Science and Medicine : Fighting ‘Space Sickness’

Experiments show that the practice of launching astronauts flat on their backs may be contributing to some of their annoying problems with “space sickness,” three European astronauts reported last week.

In a letter published in the scientific journal Nature, one Dutch and two West German astronauts who flew aboard the U.S. space shuttle Challenger on a mission in 1985 said that after a recent experiment with a large centrifuge in which they lay on their backs for about 1 1/2 hours in gravity three times greater than normal, they suffered the same symptoms as when they were launched from Earth aboard the space shuttle into weightless conditions.

The simulated “space sickness” lasted five to six hours, the researchers said. The astronauts said they felt especially sensitive to prolonged acceleration when they were supine, suggesting that position may have “led to the surprising aftereffects and the similarity to space sickness.”

About half of all astronauts suffer space sickness during their first few days aloft. Symptoms, which are similar to seasickness or motion sickness, range from mild nausea to vomiting bouts. Attempts to prevent or lessen the distress with drugs have proven futile.