Travel To Mars Could Be Harmful

spacedaily.com ^ | 6/7/04

[KevinDavis]

A Russian scientist says manned Martian flights could render a male astronaut sterile, shrink his musculature and weaken his bones

[KevinDavis]

My response would be BS!!! Jeesh what next?

[doug from upland]

Send Clinton and the rest of the RATS.

[WoofDog123]

actually the part about calcium depletion in the bones seems to be fairly agreed upon unless some very decent artificial gravity/rotation is available....the musculature makes sense as well. Not sure where the sterility angle comes from.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

All the more reason to get Clinton a one way ticket ASAP.

[KevinDavis]

Space Ping! This is the Space Ping List! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[farfromhome]

A trip to Mars _could_ do a whole lot of things. However, with propper planning and radiation sheilding, the risks can be greatly minimized.

[BenLurkin]

"Martian flights could render a male astronaut sterile, shrink his musculature and weaken his bones."

Some of them are already there:

[CzarNicky]

Is he saying send women only?

[stillnoprotestsagainstmuslims]

A Russian scientist says manned Martian flights could render a male astronaut sterile, shrink his musculature and weaken his bones

Not to mention the Martians who would undoubtedly vaporize him with their plasma guns once he stepped 2 inches from his spacecraft, or even worse captured him and placed him on display in a cage at the Martian zoo. That would be a horror show, yes that would be a horror show.

[Lunatic Fringe]

Well it's not like he's going to be picking up any women in port, is it?

[Bogey78O]

The inclusion of "could" is something scientists have basically known for some 30-40 years. It's nothing new around the sun.

[HighWheeler]

I read a very interesting article a few years back on the bone mass loss due to this type of under-stressed condition.

The article stated that some NASA types were studying bears to find out how they could hibernate for months on end and keep virtually 100% of their bone mass. They would wake up in the Spring hungry and ready to kick some ass.

[dr_who_2]

Kind of like drinking too much vodka.

[hole_n_one]

Travel To Mars Could Be Harmful

Looks like you may have to make other plans for this summer!

[lizma]

Jeez! I would think Russia has better things to worry about.

Where are they getting the money to fund this yahoo???

[TomGuy]

[gargoyle]

..."Serility angle"...

...Swinging,,,appendages...

[Indie]

The guy speaks the truth, actually. Doesn't mean we shouldn't go though. Good case for older astronauts..also less cumulative radiation absorption.

[isthisnickcool]

That's funny. My little one saw a picture of Kerry the other day and asked "who painted that mans skin orange?".

I said I didn't know but he was trying to be president. The reply to that was "Uh uh! W Bush is president! That ugly orange man cannot be president! Doesn't he know that daddy? Someone needs to tell him!"

I said I was sure a lot of people will tell him that.