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![Period Three: Impact on Our Lives](../imgs/period3.gif) |
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What kind of impact
may space development have on our lives? |
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![photo](imgs/IML_2_140.jpg) |
Entering the SL module through a tunnel
during orbit. |
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It will be possible to create materials that cannot
be produced on earth, such as extremely pure crystals made in a gravity-free
lab and substances made by evenly mixing two elements with a different specific
gravity. These materials may someday lead to the production of highly efficient
airplanes and computers and to the development of new medicines.
The sites of space development and the setting of daily life are not really
all that divorced from each other. There are technologies that can be used
in both, such as modern methods of preserving foods and making them lighter,
both important considerations when planning meals on a spacecraft. Freeze-drying,
or the quick-freezing and drying of foods, is one such technique. Another
is heating foods under pressure, a sterilization technique gaining recognition
as the "retort" method. |
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What can we look
forward to from space medicine? |
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![photo](imgs/IML_2_161.jpg) |
An experiment to test the effects of
pressure on the lower body while in orbit (1994). |
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Because a weightless environment lightens the load of
gravity on the heart and the limbs, extremely heavy people and people with
infirm legs can get around more easily in space than on the earth. Treating
such people in space for a while might help them to get better quickly.
The treatment of severely burned patients is another possibility, since
there would be no gravity forcing their skin into contact with beds and
garments. Ointments could be easily applied anywhere on their body while
they were floating, and bandages to protect the wounds would be unnecessary.
Old people and others confined to bed often get
bedsores in places where the blood does not circulate freely, such as on
their backs, heels, and elbows. In space, there would be no such problem. |
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![photo](imgs/sts-95_077.jpg) |
Giving a blood test to John Glenn (1998). |
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But space also has disadvantages,including the increased
amount of radiation people are exposed to. More research is needed on how
to deal with this, and also on how to deter degeneration of muscles and
bones and prevent space sickness. |
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