Nauseating News About Spacesickness

space.com ^ | 11/21/05 | Leonard David

[KevinDavis]

Space-travelers face a topsy-turvy world where up and down is nowhere to be found. Sensors in your inner ear signal to the brain not only that you’re not in Kansas anymore but the familiar tug of Earth’s one-gravity is missing.

Very few astronauts have what’s called the "lead head"—immune from space adaptation syndrome or space sickness. Vertigo, nausea, headaches, and in some cases vomiting can strike a new arrival to space.

Treatment with medications during the early flight days of a space mission is common, though NASA continues to search for the best way to counter the space sickness. Everything from drugs to yoga and biofeedback remain on the table.

Moreover, the up-and-going world of commercial space tourism will likely spotlight the need for some space sickness countermeasures to be "market ready."

[KevinDavis]

[BluH2o]

Sailed a few seas in my lifetime, eight trans-Atlantics, two on a 45' yacht. Sea sick, or at least on the verge, is fairly commonplace ... especially early on in a voyage. Space travel, in a weightless environment, adds a whole new dimension. Going topside and getting oriented with the horizon usually did it for me onboard a Navy ship, or, on a 45' sailboat. Peeking thru a porthole on a spacecraft while upside down and floating freely in space wouldn't be the same thing. I have a natural aversion to pills, however, when it comes to space travel that would, it seems, be my only option.

[Young Werther]

Okay so I'm a long time space advocate/geek. I was a commissioner on our Community Arts Council and one of the women on the commission was a retired ballet dancer. She was well past Jack Benny age but still looked "WOW!" I took her to lunch, told her about my thoughts and wrote this article for Ad Astra but it was never published. Go figger!

Ballet Dancers in Space!

[KevinDavis]

Also have some artifical gravity would help...