However as one cannot isolate one countries astronauts, and given the ethos
of Russia to even have normal pressure inside their suits, I suspect that
getting any agreement to do more than small scale tinkering might be a
problem.

brian

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Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
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"JF Mezei" wrote in message
b.com...
Jeff Findley wrote:

According to NASA SP-400, "Skylab, Our First Space Station," the
atmosphere was 74% oxygen and 26% nitrogen at 5 psi.

I was under the impression that at 5psi, you needed 100% O2 environment
to allow your lungs to get as much O2 into your blood as with 20% O2 at
14.7 psi.

Now that we have long duration stays where they monitor health and
ability to resume normal life when they come back to earth, I would
think they would do some studies to see if long duration stays would
benefit from a different amount of O2.

For instance, if you reduce pressure or reduce O2 content, you tend to
buidl up more red blood cells to be better at absorbing what O2 the
lungs can suck in. (which is why atletes train at high altitude so that
when they come back, their ability to process O2 is increased)

So, on a 6 month journey to mars, why not use that time to get the
bodies used to lower psi ratings and then boost the psi when they land
so crews feel stronger and mroe capable of doing work.

Seems to me the ISS is the perfect platform to test this.