Canadarm2, the robotic arm on the ISS built by the Canadian Space AgencyESA/NASA The most accurate clock in space launches within days and will begin building a highly synchronised network out of the best clocks on Earth. But the project, decades in preparation, will only operate for a few years before it burns up as the International Space Station deorbits at the end of the decade. The Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) is a European Space Agency (ESA) mission that will generate a time signal with unprecedented accuracy and then transmit it via laser to nine ground stations as it passes overhead at 27,000 kilometres per hour. This network of clocks will be in extremely close synchronisation and provide highly accurate timekeeping around the world. Advertisement The result is that ACES will be able to test Einstein’s theory of general relativity, which says that the passing of time is affected by the strength of gravity, with great accuracy. It will also assist with research on everything from dark matter to string theory. ACES is scheduled to launch on 21 April aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Once at the ISS, the Canadian Space Agency’s robotic arm – Canadarm2 – will attach it to the exterior of ESA’s Columbus laboratory, where it will remain in the vacuum of space. The package actually comprises two clocks: one called SHM has the ability to remain stable for short periods, which will allow it to help calibrate the other, called PHARAO. Together, these clocks will be so accurate they would lose less than one second over 300 million years – 10 times more accurate than the clocks aboard GPS satellites. Voyage across the galaxy and beyond with our space newsletter every month. Sign up to newsletter PHARAO is fundamentally modelled on an atomic clock in Paris that occupies an entire room. Miniaturising that technology into something that takes up less than a cubic metre, and can also survive the rigours of a rocket launch and life in space, was no mean feat. To generate an accurate clock signal, PHARAO spews a fountain of caesium atoms cooled to near absolute zero and observes their interaction with microwave fields. On Earth, this requires a device up to 3 metres tall, but in microgravity these atoms can be sprayed in a slower-moving and smaller fountain, allowing it to be much smaller. Simon Weinberg at ESA says that the device is so sensitive that simply putting a teaspoon near it could create an electromagnetic field strong enough to destroy the clock. “Just to put it in context, it’s better than a thousand million millionth of a second that we’re trying to measure here,” says Weinberg. “So it’s one hell of a challenging job.” The concept for ACES dates back to the 1990s and was originally planned for launch on the Space Shuttle, which retired in 2011. Once it gets to space, the first signal won’t arrive at an Earthbound clock for a year and a half – it will take around six months to commission the device, and then a year’s worth of measurement will be needed to isolate noise and remove it from the clock signal. After that, ACES will operate until 2030, after which the ISS will be deliberately crashed into Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. By that point, new super-accurate timepieces known as optical clocks are likely to have made atomic clocks all but obsolete on Earth, although they may not be small or robust enough for use in space by that time. Weinberg says that at some point ESA will look to launch a new generation of ACES to replace what is lost on the ISS, whatever the most appropriate technology is at the time. “We would be a long way off from doing that, and we would have to gather together the support and the financing and so on to make sure that happened.” Topics:

A lack of congressional funding is hampering courthouse security, the judicial branch says. AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews 2025-04-18T18:22:55Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? A congressional funding shortfall is putting federal judges' safety at risk, the US judiciary said. The judicial branch's budget is $391 million less than requested. Two judges outlined their concerns in a recent letter to members of Congress. Congress is putting the safety of federal judges at risk at a time when threats against court officials are on the upswing, the US judiciary has warned.The federal judiciary announced Friday that a shortfall in congressional funding this year is hampering the judicial branch's ability to maintain courthouse security amid the rise in threats on US judges.Judicial Conference secretary Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. and Judge Amy J. St. Eve, the chair of the Conference's Budget Committee, sounded the alarm in a letter last week to members of Congress serving on the House and Senate appropriations committees."We have significant concerns about our ability to properly secure federal courthouses given current resource levels," Conrad and St. Eve wrote in the April 10 letter.The latest congressional appropriations left the judicial branch with an $8.