Astronaut pilot Alan Poindexter gets in an exercise session with a bicycle ergometer on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Atlantis during the STS-122 mission.
National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) scientist Benjamin Levine talks about the need to maintain fitness during space missions. The microgravity experienced in Earth orbit and the low gravitational fields on the Moon and Mars will have negative effects on astronauts' muscles, bones, and cardiovascular systems. Without good stress, muscles atrophy and bones demineralize. How can astronauts maintain fitness during space missions? What are the best exercises?
Students learn about body fluid shift in an activity from NASA'S KSNNTM 21st Century Explorer newsbreak. In this activity, entitled "How would your body change in space," students measure another student's leg circumference while standing, and then while lying down, with the leg elevated.
Muscles and Bones offers 10 classroom activities that help students understand how the body's muscles and bones work, and how research conducted in space can help us learn about our bodies here on Earth.
In this collection of activities from NASA's The Brain in Space: A Teacher's Guide with Activities for Neuroscience (EG-1996-03-118-HQ), students monitor heartbeat and pulse rates while in different body positions that simulate changes that occur in the body while in microgravity.
Choose "Focus 5" on the left hand menu. Read Case Study 4, then choose "Student Investigations" from the left hand menu. Students predict which muscle energy systems are used for different physical activities. Look in SI2/ step 1 of the procedure to construct a "mini-field day" event with activities that demonstrate different levels of strength, power, and endurance.
Additional Activities/Extensions
Discuss how the microgravity environment in an orbiting spacecraft might alter the way astronauts carry out their normal daily activities.
Have students investigate different kinds of muscle fiber and the capacities of these fibers for physical activity.
Ask students to design exercise equipment for use in space, or a fitness center for a lunar or Mars base.
Have students construct and maintain a logbook of their personal fitness activities.
This website describes exercise countermeasures projects and goals of NASA's Johnson Space Center Office of Human Adaptation & Countermeasures Division.
To keep astronauts healthy during long space missions, researchers at the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) are developing an integrated exercise program that addresses a number of the physical changes caused by microgravity.
This website offers an extensive high school-level curriculum on the human body and the effects of space flight on human physiology. It includes background information and classroom activities related to space exercise.
Exercise and human physiology in space are among many topics related to astrobiology covered in NASA's online Astrobiology Magazine.
National Science Standards
K-4 Standards
Life Science–Organisms and their Environments
Organisms have basic needs. Organisms can survive only in environments in which their needs can be met.
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives–Personal Health
Individuals have some responsibility for their own health. Students should engage in personal care–dental hygiene, cleanliness, and exercise–that will maintain and improve health.
5-8 Standards
Life Science–Regulation and Behavior
All organisms must be able to obtain and use resources, grow, reproduce, and maintain stable internal conditions while living in a constantly changing external environment.
Regulation of an organism's internal environment involves sensing the internal environment and changing physiological activities to keep conditions within the range required to survive.
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives–Personal Health
Regular exercise is important to the maintenance and improvement of health. Personal exercise, especially developing cardiovascular endurance, is the foundation of physical fitness.
9-12 Standards
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives–Personal and Community Health
Personal choice concerning fitness and health involves multiple factors. Personal goals, peer and social pressures, ethnic and religious beliefs, and understanding of biological consequences all can influence decisions about health practices.
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