To Infinity, (Death), and Beyond!

Many people are always exhilarated when the topic of space is mentioned. What some people do not realize, however, is that space is very damaging to the body in many ways. Too many back and forth trips to space could result in death and other serious effects. So before you decide to sign up for NASA, you might want to take note of the very dangerous challenge you are going to face. Without further ado, here are ten marvelous ways to die (in space!) and what you can do to avoid them.

1. Loss of oxygen: this could happen easily during a spacewalk if an astronaut gets disconnected from the cord that is binding them to their ship. In this event, the astronaut and his/her companions still have about eight and a half hours to help the stranded astronaut to get back to the spaceship -- if the suit functions properly. If not, well, let's just say that the person's flexibility for time has been reduced to just 15 seconds. At this point, the astronaut will lose consciousness and death will quickly follow. So, it's just best to not get carried away and take a plunge off of the spacewalk.

2. Next, we have something called depressurization. This is actually the effect of space that most people are familiar with. If even a small area of skin is exposed to the space vacuum, the astronaut whose skin is exposed will have their lungs ruptured due to the super-inflation of the gases in the lungs. Meanwhile all of the water inside the astronaut's muscles would evaporate, causing the body to swell immensely like a balloon. The organs inside of the astronaut would burst and spill out whatever was inside while bubbles would form in the bloodstream, halting blood flow to the heart and brain. To protect yourself from bodily harm, you must be careful about deciding when to remove your spacesuit and making sure that your cabin isn't open.

3. The Sun's energy in space is so strong that sunscreen will not protect you from getting a space sunburn. Ultraviolet radiation provides vitamin D for our bodies, but when we are exposed to too much of it, we can get awful sunburns, and that's not the only problem UV rays can cause for you. They can give you cataracts in your eyes, they can stop your immune system from working well, they can make your skin age quicker, and they can give you skin cancer. Luckily, spacesuits have been highly experimented on and they are good protection against these powerful rays. If you remain in your suit, you will be fine, but there are still plenty of things that your suit cannot protect you from.

4. Alright, so we've avoided sunburn, but there are also other forms of radiation that can harm you which your spacesuit is incapable of saving you from. If you stayed in space for too long, this radiation could kill you from radiation sickness and will later give you cancer. In fact, the human body is exposed to so much radiation in space that if they took a trip to Mars, they would face an equivalent of getting a CT scan (sort of like an X-Ray scan, but for muscles) every 5-6 days.

5. Big drifting pieces of spacial flotsam are always a threat to astronauts in space. Most of this junk is due to the remains of space technology designed by us that we never bothered to take down. Sometimes it is remains of an asteroid or another rock body. Sometimes it is even the leftovers of a tragic accident. Whatever caused it, space junk is always looking for a chance to create another tragedy, so don't give it that chance. Always be alert and on the lookout for anything coming your way.

6. Space dust is another problem for astronauts, but not as of right now. When the time comes that we will start sending humans to Mars for exploration, they will have to beware the dust particles on Mars, as these particles could stick to anything due to their static electricity. Inhaling these particles would make it chemically combine with water to create harmful chemicals. Although the suits will shield astronauts from this space dust, the dust will stick to the suits and will, consequently, get into the living area of the astronauts, where they take off their suits.

7. Space doesn't take kindly to the immune system. It is highly oppressive against the immune system, which yields a higher risk for astronauts falling sick. Micro gravity in space stops the activation and spread of T-cells, a kind of white blood cell. According to the article, if a person on Earth is infected, the body will release 99 kinds of genes which command the T-cells to attack the infection, while a person in space who is infected will have 91 of those 99 genes turned off. Scientists compared the severity of this to an HIV infection.

8. Muscles and organs aren't the only body parts affected by space. The skeleton, which is actually composed of living tissue known as osteoclasts (old-bone-destroyers) and osteoblasts (new-bone-creators), is affected by space as the microgravity increases the number of osteoclasts and decreases the number of osteoblasts. This upsets the balance and causes the bones to weaken quickly. On Earth, the osteoclasts and osteoblasts are balanced such that they work against each other at an equal rate. What happens in space on the bones also happens naturally on Earth as people get older, causing osteoporosis. In fact, studies performed on Russian cosmonauts showed that the test subjects lost one-fifth of their bone mass after spending some time in space. Lastly, space also messes up the spinal disks and gives astronauts backaches.

9. Forget about TV. Space is up for ruining vision as well! Space causes the optic nerve to swell and it also morphs the eye structure. Sometimes, the effects are so severe that it could nearly blind the astronauts and indirectly lead them into a fatal accident.

10. Many people suffer mental problems due to space. Being an astronaut is not fun and games. The work that people have payed a lot of money to send you up for is extremely stressful. There are also many people working on the same thing at the same time, which is known to cause claustrophobia and anger. People often also suffer from fatigue, sleeplessness, and mood/anxiety disturbances. A longer time in space means more stress for people.

This is why it is very risky being an astronaut. It is however an important job. I found this article interesting because I found many new ways on how space is dangerous which I did not know before. I recommend this to anyone who wishes to learn more about what astronauts face in space.http://science.howstuffworks.com/10-ways-space-kill-you.htm#page=1