Heroes return, just in time! How long does it take for astronauts to recover after returning home?

At 9:56 am on April 16, the return capsule of the Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft successfully landed at the Dongfeng landing site. The three astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, who had worked and lived in the Chinese space station for 183 days, came out of the return capsule with smiles on their faces with the help of medical monitoring and medical insurance personnel. The phrase they said most often was "I feel good, thank you!"

This is the longest mission in the history of Chinese spaceflight, during which many things that have never been done before were accomplished. There are many detailed reports on these, so I won’t go into detail here. For this mission and return, the most common words from various space experts are punctuality, perfection, and 100 points!

On time means that the entire recovery process is completed on time, and the return capsule is upright after landing! Although it is normal for the return capsule to fall on its side when landing, it is different for the safety and feelings of astronauts to stand upright than to fall on their side. In this upright position, astronauts remain in a lying position, which is very beneficial for astronauts who have just returned to Earth to reduce the impact of gravity.

Perfection means the whole process is done in one go. From leaving the space station to returning to the Earth, the rapid return plan was adopted for the first time, and it only circled the Earth 5 times before entering the atmosphere. In the past, it usually circled 11 times, and Shenzhou XII circled 15 times, but this time it reduced 10 times; in the "semi-ballistic" crossing of the atmosphere, crossing the black barrier area, opening the parachute at 10 kilometers, and landing reverse thrust, every step was very smooth and precise, which can only be summarized in two words: perfect!

Of course, this perfection also includes that every step of the ground support is very precise. As soon as the return capsule landed, helicopters and personnel arrived like in a sci-fi blockbuster. Several wild camels also broke into the camera many times to join in the fun, and they seemed very excited and busy, shouting: "The camel understands."

With the support of speed, precision, punctuality and perfection, 100 points is a natural result. After the hero returned, he was briefly interviewed and then carried into the waiting medical monitoring and medical insurance vehicle, one vehicle for each person. This is the first time we have seen the special vehicles at the return capsule recovery site. What are they for? Let's take a look first.

There are three medical monitoring and medical insurance vehicles, one for each of the three astronauts. You may wonder why each astronaut has his own vehicle, and why can't three people share one? Isn't this a waste or too extravagant?

No, not at all, this is an international practice. Because astronauts are very precious, it is no exaggeration to say that they are national treasures. On the way to the spacecraft and back, they take a car each, and there are at least two reasons for this: first, each of them has their own dedicated medical supervisor and medical insurance personnel, and only dedicated medical supervisor and medical insurance vehicles can provide services more conveniently and smoothly; second, for safety reasons, if one of the cars has a problem, it will not affect the safety of other astronauts.

It is reported that the three medical monitoring and medical insurance vehicles that appeared today were manufactured by Chengli Group, a top 500 private enterprise in China. This is the first time that this method has been used to provide better care for returning astronauts. The interior space of this vehicle is 12 square meters, equipped with air conditioning, microwave ovens, and special sanitary and washing equipment, which can provide astronauts with thoughtful and warm care in a timely manner.

After leaving the spacecraft, the astronauts were quickly transferred to the medical monitoring and medical care vehicle for care in order to reduce their exposure time in the wild. Wu Bin, deputy chief designer of the astronaut system of China's manned space program, said that in the medical monitoring and medical care vehicle, the astronauts will receive 9 major items and 31 sub-items of medical monitoring and medical care, including physical examinations, monitoring of heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen and other indicators, which takes about 100 minutes.

Through the examination, a comprehensive and accurate assessment will be made of the astronauts' physical condition. At the same time, the astronauts will be helped to take off their pressure suits, change their clothes, take a short rest, and then enjoy their first "meal" after returning to Earth.

The term "big meal" is relative to the space station, but in fact it is just some home-cooked meals. In addition to the required nutrients in accordance with regulations, the taste of this meal is home-cooked meals prepared according to the living habits and requirements of the astronauts.

According to relevant personnel, the meal includes noodles, steamed buns, millet porridge, vinegar-fried potato shreds, vinegar-fried cabbage, pickled mustard tuber, Sichuan sausage, cucumber, strawberry-flavored tomatoes, watermelon, etc. There are more than 20 varieties of staple and non-staple food. It is very simple and nutritious, and it also allows each astronaut to taste the strong flavor of their hometown.

