Repetitive Gravitationnal Changes on the Body-environment Relationship

On the eve of the next long voyages into space and the event of space tourism, it becomes more and more urgent to understand how to preserve the health of spacemen (i.e., by profession or by leisure). Extreme and unusual environments, and isolated and confined environments (EUE/ICE) are characterized by unique sensory stimulation. They are known to have negative effects on human psychology, cognitive abilities and physiology, threatening the outcome of space missions or travel. In addition, with the construction of the future Gateway base, the upcoming colonies to Mars and space tourism, travel from one point to another will be much more frequent. These raise new questions that will have to be addressed, whether it is the prolonged duration of a stay in a microgravity environment (i.e., absence of gravitational force between man and his support), in partial gravity and thus the issue of recovery from one trip to the next. These modifications of the environment imply the implementation of several adaptation processes to preserve the homeostatic capacity of the organism. This allows the organism to maintain a relatively stable internal state that persists despite external changes. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered. One such question is the impact of repeated changes in gravity during flight to the point of attachment (e.g., colony). The objective of the study is therefore to better understand the relationship between the body and its environment due to repeated changes in gravity, including microgravity.

Beyond that, these results will contribute to enrich the knowledge of this real human challenge that is the question of the adaptation of the human being to the constraints of space travel.