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2025 — $391 million less than the Judicial Conference had requested last year.As a result, the US judiciary said, many of the judicial branch's accounts are frozen for a second consecutive year, leaving them operating at fiscal year 2023 levels.Funding for court security remains stagnant at $750 million, it said."Consecutive years of flat security funding comes at a time when threats against federal judges and courthouses are escalating, making this situation unsustainable in the current environment," Conrad and St. Eve wrote in the letter.Representatives for the members of Congress to whom the letter was addressed did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The letter pointed to US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' 2024 year-end report on the federal judiciary, in which he said there had been a significant uptick in threats to the courts.Roberts wrote at the time that over the past five years, the US Marshals Service had investigated more than 1,000 serious threats against federal judges."Some of these threats have necessitated additional security measures by the US Marshals Service, and approximately 50 individuals have been criminally charged in connection with threats," Conrad and St. Eve wrote to the Congress members.The letter said that currently, 67 judges involved in high-profile cases are receiving "enhanced online security screening services" provided by the Administrative Office of the US Courts and the Marshals Service."In extreme cases, the US Marshals Service has been required to take extraordinary measures to ensure the safety of judges," Conrad and St. Eve wrote. They said they're also concerned about the impact of hiring freezes and staffing losses at the Marshals Service and General Services Administration on courthouse security.Additionally, Conrad and St. Eve said that the Judiciary's Defender Services program and court staff salaries have also been greatly underfunded.The judiciary is scheduled to submit its budget request for fiscal year 2026 this month, and Conrad and St. Eve wrote that "adequate funding of that request will be critical to mitigating the adverse impacts" of the recent budget gaps. Recommended video

It’s perhaps the most urgent reason Democrats lost in November: The party has solidly lost the support of working-class voters across the country and doesn’t have a solid sense of how to win them back.Now, a group of Democratic researchers, strategists, and operatives are launching a renewed effort to figure out — and to communicate to the rest of their party — what it is that these voters want, where they think the party went wrong, and how to best respond to their concerns before the 2026 election cycle.Led by Mitch Landrieu, former Democratic lieutenant governor of Louisiana and former mayor of New Orleans, the Working Class Project plans to offer guidance over the next few months on how to build “a more sustainable majority” in future elections.Their challenge is daunting. In November 2024, Trump not only rallied the white working-class base of voters that first got him elected in 2016. He also cut into Democrats’ working-class support among voters of color: Nearly half of Latino voters and a historic share of Black voters backed Trump (anywhere from a tenth to nearly one in five). Exit polls from November also show that Trump won over new support from both lower-income and middle-income voters — those who make less than $100,000 per year, and particularly those who make less than $50,000 per year. Last year marked the first time in nearly 60 years that the lowest-earning Americans voted for the Republican presidential candidate over the Democratic one.Some of this can be explained away by pointing to the confluence of factors that made last year’s election unique: the historic age and unpopularity of the incumbent president, the late-in-the-game candidate switch-up, high inflation, post-pandemic malaise, and Trump’s specific appeal. But Landrieu and the Working Class Project want Democrats to resist these excuses — and to accept that their decline with these voters predates Trump.“Since President Obama was first elected in 2008, Democrats have seen over 25 percent in net loss of support among working class voters,” Landrieu explains in the project’s launch announcement. “In other words, for two decades, Democrats have been on a downward slide among the very voters whose interests we champion and who benefit most from our policies.”What this effort looks likeHoused within the liberal opposition research firm and Super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, the Working Class Project is primarily focused on research, polling, and focus group works. They’re focused on reaching and listening to voters in 21 states: the traditional seven battleground states, seven safely Democratic states with large shares of white and nonwhite working-class voters (which drifted right last year), and seven solidly Republican states.Some of these focus groups have already been conducted — the group began this work in February after Trump’s inauguration — and they plan on interviewing labor, faith, and local leaders as well. The group is also planning a longer-term study with an in-depth focus on a handful of dynamics unique to the 2024 election that most of the party still seems adrift on. That includes following and finding out the motivations of young white, Black, Latino, and AAPI men who Trump won over, and what their media consumption habits look like. They also say that they’ll conduct longitudinal research on working-class people in these states to track their behavior over the course of Trump’s second term to track their reactions to things like tariffs, taxes, and immigration.