One of the most common complaints heard in doctor’s offices is from patients complaining about dizziness. Dizziness will occur in 70% of the nation’s population, but thanks to astronaut Tim Peake, the world now knows it is impossible to get dizzy in space.
British astronaut Tim Peake has been on board the International Space Station for 186 days and is set to come home this weekend. But before he left, he wanted to show the world one more interesting fact about space.
As reported on CNET.com, Peake tweeted on Sunday, “I spent the first 24 hours in space feeling a bit rough at times, but since then I have felt just great. But can you still get dizzy in space? Well, I decided to try a small experiment to find out…”
For the experiment, Peake was spun around by another astronaut in micro-gravity. Once he stopped spinning, he had a momentarily sensation of dizziness that quickly went away. After that, he felt completely normal.
Astronauts can expect dizziness and nausea during their first days in space because the fluid in their inner ear is floating in zero gravity instead of staying stagnant while on Earth. Once the first few days pass, the brain adapts and ignores signals from the inner ear in favor of those from the eyes.
Once this happens it is hard to retrain the brain into feeling dizzy, even if there are quick moments of rapid acceleration.
This wasn’t the first experiment Peake has done while in space. As a part of the Principia mission, he conducted experiments about how the human body would be affected on a trip to Mars. He was also the first person to complete the London Marathon from space.
Peake learned Russian for his mission and regularly updates Twitter and Flickr with pictures of his orbits around the world.
Peake is set to return from his 250-mile high orbit on Saturday, with plans to land in Kazakhstan.
Leave a Reply