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Shop NowAfter unexpectedly spending nearly half a year aboard the International Space Station, astronaut Sunita Williams is appearing remarkably “gaunt.” Pulmonologist Vinay Gupta has “raised concerns” about her health. Besides being stranded for an extended stay in the floating tin can, it’s leaking. Evacuating her home in an emergency could prevent her fellow crew members from escaping if the air leak turns into an emergency.
Astronaut looking ill
Doctor Vinay Gupta, a lung specialist, got a good look at a recent photo of astronaut Sunita Williams and noticed she looks exceptionally thin.
So far, the 59-year-old “has spent 152 days in space after Boeing’s faulty Starliner space craft left her stuck on the International Space Station.”
Fellow astronaut and test pilot on the Starliner mission, Barry Wilmor, is also stuck in orbit. Their emergency ride home is on the way right now.
That’s not as good of news as it seems because their return flight isn’t scheduled until February. Neither one of them have good things to say about Boeing. They were supposed to do an eight day turnaround to prove the craft spaceworthy. It wasn’t.
Both spacers have been trying to make the best of it. Without any assigned duties, they manage to keep busy with routine chores and poking around all the nooks and crannies listening for whistles or drifting pieces of dust and debris which might help locate where the air is leaking away.
What Dr. Gupta saw in the photo makes him believe she’s a rather ill astronaut.
High altitude under pressure
The lung doctor observed the astronaut has the same symptoms as a mountain climber. That’s sort of unusual since the space station is pressurized, like a commercial jet. The official ISS specs say “cabin air pressure is maintained at a nominal level of 14.0–14.9 pounds per square inch.”
They should be experiencing sea level pressure even though the tin can they’re in is circling 254 miles above the sea. He doesn’t suggest that they’re lowering the pressure to compensate for the air leak but that is a possibility.
Instead, Dr. Gupta thinks it’s the workload. “What you’re seeing there in that picture is somebody that I think is experiencing the natural stresses of living at a very high altitude, even in a pressurized cabin, for extended periods.” His trained eye observed “her cheeks appear a bit sunken.”
That, he explains, usually “happens when you’ve had sort of total body weight loss.” That indicates the astronaut hasn’t been eating well. He doesn’t think she’s in any immediate danger but what he’s seeing isn’t encouraging.
That sign tells Dr. Gupta, she “has probably been at a significant [calorie] deficit for a while.” In orbit, “the body burns more calories.” Microgravity isn’t all that restful. The body “adjusts to the changes in gravity and tries to maintain its body temperature in cold, harsh conditions.” In order to “prevent muscle and bone loss, astronauts exercise about 2.5 hours a day, which burns more calories.”
They wolf down all the high intensity fat and protein they can get their hands on but in Williams’ case she may not be getting enough. His theory about the malnourished astronaut broke “just days after an entire NASA crew was hospitalized without explanation after spending more than 200 days on the ISS.“