After more than two hours of adapting to the Earth's gravity and taking a short rest in the medical monitoring and medical vehicle, they transferred to a special plane to fly to Beijing. There was no formal and lengthy welcome ceremony at the airport this time. The astronauts stayed for only a few minutes after getting off the plane, and were carried into the special car while waving their hands, and went to the astronauts' apartment to enter the medical isolation period.

Why do astronauts have to be carried after returning? It's not because they have made great achievements, but because they have just returned from space, especially after staying in space for a long time. When they return to the gravity conditions of the earth from microgravity, they must be very weak. It is difficult to lift their hands and feet, and their bones are fragile. Therefore, they must lie on a chair in a comfortable posture and be carried by others to prevent injuries.

Some people who don't know much about the space environment may think that space is fun. In the weightless (actually microgravity) condition, people and objects float around, which is very comfortable. In fact, it is not. If it is a short-term stay of a few days, it is fine. However, long-term work and life in orbit will cause great damage to the body, such as bone loss, muscle atrophy, decreased immunity, etc.

Therefore, astronauts are all heroes, no matter they are from the United States, the Soviet Union or China. They know that their bodies will be hurt in space, there are always unpredictable risks, and they may even sacrifice their lives, but they resolutely devote themselves to the cause of human exploration, and they deserve the respect of all mankind.

Some people may say that astronauts are paid so well that everyone wants to be one, but who can be one? This is true, and this is how the world is, but we cannot deny the dedication of astronauts because of this.

The space environment is not friendly to astronauts. The main physical damages suffered by astronauts in the space station are:

1. Microgravity. On Earth, people have to bear 9.8g of gravity, which means that 1kg of mass weighs about 1kg on Earth; but in the space station, the gravity is about 1*10^-4g, which is only 1/98,000 of that on Earth, so people can hardly feel the weight. The human body and objects float in the air, and the limbs and head cannot feel the weight.

This will lead to long-term relaxation of muscle tissue, completely disrupting the functions and mechanisms of various organs on Earth. For example, without the downward force of gravity, body fluids flow more to the head, causing swelling of the head and insufficient blood supply to the legs and feet. According to some research data, astronauts lose 5% of their muscles and 1-2% of their bones every month in the space station.

The lost bone material will be redistributed in the body's blood, resulting in increased blood calcium concentration and easy calcification of soft tissue; the increase in body fluid increases intracranial pressure, compresses the eyeballs, causes visual impairment and even blindness.

2. Radiation impact. People are exposed to radiation all the time on Earth, but the amount of radiation is very small and generally does not affect people's health. The average person is exposed to about 2.4mSv (millisievert) of radiation per year on Earth. A smoker who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day is exposed to 24mSv of radiation per year.

But it is different in space. Without the protection of the atmosphere, it will be exposed to radiation from space, mainly from the sun and even from high-energy charged particles outside the solar system. The space station is in low-Earth orbit and is protected by the geomagnetic field. However, the radiation it is exposed to should not be underestimated.

According to statistics, the radiation exposure that astronauts receive every day inside the space station is equivalent to the annual exposure on the surface of the earth. If they stay in the space station for 6 months, the exposure they receive will be 400~500mSv, which is equivalent to the exposure from 20,000~25,000 chest X-rays.

This is still inside the cabin. If you go out of the cabin, even if you wear a space suit, the radiation you receive is much higher than inside the cabin. If you encounter a high-radiation area, it will cause serious damage to your body. For example, when Chinese astronaut Liu Boming was performing the Shenzhou XII mission, he encountered a high-radiation area in the Atlantic Ocean during his first extravehicular activity. He was notified by the ground command center to return to the cabin immediately for emergency shelter, thus avoiding high-energy radiation.

Excessive radiation can cause damage to astronauts' cells, leading to abnormal division and inducing cancer. It can also cause hematopoietic dysfunction, internal bleeding, tissue necrosis, decreased immunity, etc. Damage to reproductive cells can lead to infertility or fetal malformations.

3. Claustrophobia. Astronauts work and live in a small space on the space station for a long time, completely losing the convenience and comfort of home life, and this is done under microgravity conditions, which will produce a series of physiological and psychological effects.

Especially for women, eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are even more inconvenient, and seriously affect the menstrual period. Women's menstrual period once a month is the shedding of the endometrium. On Earth, menstrual blood is discharged by gravity, but it cannot be discharged by itself under the weightless conditions of the space station. At present, female astronauts in the world all take contraceptive pills to avoid menstruation during space missions. For example, American female astronaut Christina Koch relied on contraceptive pills to solve physiological problems during her 328 days on the International Space Station.

