While astronauts in orbit are safely isolated on the International Space Station, the coronavirus still affected spaceflyers, according to a conversation between NASA astronauts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
NASA astronauts Kate Rubins and Shannon Walker, both living on the space station, spoke with Dr. Inger Damon, director of the CDC’s high-impact pathologies and pathologies division.
Like many of us who isolated at home, Walker and the other astronauts who joined Rubins on the space station in November 2020 did everything they could to avoid catching COVID-19. “We didn’t want to bring anything to the space station,” she told Damon.
Walker and the three astronauts in her crew trained remotely whenever possible, but couldn’t avoid being close to each other. When training for a mission, the crew must be confined in the tight spaces of the spacecraft – in this case SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. To stay as safe as possible, the astronauts wore masks when they needed to be close together and kept as much distance as possible. To reduce the likelihood of COVID-19 being delivered to space, Walker quarantined her colleagues with their families three weeks before launch.
Rubins had been on board the station for about a month before the Crew Dragon team arrived, but followed a similar procedure prior to her own launch; because even a mild cold is a big problem in space, quarantines are a long-standing preflight ritual for astronauts.
But the coronavirus has impacted the astronauts’ work, Rubins said, given that on-site research teams had to work largely remotely, just like many of us on Earth. There has also been some impact on ground-space operations, she said, but the astronauts are impressed with how smoothly everything is going despite a pandemic on the ground.
“It was incredible to see that NASA teams still had a launch schedule,” said Rubins. Despite the changing working conditions on Earth, NASA has succeeded freight vehicles was sent to the space station to supply the astronauts and to conduct experiments, she said. The only problem both astronauts mentioned was a delay in their Thanksgiving meal
Walker said she sent her on a creative cooking project, which resulted in deconstructed crab cakes made from what the crew had on board. (Judging by Rubin’s big smile and thumbs up, they were delicious.)
One change that the pandemic has brought about for those aboard the Space Station, and those who have been there before, is a new FAQ: How do you deal with social isolation? For 20 years, astronauts have spent time on the Space Station, for months, sometimes for a year at a time, isolated from their family and friends. Now many of us on Earth have an idea of what that feels like and how we want their advice
“The most important thing is to try to keep in touch with friends and family,” said Walker. She, Rubins and other astronauts on the space station call home whenever they can, make video calls, and see crew members as their “space family.” Being able to spend time together is essential, Walker said.
Overall, COVID-19 appears to have affected space just like Earth, with varying work routines and extra precautions. There are also some parallels between the work the CDC is doing on Earth and the work that Rubins is doing on the space station. Rubins is holding degrees biochemistry, microbiology and immunology
She told the CDC about a project to create a comprehensive microbial map of the space station, taking 1,000 smears across space. Everyone floats by and says, ‘Kate, are you still swabbing? She joked. The goal is to see what microbes are in the space station and how they can change their behavior in space compared to on Earth.
“I find it incredibly interesting to see what it is like in a completely artificial environment,” she said. “We have no dirt, nothing you would see in the natural world.” It will be enlightening to see how microbes adapt to the space station’s completely artificial environment, she said.
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