Why do astronauts get sick in space?

[ExpandMyMind]

In the years since astronauts started spending long stretches of time in space, we’ve known that weightlessness has a negative impact on health. The immune response just doesn’t seem to hold up the way it does on Earth. Some research on the International Space Station (ISS) may point to the culprit. The findings, just now being reported, indicate that an important cellular process isn’t functional in freefall.

The experiment was conducted by ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter over the course of five months in 2006. Reiter maintained two cultures of human cells: one free-floating in weightlessness and the other in simulated gravity using a centrifuge (seen above). The preserved cells were later examined back on Earth and the weightless cells were in markedly worse shape than the ones kept in simulated gravity. It took some time to sort out, but researchers now think they know what cellular process is being short circuited by weightlessness.

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/why-do-astronauts-get-sick-in-space-2013027/

Pretty cool and not really what I expected.

Edited February 8, 2013 by ExpandMyMind

[wolfknight]

Then the ISS needs to do something about creating so type of gravity.

[ExpandMyMind]

I'm not sure if the Babylon 5 method would work? It seems like a cool idea but even if it were to work you would still have to build a massive structure.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_gravity_(fiction)#section_1

(I see from the link that Babylon 5 was not the first to use rotational gravity in TV/film).