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Have you ever wondered what would happen to you if you went to space? Space exploration is a very crucial part of the world right now. Space exploration is about finding new ways on how to travel in space and to see if there is another planet that sustains life. In my research on space, I learned about what happens to humans are in space for too long, what can being without gravity affect our muscles and bones, and How can gene therapy help with space exploration.

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When Humans are in space for a long time many bad things happen like weak muscles and bones, along with being exposed to dangerous radiation. Astronauts are trained to always think, “What’s the next thing that could kill me.” They are trained like this because there are many dangers in space like ionizing radiation, it can pass thru nearly anything and could cause potentially cancerous DNA damage.

To protect themselves from the many dangers of space, astronauts live in The International Space Station. The Station protects human life against many things like space radiation, the hard vacuum of space and the extremes of temperatures.’ Also, when in space micro gravity weakens muscle and bone growth, because of this astronaut returning to Earth from short (8–15 days) or long (>160 days) duration space flight have difficulty with movement.

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In space, your bones and muscles become weak due to the lack of gravity in space. When there is no gravity, like in space, muscles become weaker, also, without gravity, back and leg muscles begin to weaken and shrink. One of the major effects of weightlessness is the long-term loss of muscle and bone mass. Due to this astronauts may lose up to 20 percent of their muscle mass within 5-11 days. To prevent this, astronauts exercise using machines, this improves their muscle strength and blood circulation.

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NASA. (2020). How to Survive in Space. [online] Available at: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/how-to-survive-in-space-hangout-feb-23-25-2016 [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

Kim, K., Gimmon, Y., Sorathia, S., Beaton, K. and Schubert, M. (2018). Exposure to an extreme environment comes at a sensorimotor cost. npj Microgravity, 4(1).

TED-Ed. (2020). Could we survive prolonged space travel? - Lisa Nip. [online] Available at: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/could-we-survive-prolonged-space-travel-lisa-nip#review [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

Esa.int. (2020). ESA - Space for Kids - Weak muscles. [online] Available at: https://www.esa.int/kids/en/learn/Life_in_Space/Living_in_space/Weak_muscles [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

The Dangers of Zero Gravity. (2017). The Dangers of Zero Gravity. [online] Available at:

https://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/online/sciencepanorama/dangers-zero-gravity [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

Pontin, J. (2018). The Genetics (and Ethics) of Making Humans Fit for Mars. [online] Wired. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/ideas-jason-pontin-genetic-engineering-for-mars/ [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

Genetic Literacy Project. (2018). How gene therapy could help astronauts survive deep space deadly radiation | Genetic Literacy Project. [online] Available at: https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2018/07/24/how-gene-therapy-could-help-astronauts-survive-deep-space-deadly-radiation/ [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

Business Insider. (2020). How we might hack biology and transform our bodies to live in space — permanently. [online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/gene-editing-could-help-us-survive-on-mars-and-in-space-2016-4 [Accessed 20 Apr. 2020].

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In conclusion, in my research on space, I learned about what happens to humans are in space for too long, what can being without gravity affect our muscles and bones, and How can gene therapy help with space exploration. I learned what happens to your bones and muscles when in space, along with all the radiation that you are exposed to in space. I also learned that gene therapy plays a huge role in space exploration because it tries to minimize all the bad things that happen to you in space. Space exploration is very important because we are learning about other planets that can sustain life or how to travel into space deeper.

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Scientists have started making GMO to help astronauts and everyone on Earth. Long-term exposure to the highly charged energies of galactic cosmic radiation or the sudden flares of solar particle events would kill cells and make them malfunction, or break strands in our DNA and knock out base pairs. To prevent this, scientists are using gene therapy to help minimize space radiation. Around 40 different genes have been discovered that may be advantageous for long-term spaceflight. Gene therapy has already been done on other organisms, this is called GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) Also, George Church, a Harvard geneticist, and leading synthetic biologist argues: “One likely path for risk reduction in space does seem to involve biological engineering of adult would-be astronauts.”

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Williams, M., Williams, M., Lang, F., McFadden, C. and Lang, F. (2019). Is It Worth It? the Costs and Benefits of Space Exploration. [online] Interestingengineering.com. Available at: https://interestingengineering.com/is-it-worth-it-the-costs-and-benefits-of-space-exploration [Accessed 21 Apr. 2020].

Idgconnect.com. (2020). [online] Available at: https://www.idgconnect.com/idgconnect/opinion/1029870/technology-space-exploration-reality [Accessed 21 Apr. 2020].

TweakTown. (2019). NASA study: low-gravity can cause reverse blood flow and even clotting. [online] Available at: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/68843/nasa-study-low-gravity-cause-reverse-blood-flow-even-clotting/index.html [Accessed 21 Apr. 2020].

Dunbar, C., High, K., Joung, J., Kohn, D., Ozawa, K. and Sadelain, M. (2018). Gene therapy comes of age. Science, 359(6372), p.eaan4672.

Erwin, S. (2018). Artificial intelligence arms race accelerating in space - SpaceNews.com. [online] SpaceNews.com. Available at: https://spacenews.com/artificial-intelligence-arms-race-accelerating-in-space/ [Accessed 21 Apr. 2020].