A workout that’s out of this world! Astronaut on board the ISS demonstrates how to use a TREADMILL in space, using a harness and bungie to simulate the feeling of jogging on Earth
- ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer can be seen running on the wall in bizarre video
- Astronauts living and working on the ISS exercise for around two hours per day
- This helps counteract debilitating muscle and bone loss caused by microgravity
New footage shows an astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS) demonstrating how to use a treadmill 250 miles above our planet.
Matthias Maurer, a German astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), can be seen fixed to a harness and bungie to simulate the experience of jogging on Earth.
The treadmill itself, called T2, is attached to the wall in Node 3, also known as Tranquility, which is one of the modules that form the ISS.
Astronauts living and working on the ISS exercise for around two hours a day, six days a week, to stay fit and healthy in orbit.
Matthias Maurer, a German astronaut of the European Space Agency (ESA), can be seen fixed to a harness and bungie as he does his daily workout
THE NODE 3 MODULE
Node 3 module, also known as Tranquility, was one of the last components added to the ISS.
The pressurized section provides additional room for crew members and many of the space station’s life support and environmental control systems already on board.
These systems include air revitalization, oxygen generation and water recycling. A waste and hygiene area and a treadmill is also included.
Tranquility was built for NASA by Thales Alenia Space in Turin, Italy, under contract to the ESA. Spanning 21 feet in length, 14 feet in diameter, and weighing more than 27,000 pounds, the node was delivered to Kennedy Space Center aboard an Airbus ‘Beluga’ aircraft in May 2009.
This helps counteract muscle and bone loss caused by life in microgravity, which can lead to long-term health conditions for spacefarers when they return to Earth.
In space, the effects of a lack of gravity on the human body is a big obstacle facing future space exploration missions, including planned manned missions to Mars in the 2030s, which could take up three years of an astronaut’s life.
In the clip, Maurer can be seen floating around before grabbing hold of a handrail to steady himself and get in the correct orientation.
The somewhat bizarre sequence of him ‘running on the wall’ then commences.
‘This clip is just a snapshot of the exercise Matthias performs in space,’ ESA says. ‘A typical T2 session is around 30 to 40 minutes in length.’
On November 11, NASA launched Crew 3, the third fully-fledged ‘operational’ crew NASA and SpaceX have flown to the ISS.
The crew – made up of Maurer along with NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn, Raja Chari and Kayla Barron – successfully reached the ISS about a day after the launch.
Maurer and his fellow inhabitants will return to Earth in April this year, following their six-month-long stint aboard the space station.
During his time in orbit, Maurer will support over 35 European experiments and even more international experiments on board.
For example, after receiving a delivery from the SpaceX Dragon vehicle before Christmas, Matthias was sorting synthetic muscle cells the size of a grain of rice for incubation.
Part of these cells are being electrically stimulated to trigger contractions in weightlessness, while others are experiencing artificial gravity via centrifugation.
‘The outcomes of these experiments will advance our knowledge in areas ranging from human health to materials science, benefitting life on Earth and the future of space exploration,’ ESA says.
Crew 3 marked the fourth crew NASA has launched to orbit aboard a SpaceX vehicle in 17 months, building on a public-private partnership with SpaceX, the private company formed in 2002 by Elon Musk.
The ISS (pictured) floats in low Earth orbit at an altitude of 254 miles. It flies around the world every 90 minutes, travelling at 5 miles per second
NASA officials are now aiming to put humans on Mars sometime in the 2030s – and as early as 2035
SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule is seen here atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as it prepared for launch with four astronauts on board, on a mission to the ISS in November 2021
Their collaboration helped usher in a new era for NASA leading to last year’s first launch of American astronauts from US soil in nine years, since it quit flying space shuttles in 2011.
In May 2020, SpaceX successfully transported NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley on a 19-hour journey to the ISS – marking the first crewed test flight of the firm’s Crew Dragon spacecraft.
In the process it became be the first crewed launch from the US into orbit since NASA’s space shuttle program ended a decade ago.
Crew 4 – the fourth crewed operational NASA flight of a Crew Dragon spacecraft – is set to launch on April 15, 2022.
It will carry a four-person crew to the ISS – NASA astronauts Robert Hines, Kjell N. Lindgren and Jessica Watkins, as well as Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.
WHY DO ASTRONAUTS WORKOUT IN SPACE, AND WHAT EXERCISES DO THEY DO?
In microgravity, body fluids are moved around. Fluids such as plasma are lost throughout the body. Plasma is where red blood cells live.
Less plasma means there is less blood to carry oxygen to the rest of the body.
Exercise, however, has been shown to increase the amount of plasma in the body. Astronauts who exercise make more red blood cells.
Microgravity also brings about another change in something called orthostatic intolerance.
When you stand up quickly and feel light-headed – that’s orthostatic intolerance.
Your body tries to stop this from happening. It does so by increasing its heart rate and blood pressure to keep more blood returning to your heart.
If you can’t do that, you’ll pass out. With no gravity and less blood volume, astronauts are more prone to fainting.
Again, exercise can help increase blood volume and circulation. That helps prevent fainting.
While in space, astronauts must exercise two hours a day to prevent bone and muscle loss.
Weakened astronauts would be less able to do tasks while in space. If there were an emergency, they would also need to be in good shape to get out of a space craft or station quickly.
Once they land on Earth, weakened muscles and bones would make walking difficult.
Muscle can be built back up with therapy. But lost bone is not as easy to get back.
Three main exercises in space:
Astronauts use three pieces of exercise equipment.
- Cycle Ergometer: This is like a bicycle, and the main activity is pedaling. It is used to measure fitness in space because it’s easy to check heart rate and how much work is being done.
- Treadmill: Walking or jogging on the treadmill is like walking on Earth. Walking is the single most important way to keep bones and muscles healthy. Because the lack of gravity tends to make people float, harnesses are attached to the astronauts to hold them to the walking surface.
- Resistance Exercise Device (RED): The RED looks like weight-lifting machines you may see on television. To use it, astronauts pull and twist stretchy rubber-band-like cords attached to pulleys. The RED can be used for a total body workout. From squats and bending exercises for the legs, to arm exercises and heel raises, astronauts can do them all on the RED. Russians and Americans have different exercise routines on the Space Station. But they all have the same goal: keeping the astronauts and cosmonauts healthy.
Source: NASA
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