If humankind are ever going to make it to Mars , we want to understand how it will affect our fleshy piddling body . That ’s why Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko were sent up to the International Space Station ( ISS ) in 2015 as part of the One - Year Mission ( even though it was actually for 340 days ) .
As Kelly explains in his Modern bookEndurance : A twelvemonth in Space , A Lifetime of Discovery , his body was pregnant with problems after his long - stint in space . So much so , he believes it was easier to spend nearly a year in quad than to get used to gravity again back on Earth . One of the most taxing challenges to ab initio overcome was remastering the simple skill of walking .
“ I press back from the tabular array and scramble to stand up , feeling like an erstwhile man come out of a lounger . ” Kellywrotein his book .
“ I start up the journeying to my bedroom : about 20 steps from the hot seat to the bed . On the third whole step , the story seems to lurch under me , and I trip up into a planter . Of course , it was n’t the storey – it was my vestibular system trying to readjust to Earth ’s solemnity . I ’m getting used to take the air again . ”
The vestibular organisation , in the main locate late within your intimate ear , helps to control your sense of balance and spatial orientation . As you’re able to imagine , floating around in microgravity for a year can disorientate this scheme , so it takes time for it to readapt to the conditions on Earth . On top of that , walk is made even harder because of sinew wastage , even though you do extensively while up on the ISS .
Kelly also explicate how he woke up in the eye of the nighttime in severe pain with swollen leg and abominable rashes on his skin .
“ I make it to the privy , flip on the sparkle , and look down at my leg . They are swollen and alien ambo , not legs at all , ” he wrote .
“ I use the bathroom and shuffle back to bed , wondering what I should do . Normally if I woke up feeling like this , I would go to the emergency brake way , but no one at the infirmary will have go steady symptom of having been in place for a twelvemonth . “
you’re able to also ascertain out a video of Kelly onThe Vergethat shows him set about to take the air for the first sentence back on Earth after nearly a yr in distance . It ’s from the young PBS documentaryBeyond A Year In Space . you could also watch a TV of Kelly being lift out of the Soyuz TMA-18 M spacecraft just after it land in Kazakhstan .
