Veteran astronauts are racking up record-breaking amounts of time in space. By the time Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli completes his latest mission to the (ISS) in December, he will have logged 313 days away from Earth, the most for any active European astronaut. The 60-year-old, who has completed missions for the Italian and European Space Agencies, embarked on Expedition 52-53 in July with Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, 42, and Nasa's Randy Bresnik, 50. They joined Nasa astronauts Peggy Whitson, 57, and Jack Fischer, 43, and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, 58.
Between December 2010 and May 2011, Nespoli spent 159 days aboard the ISS and, in 2007, completed a two-week maintenance mission for the Discovery shuttle. This latest trip means that, among active European Astronaut Corps members, Nespoli will have exceeded André Kuipers' 204 days in space. (The European record of 350 cumulative days is held by retired German astronaut Thomas Reiter.)
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Another record-breaker on the ISS is Whitson, who holds the title for the highest number of cumulative days in space by a US astronaut. She would have spent more than 650 days there by the time she left in September.
Agencies deploy seasoned astronauts to conduct complex tasks. But although scientists believe that microgravity and radiation exposure during prolonged flights put astronauts at risk of developing osteoporosis and cancer, little is known about the cumulative effects of repeated space journeys.
The experienced crew members act as test subjects to help shed light on the effects of long-term micro-gravity exposure on the human body. Yet the majority of the physiological studies that Nespoli conducted in 2011 have finished, leaving little opportunity to investigate the effect multiple trips into space have had on him. "Few investigations are capitalising on their past flying experience," says Eric Istasse, head of the Mission Science Office at the European Space Agency.
Back on terra firma, meanwhile, rehab programmes restore the astronauts to their pre-flight condition. "These crew members have had long periods to recover," Istasse adds. Ready, as far as we can tell, to do it all over again.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
