Would you like to live on the moon? How about on Mars? Scientists have been testing the effects of living in these conditions by testing flies. They use magnets to make the fruit flies weightless and balance out Earth’s gravity. It is not Quite the same as zero gravity in space but it is pretty close and cheaper to use magnets rather than going to space. When they make the flies weightless they seem to move quicker, when they are in the middle where there is more normal gravity they move slower. They are not sure why this is, they have ideas but none are for sure. Some of these ideas are it is easier on there joints and muscles or maybe they are just confused what way is up or down because of the lack of gravity. Once they made a live frog weightless. There is no magnet that is strong enough to do this on humans nor is it safe enough yet.
As we study the affects on these flies we can learn more about what would happen to a human in zero gravity over many days. As the test continues we will be able to test larger more advanced organisms and learn more about the affects of zero gravity on humans. One day we will know enough about the gravity on the moon or mars to set up a camp there and live there. I don’t know about you but i would love to have a house on the moon. This would be many years down the road but someday will happen.
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I found this article really interesting! In this article and others its seems as though scientists are working really hard to get ready to go to Mars. This article states how in the future it may be possible to stay on Mars for long periods of time. I do not believe we will ever get to that point. I thought it was very interesting how strong the magnet was! This magnet was just a small fly. Think about how strong the magnet would have to be for a human!
These tests that the scientists do with the flies are really important because with the data from these NASA knows what to put their money and time into.
Although it would be awesome if we could deal with the effects of no gravity, we would first have to learn how to deal with the effects of no oxygen. Also mars and the moon have very different temperatures and living conditions. Very good article though. It is interesting how we can first do a study on flies and move to animals more related to humans.