\/a>, which is equivalent to more than 1 million horsepower, or more than 2,000 times as powerful as the 480 horsepower of a Tesla Model 3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This would lead them to experience an acceleration or g-force of 3g<\/a>. It\u2019s a tricky concept to explain, but essentially, this feels like three people the same size as you sitting on your chest, pushing you into your seat. During re-entry into the atmosphere, the g-force reaches 6g<\/a>.<\/p>\n

High g-forces can have profound effects on the human body. At high g-forces, blood can be pulled away from the head which can starve the brain of oxygen. This can lead to visual changes including tunnel vision, loss of colour (greyout) or complete loss of vision (blackout), and in some cases, a g-force-induced loss of consciousness. This can occur at as little as 3g<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, during simulations of sub-orbital flight paths on a centrifuge<\/a> in people aged 20-78, older people were actually found to better tolerate the high g-forces<\/a> experienced during re-entry through the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

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<\/i><\/a>Commercial space-flights are enabling more people to travel to space. Blue Origin<\/a><\/figcaption>