Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) had reduced memory, attention and processing speed after six months, raising concerns about the impact of cognitive impairment on future space missions to Mars.

The extreme environment of space, with reduced gravity, harsh radiation and the lack of regular sunrises and sunsets, can have dramatic effects on astronaut health, from muscle loss to an increased risk of heart disease. However, the cognitive effects of long-term space travel are less well documented.

Now, at NASA鈥檚 Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and her colleagues have looked at the cognitive performance of 25 astronauts during their time on the ISS.

The team put the astronauts through the same set of 10 tests both on Earth and on the ISS. These were repeated once before, twice during and twice after the mission, within 10 and 30 days of landing. These tests measured certain cognitive capacities, such as finding patterns on a grid to test abstract reasoning or choosing when to stop an inflating balloon before it pops to test risk-taking.

The researchers found that the astronauts took longer to complete tests measuring processing speed, working memory and attention on the ISS than on Earth, but they were just as accurate. While there was no overall cognitive impairment or lasting effect on the astronauts鈥� abilities, some of the measures, like processing speed, took longer to return to normal after they came back to Earth.

Having clear data on the cognitive effects of space travel will be crucial for future human spaceflight, says at Birkbeck, University of London, but it will be important to collect more data, both on Earth and in space, before we know the full picture.

Free newsletter

Sign up to Launchpad

Sign up to newsletter

鈥淎 mission to Mars is not only longer in terms of time, but also in terms of autonomy,鈥� says Ferr猫. 鈥淧eople there will have a completely different interaction with ground control because of distance and delays in communication, so they will need to be fully autonomous in taking decisions, so human performance is going to be key. You definitely don鈥檛 want to have astronauts on Mars with slow reaction time, in terms of attention-related tasks or memory or processing speed.鈥�

It isn鈥檛 surprising that there were some specific decreases in cognitive performance given the unusual environment of space, says at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not necessarily a great cause for an alarm, but it鈥檚 something that鈥檚 useful to be aware of, especially so that you know your limits when you鈥檙e in these extreme environments,鈥� she says.

That awareness could be especially helpful for astronauts on longer missions, adds Bower. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just how you do in those tests, but also what your perception of your ability is,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e know, for example, if you鈥檙e sleep deprived, that quite often your performance will decline, but you won鈥檛 realise your performance has declined.鈥�

Astronauts on spacewalks may soon be able to drink their own urine, thanks to a water filtration and recycling system that could be ready in time for NASA鈥檚 upcoming crewed missions to the moon.

Waste water from urine and sweat is already recycled on the International Space Station, but the bulky equipment required for this doesn鈥檛 fit in a spacesuit. NASA鈥檚 current solution is the Maximum Absorbency Garment, which, despite the technical name, is essentially just an adult diaper for collecting urine and faeces. At the end of a spacewalk, these diapers go into the ISS鈥檚 waste system, eventually being burnt up in Earth鈥檚 atmosphere 鈥� an unsatisfactory waste of resources.

at Cornell University in New York says the current solution is fine for spacewalks that tend to last only a few hours, but increasing activity in space means a better solution will be needed. He and his colleagues have now developed an 8-kilogram device around the size of a shoe box that can recycle urine 鈥� collected by unisex external catheters 鈥� with 87 per cent efficiency through a two-step osmosis filter.

The purified water is then ready to drink and can be piped into an in-suit bag. This has the additional benefit of ensuring a steady supply of drinking water: the current NASA spacesuits provide just under a single litre of drinking water, which is often insufficient for a long spacewalk. The remaining 13 per cent of the water content cannot be extracted and remains in the filter.

鈥淚 thought this would have been done already, but it鈥檚 not,鈥� says Mason. 鈥淧eople that are pushing the limits of humanity will often trade discomfort for the opportunity to explore an entirely new area of science or medicine.鈥�

The filtration technique is the same one as already used on the ISS. But the team says it is easier to extract water from pure urine as it doesn鈥檛 include soaps and chemicals, unlike the ISS waste water. Extracting water from stool isn鈥檛 鈥渢otally solved鈥� yet, but this is less of a limitation because astronauts often claim to simply hold bowel movements in during spacewalks, says Mason.

Free newsletter

Sign up to Launchpad

Sign up to newsletter

Many of NASA鈥檚 current spacesuits have worked until now, he says, but astronauts in the future are likely to be a more diverse range of shapes and sizes than previous recruits, meaning that change is needed. 鈥淭he democratisation of space opens new opportunities, but also new challenges that we have to address.鈥�

Currently, the device is a prototype tested only in the laboratory, but human trials that include collecting urine, recycling it and drinking the resulting water will begin by November.

The researchers say the device could be built into new versions of spacesuits that are planned for NASA鈥檚 upcoming Artemis missions to the moon. NASA has contracted a private company, Axiom Space, to build its new suits, but the company declined to answer New 女生小视频鈥榮 questions about how it would be dealing with human waste. NASA didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment.

More light could be shed on how space flight affects astronauts鈥� health after the creation of the first 鈥渟pace-omics鈥� biobank 鈥� a collection of thousands of blood and tissue samples, plus medical information, taken over multiple space missions.

These include missions to the International Space Station, as well as the first all-civilian space flight, SpaceX鈥檚 Inspiration4, which took four non-government-trained astronauts into space for three days in 2021.

Called the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA), the resource contains detailed medical data, such as on DNA damage and changes in people鈥檚 gene activity and immune system functioning, collectively known as biomarkers.

Space flight is known to pose certain health risks. For instance, astronauts lose bone density and muscle mass due to the lack of gravity, and higher levels of radiation in space seem to cause cell and DNA damage, which have a range of impacts on the body. These effects may be why in later life聽and after being in space.

Collecting astronauts鈥� medical data in a consistent way via the SOMA biobank will help researchers understand more about these changes and potentially develop ways to mitigate them, says at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, who helped put the biobank together.

鈥淏iomarkers don鈥檛 always translate into anything that鈥檚 clinically meaningful, but it鈥檚 a nice way to start to understand how this unique environment is impacting us,鈥� says at the University of South Wales in the UK, who wasn鈥檛 involved in the work.

Free newsletter

Sign up to Health Check

Sign up to newsletter

One insight from the Inspiration4 mission is that, despite the astronauts experiencing a host of biomarker changes, most measurements returned to normal within a few months of them coming back to Earth.

This suggests that sending civilians into space doesn鈥檛 pose more health risks than sending professional astronauts, says Mason. 鈥淚nstead of people training for decades to go, we could start to really open up space towards more and more people.鈥�

The results from Inspiration4, which was crewed by two men and two women, also suggest that the changes in gene activity returned to normal faster in the women. That may be because women鈥檚 bodies have to be able to cope with a potential pregnancy, says Mason. 鈥淏eing able to tolerate large changes in physiology and fluid dynamics may be great for being able to manage pregnancy, but also manage the stress of spaceflight.鈥�

at the University of Exeter in the UK says it will be helpful for researchers around the world to have a common resource they can use. 鈥淵ou need to have a consistent approach to collecting samples,鈥� he says.

at King鈥檚 College London says understanding the health impacts of space flight will become more important if longer missions happen, such as journeys to Mars. 鈥淎nything that leads to extended duration missions, it鈥檚 more important to know what鈥檚 going on and, ideally, address it,鈥� he says.