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Date Posted: 16:05:45 02/15/05 Tue
Author: J.R.Smith, c.f.t.,s.f.t., p.n.s. - ISSA, USSA, ISFN
Subject: Astronauts and outerspace exercise equipment

Scientist Develops Fitness Equipment for Astronauts

Scripps Howard News Service

By By MAGGIE SHEPARD

Sunday, February 13, 2005

Future human space colonists can thank Suzanne Schneider for their healthy bodies.

Schneider, an assistant professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico, has dedicated more than 15 years to developing fitness equipment for astronauts so their bones, muscles and heart can stay in shape in zero gravity.

On Earth, fitness comes from muscles working to resist weight, bones thickening from impact work and the heart straining to keep up with the body. But in space, astronauts can't easily get the resistance, impact and cardiovascular workout they need to keep healthy.

"If we're going to go on exploration, we've got to fix these things. We've got to be able to understand what happens to (an astronaut's) body and have their body be able to come back OK," Schneider said.

She said that without proper exercise, astronauts lose about 1 percent of their bone mass each month, similar to the rate of bone loss of women with osteoporosis. On several-month-long space travels, the bone loss can weaken bones to the point that they could break during high-pressure reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

"And the heart actually atrophies in space," Schneider said.

So work is under way to create machines that can tether floating astronauts to a fitness machine that actually affects their health.

"If we can find a (way) to prevent (bone loss) in space, we could hopefully apply that on earth to osteoporosis," Schneider said.

During her 12 years working at NASA's Johnson Space Center, she helped develop the workout equipment used at the International Space Station and on space ships.

But that equipment just isn't keeping the astronauts healthy enough, Schneider said.

So three years ago, Schneider left NASA to teach at the University of New Mexico and work with fellow scientists, whom she calls investigators, on developing the next installment of space fitness equipment.

She joined a team led by Alan Hargens of the University of California-San Diego. Together with four other investigators, the team has produced a machine that uses vacuum suction to pull an astronaut to a treadmill, giving the astronaut the chance to get traction, muscle use and bone work, Schneider said.

"This is a fast, easy way to get artificial gravity," Hargens said.

A competing exercise machine idea involves creating gravity in a space shift by spinning the entire ship or by spinning a tethered bicycle-type machine, Schneider and Hargens said.

The vacuum machine has been through three, NASA-sponsored clinical tests in which subjects were kept on bed rest for five, 15 and 30 days for the various tests to simulate the inaction of muscles astronauts experience in space. At the end of the tests, the subjects using the vacuum treadmill didn't show any sign of loss in bone, muscle or heart, Schneider said.

This month, Schneider and her team will travel to France to begin the machine's fourth test at France's space agency, CNES. If the test is a success, the suction treadmill may be put up for a NASA flight test, then it might be put on an actual space flight, Schneider said.

Copyright 2005 Scripps Howard News Service

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