On March 8, a video taken by Wang Yaping on the space station attracted widespread attention on the Internet, in which she said: Happy Holidays to women compatriots across the country and around the world! Netizens thanked this blessing from the space station at the same time, but also for the mainland female astronauts' hardships, not easy to sincerely admire.
On October 16, 2021, the mainland Shenzhou 13 manned spacecraft successfully sent three astronauts, Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu, to the Tiangong space station. Three astronauts are scheduled to return to Earth around April 16, 2022, on a six-month space mission. At that time, Wang Yaping will become the female astronaut who has been on a space mission on the mainland for the longest time.
According to statistics, from the world's first female astronaut into space in 1963 to the present, a total of 65 female astronauts have carried out one or more space missions, accounting for about 10% of the total number of male and female astronauts, of which there are 2 on the mainland, namely Liu Yang and Wang Yaping. At the same time, about 200 astronauts have carried out 436 missions, but only 16 female astronauts, 14 of whom are from the United States, and only Wang Yaping is on the mainland.
It is not difficult to see that male astronauts have an absolute advantage in space travel, but it is not that male astronauts are really better than female astronauts, but female astronauts need to solve several special problems, which have caused aerospace experts headaches so far.
How female astronauts solve physiological problems
In the space weightless environment, the body's calcium ions are easily lost in large quantities, resulting in osteoporosis, triggering muscle atrophy, and when severe, vomiting, dizziness and other symptoms will occur. Due to the loss of gravity to bind the blood began to concentrate from the lower body's feet, legs and upper body, the human central nervous system mistakenly thought that the blood was sufficient, reducing the supply of red blood cells carrying oxygen, resulting in myocardial hypoxia and uneven heart rate.
In order to solve this problem, researchers on the one hand make a fuss about the astronauts' diet, on the other hand, they are equipped with bicycles, treadmills and other sports tools, and astronauts enhance immunity through exercise.
But the "threat" to female astronauts is slightly secret, that is, the "resetting of bodily fluids" caused by weightlessness. On the ground, the monthly uterine drainage of women can be carried out normally because of gravity blessings, and finally they are adsorbed by sanitary napkins or tampons.
Sudden loss of gravity in space may be "stuck" in the womb, and even the blood may get lost in the lower body and burst into the ovaries and scurry around, causing abdominal pain in female astronauts. When people have difficulty defecating, they can solve it by squeezing their abdomen, but they are "helpless" to drain blood from the uterus!
An article on NPR in 2015 revealed the secret, which was called solving the "retrograde menstruation" that can be caused by microgravity, and NASA experts in the United States took a radical measure against female astronauts - taking contraceptives, delaying the menstrual period of female astronauts by taking contraceptives, and the longer the space mission, the longer the menstruation was delayed.
Publicly, NASA experts have tried many methods, one way is to let female astronauts drain blood more smoothly during menstruation, and then set up a female-specific defecation device to purify and recycle the collected excrement, but the purification device can not completely purify the blood and can only give up. Another way to postpone menstruation is for female astronauts to take a compound estrogen pill to eliminate ovulation.
In another famous article, researchers concluded through numerous experiments that long-term use of "compound" estrogen contraceptives had few side effects on female astronauts. Of course, some experts disagree, but there is no specific evidence of how much harm to the human body there is. The astronaut currently staying the longest in space is the European Space Agency Samantha Christopher Letti, but it is only 199 days, which is still a long way from the envisioned "long time".
Wang Yaping, as the first female astronaut on the mainland to perform for 6 months, also needs to overcome physiological problems, but this aspect involves too many technical problems, and the space agencies of various countries are only slightly revealed, and the core details are all "strictly guarded". However, an aerospace expert revealed a little vague information in an interview, and it is roughly that mainland Chinese medicine has played an important role in it.
Fertility problems in female astronauts
Whether to allow female astronauts to take off has caused a fierce debate in the history of spaceflight, an important reason is that the high radiation in space, the replacement of bodily fluids may cause female astronauts to have fertility problems, and even once rumored that female astronauts who entered space have lost the opportunity to be mothers, saying that female astronauts should choose to marry and have women who have had children, is this really the case?
The first to break the rumor was Valentina Tereshkova, a young Soviet female astronaut. Valentina is an ordinary worker, whose hobby is skydiving, and has completed more than 90 skydivings before becoming a female astronaut, which can be described as experienced.
After returning from space by spaceship, Valentina immediately married her boyfriend Derya Grigorievich, who had piloted the Vostok-3 spacecraft, and according to the rumored "theory" at the time, the two were doomed to have no children when they married, and even if they gave birth to a child, they would not be healthy. The reality is that In June 1964, Valentina gave birth to a daughter, just 11 months after her return to Earth!
Although it is a rumor that female astronauts cannot have children, the choice of female astronauts on the mainland is still biased towards married and fertile women. However, the astronaut selection conditions are extremely harsh, can not tolerate the body has half a flaw, not to mention there are obvious scars, tooth decay, scars are likely to rupture when the astronauts out of the cabin activities, comprehensive consideration of the female physical quality and psychological conditions have become the top priority.
Both Liu Yang and Wang Yaping chose to give birth after the mission, the difference being that Wang Yaping took off again after giving birth, becoming the first female astronaut on the mainland to enter the space station after giving birth.
Original: Blog post