Gender Differences in Space: How Women Astronauts Adapt Better
Gender Differences in Space: How Women Astronauts Adapt Better
Women Stronger in Space? Female Astronauts Show Greater Resistance, Study Suggests
Women astronauts may have a very special advantage in space Only 11 percent of the world's astronauts are women that women may possibly have one major advantage in the job It's a challenging diet for the body to endure in space When people are in a weightless state changes often occur in their blood heart skin proteins kidneys and even in their genes Loss of muscle and bone mass tops the list of potential health problems American scientists suspect that female astronauts on the other hand may be more resistant than men to the pressure on the body A small study of the health of male and female astronauts supports this The examined astronauts flew around the Earth for 3 days as part of the SpaceX Inspiration-IV mission in restores faster than Armstrong and company Scientists from Weill Cornell Medicine examined the astronauts on board at the molecular level using blood saliva and skin samples both before during and after the mission The researchers compared the results with similar data from 64 other astronauts where the distribution of men and women was equal The aim was among other things to understand whether the bodies of men and women react differently to prolonged weight loss and radiation from space and if so how While the results showed far-reaching changes in all astronauts' cells and immune systems there were clear differences between men's and women's bodies Men appear to be more affected by spaceflight for almost all cell types and in all measurements says lead author Christopher Mason professor of genomics at Weill Cornell Medicine in a press release Compared to men the bodies of the female astronauts were less molecularly disturbed and the women took less time to fully recover in the months following the three-day journey However due to the study's small sample size additional analyses of the health of male and female astronauts are required to draw a definitive conclusion A shield against pregnancy It is unclear exactly why women should be more resistant to spaceflight than men However according to the researchers behind the study it may be due to the pregnancy's demands on the female body which potentially makes it more resistant to such a severe pressure Professor Mason explains that the fact that women must give birth which means their bodies are more accustomed to major physiological changes may be the driving force Less than 700 people have ever traveled into space which is why the sample is often small in studies of astronaut health However if the trend is confirmed it may prove to be important in the selection of crews for future space missions the US scientists believe