Strong Resonse Essay

Staying Healthy In Space

Madisen Vance

Baptist College of Health Sciences

Staying Healthy In Space

Astronauts are staying healthy in space and on earth with the help of super-bacteria that they’re growing in space. During long duration space missions, astronauts need to be able to eat, drink, breathe, and excrete their waste, and be kept free of infections to stay healthy enough to successfully do their job. Astronauts have started growing bacteria in space to enable them to have successful long distance travels.

According to NASA (2014), “Immune systems weaken during space flight which makes impact of an infection even greater,” (para. 3). The bacteria helps the immune system stay up while traveling to and from space. According to Christophe Lasseur (2014) “The key to an astronauts’ wellbeing has been found somewhat contradictorily, to be a group of tiny group of organisms called bacteria,” (para. 1). Space missions bring an abundance of challenges to keep astronauts alive and healthy while in space. Because immune systems weaken while in space it is very difficult for astronauts to stay healthy during long duration space missions. Even though bacteria can be a health hazard, it is used to help sustain astronauts in space, as a source of food and oxygen. To help sustain life in space, bacteria takes up carbon-dioxide and releases oxygen for astronauts to breathe.

Some people may think of space as a germ-free environment, but microbes are carried into space by human as well as in food and water once up there. According to Cheryl Nickerson (2007), “When astronauts spend very long periods of time in space, their exposure to recycled air and water is increased which highly affects their risk of infection,” (para. 6). The health crew at NASA have to keep microbes at bay in order for them to be able to use the bacteria in the right way. Not all microorganisms are bad, we just need to know how they can change and impact us. When we understand the...