MICROGRAVITY INCREASES CORE BODY TEMPERATURE: IIST MODEL

The model tracks how heat moves through the body in 3D, and accounts for mechanisms like sweating and shivering, the impact of clothing, heat generated by vital organs, and other factors that influence thermoregulation

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The Voyager 1 spacecraft was 25 billion km away in February, somewhere in the outer edge of the solar system. It's the farthest a human-made spacecraft has gone from the earth. The hope is that in the distant future, a human astronaut will be able to go where Voyager 1 has been — a journey that could take several years of spaceflight.

An important factor that determines an astronaut's well-being on such journeys is thermoregulation: their body's capacity to maintain a stable internal temperature. In the unique microgravity environment of space, this process faces significant challenges.

Now, researchers at the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, have published a study reporting that "microgravity consistently increases core body temperature, with fluid shifts playing a crucial role in thermal balance," in the words of Shine S.R., a professor of aerospace engineering at IIST and an author of the study.

Human bodies respond differently to temperature changes based on age, fitness level, and body fat, among other parameters. In environments with near-zero gravity like space, the human body changes significantly,

affecting bones, muscles, the heart, the immune system, metabolism, even individual cells. Some of the resulting complications can be severe, so space agencies and astronauts continuously monitor the spacefarer's body temperature.