Essay On Space Habitability

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While my sci-fi paper is in its early stages, it will focus on Space habitability as it relates to a manned trip to mars. The basic plot line will likely follow a group of astronauts on their long trip to mars and showcase some of the problems they will face throughout their mission, and the solutions they will use to solve them. I plan on explaining the specifics of the rocket ship, as well as the issues they face, and in doing so, hit all of the required terms. I will be using terms from the sun and space weather, propulsion and orbital mechanics, and a planetary term, but I will likely replace two of the required planetary terms with human health issues in space as I haven’t decided yet if the mission will be successful or not.
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The following facts ALL come from a NASA article that explains many of the issues they foresee with extended space travel, specifically related to a trip to mars, any fact not from this article will be individually cited. Human’s face a lot of physical issues due to the lack of gravity throughout the trip to mars. For starters, humans lose bone density. It is estimated that every month in space, human’s bones degenerate at around 1%, which can cause potentially irreversible problems when gravity is re-introduced either on Mars, or Earth (Abadie). It is specifically stated that osteoporosis-related fractures are a huge risk once this happens, proving catastrophic to physical requirements later on in a mission. The decrease in bone density results in increased levels of calcium in the body. It has been found that kidney stones commonly result from this increase in calcium. Additionally, all bodily fluids float to the head, which increases pressure on the eyes (Abadie). NASA hasn’t identified the specific problems from fluids floating to the head, but it is believed that eye sight problems could result from this. Similar to decreased bone density, eye problems could prove compromising to the latter part of a mission to

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