Exercise Keeps Astronaut Hearts in Fighting Shape for the Journey to Mars

What happened

NASA and other space agencies have been concerned for years that the 6-9 month travel time to get to the Red Planet could have such a deleterious impact on human anatomy that any crewed mission would fail before it even began. Over an extended period of time, an astronaut’s heart will adapt to this new, easier environment, and begin to not pump as hard, leading to physical changes in its structure - primarily it getting smaller.

But a new study, co-led by Dr. Benjamin Levine of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and published in the journal Circulation, eases some of that concern by claiming that, given a sufficient exercise regimen in low gravity, astronauts should be able to operate on Mars upon arrival without any major cardiac issues.

The zero gravity astronauts experience in spaceflight forces the heart to act very differently than it does on Earth. A smaller heart can leave astronauts vulnerable once they set foot back on a planetary surface.