However, long-term use of contraceptive pills will inevitably have a certain impact on the body. Wang Yaping, a female astronaut on the Shenzhou 13 mission, stayed in space for 183 days and went through more than 6 menstrual periods. How she managed this has not been officially disclosed, and we cannot speculate. But it must have required overcoming many difficulties, and this was also a kind of sacrifice.

In short, inside the space station, it is a smaller enclosed space with few people and little social interaction. It orbits the earth 16 times a day, with no distinction between day and night. Eating, drinking, defecating and urinating are completely different from those on the ground, and you can only "float" to sleep. Over time, it will inevitably have an impact on the body, psychology and physiology, causing disorders of the biological clock and immune function.

In addition, when launching into space and returning, one has to endure the overload test of acceleration and deceleration, and when returning to Earth, one has to adapt to gravity again. Therefore, to be an astronaut one must be able to withstand severe tests in many aspects.

How long does it take for astronauts to recover after returning home? The first step is to adapt to gravity. Most of us have never experienced weightlessness in space, but many of us have had the experience of swimming. If you soak in a swimming pool for a long time, such as an hour, and then suddenly get out of the water or climb the stairs of the swimming pool, you will feel very heavy.

This is gravity adaptation. Because water has buoyancy, the human body has a similar density to water, so it can float in water and seem to lose weight, which is also a microgravity experience. For this reason, astronauts also have water training when they are weightless.

After staying in the water for a long time, you will adapt to this "microgravity". When you return to the shore, you will return to the earth's gravity, so your body will feel heavy. But ordinary people only stay in the water for an hour or so, and it is not the real microgravity in space. Astronauts have to "float" in space for a long time. The Shenzhou 13 mission "floated" for 6 months and 183 days. When they suddenly return to Earth, their bodies are abnormally heavy, and their bones and muscles are damaged. Of course, they have to be carried to avoid injury.

So in addition to re-adapting to gravity, how long will rehabilitation training take in the future and what kind of training will be needed?

This depends on how long the astronauts have been in space. It is reported that the astronauts of Shenzhou XII have been in space for three months, and need half a year to recover after returning; Shenzhou XIII has been in space for six months, and the astronauts' bodies are more affected, so the recovery period will be longer.

Pang Zhihao, chief scientific communication expert of China's space exploration technology, said in an interview with the media that the recovery period of the Shenzhou-13 astronauts after returning home mainly consists of three stages, namely, isolation recovery stage, convalescent recovery stage, and recovery observation stage. During these three stages, medical supervision and medical insurance personnel must follow up and monitor the whole process.

The medical isolation period is about 14 days, which is mainly to adapt to the ground gravity, improve the cardiovascular system and the ability to support motor organs, and conduct balance and walking training. This period is carried out in isolation from the outside world. After that is the medical convalescence period of 20 to 30 days, which is mainly to continue to restore physical fitness in a sanatorium with good air, appropriately increase the amount of exercise and activity, and strengthen physiological function reserves.

Then, they will enter a recovery period of about 3 months, during which they will recover their physiological parameters to the state before the space mission through conditioning and training. After that, they will start daily training to keep their body in the best condition. After a year, their body will be fully recovered and they can re-participate in the space mission screening.

In addition to physical health, mental health and rehabilitation are also needed. NASA once pointed out in a report: Working in the space station for a long time, seeing 16 sunrises and sunsets a day, and frequent light affects the body's melatonin secretion, which can cause astronauts to suffer from insomnia, emotional instability, and even induce depression and other diseases.

Think about it, sleeping in a small sleeping bag every day, feeling light and weightless, and spending 6 months with an uneasy feeling. After coming back and sleeping in a large and comfortable bed, you will also feel "uneasy" for a while. There is an adaptation period both psychologically and physiologically.

Therefore, during the entire rehabilitation period of astronauts, in addition to physical rehabilitation, psychological assessment and intervention counseling are equally important. Zhong Weiwei, an associate researcher at the China Astronaut Training Center, said at a press conference that for the astronauts returning from the Shenzhou-13 mission, experts and medical staff will monitor their psychological and physical conditions throughout the entire process to help them smoothly through the recovery period.

Astronauts have sacrificed their lives for the future of mankind and deserve the best care when they return to Earth. We wish them a speedy recovery and a fuller return to the space station. Thanks for reading and welcome to discuss.

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