“With this deep listening to working class voters across 21 states, we’ll identify messages, messengers, and new mediums to rebuild the Democratic brand and write a blueprint for victory that we’ll deploy using every tool in our toolbox,” the group said.Their effort, of course, isn’t the only one on the left trying to discern and solve the party’s branding, messaging, and policy problems. But their framing is a bit different.Democrats face a numbers problem in 2028 and beyondThe group’s memo says they chose those 21 states because they are the fastest-growing and stand to gain the most from congressional reapportionment in 2030. They include seven “growth” states where Democrats are no longer competitive at the statewide level: Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas. And it’s those states where Democrats will need to seriously compete if they hope to win the presidency or hold the Senate after 2030.It’s also in those states where Trump’s 2024 gains — if they hold — would make it impossible for Democrats to be competitive without winning back more working-class voters. To be sure, Trump himself is already doing some of this work for his opposition. His approval ratings have swung sharply away from him in at least nine of those 21 states, according to polling estimates conducted by data journalists at The Economist. And his chaotic handling of tariffs, inflation, and the economy in general is likely contributing to this discontent among his 2024 coalition.But Democrats will have to do more to take advantage of this skepticism with Trump. The Brennan Center for Justice’s reapportionment projections for 2030 suggest that with population losses in solidly Democratic and swing states, a future Democratic presidential candidate will face difficult odds for an Electoral College win after those votes are reallocated to match census estimates. After 2030, the Center estimates, “even if a Democrat in 2032 were to carry the Blue Wall states and both Arizona and Nevada, the result would be only a narrow 276–262 win” making Democratic gains with men, working-class voters, and voters in the South and the Heartland an existential challenge.See More:

It’s a ‘limited time production’ (Nintendo) Nintendo has warned that the Switch 2 bundle with Mario Kart World is a limited time offer, so here’s where you can pre-order the console. We’re less than two months away from the Nintendo Switch 2 launch and many retailers have already sold out their allocated stock. The Switch 2 is set to launch worldwide on June 5, 2025, and while you can pick up the base console for £395.99 in the UK, the £429.99 bundle with Mario Kart World looks to be the most popular deal, as it knocks off £33 from the game’s £66.99 digital price. While many assumed this bundle would be sticking around for some time, Nintendo has raised alarm bells through some small print in the recent Mario Kart World Direct. When the bundle was shown during the presentation, small print on the bottom of the screen read: ‘Limited time production through autumn 2025 (available while supplies last).’ While it seems odd that this bundle would have a ‘limited time production’ considering it’s just a code inside the box, Nintendo has some history with bizarre time sensitive deals – most famously Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which was discontinued after six months. The disclaimer is clearly designed to incentivise sales over the coming months, but as Mario Kart World does cost significantly more separately, it’s entirely possible Nintendo doesn’t want the deal to continue beyond its launch year. By Christmas, if stock of the Mario Kart World bundle does run out, it’s likely other retailers might have their own bundles with other games, albeit with less of a discount – and probably less notable titles. More Trending If you’re looking to pre-order the Mario Kart World bundle, retailers like Amazon and Very are currently sold out. However, they’ve been getting small amounts of new stock in on a consistent basis, so if you keep trying the links below you may get lucky – although the My Nintendo Store one is currently invite only. Where to pre-order Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World bundle Some retailers like Currys have only opened up Switch 2 pre-orders in stores, and it’s currently unclear whether they’ll sell units online. While pre-orders are live now across the UK and Europe, pre-orders in the US and Canada were delayed earlier this month due to Trump’s tariffs, with a new date now set for April 24. Along with Mario Kart World, the Switch 2 is set to launch with other games like Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour, Split Fiction, and Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition. Yoshi is jumping for joy at the profit margins (Nintendo) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter, and sign-up to our newsletter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy

In a random Midwestern town in a nondescript moment in the 1980s, a man wrapped in chains bursts out of a home and crawls toward a blue mail collection box, barely managing to slip a scrap of paper in before he’s recaptured by a blurry figure behind him. Thus begins Dead Mail, a refreshingly unconventional horror film made in a deliberately downgraded analogue style that perfectly captures both its setting and the quirky mood that runs through it. Instead of immediately following up on that grabby opening, Dead Mail—which unfolds with a great attention to detail, including retro cinematography and production design that feels completely organic and correct to its world—then introduces us to Jasper (Tomas Boykin), a dead letter investigator who’s the superstar employee of his postal branch. Not that you’d know it by looking at him; he keeps to himself in a back room, methodically tracking down the proper owners of valuables that would otherwise have been lost in the mail. But his detective skills are CSI-level amazing: you almost wish the entire plot of Dead Mail followed Jasper as he phones the National Weather Service checking precipitation levels to see if a smudged letter came through a certain location, or dialing up a foreign hacker to check car registrations to narrow down lists of potential names. His co-workers Ann and Bess (Micki Jackson, Susan Priver) think he’s a genius, and as soon as we see him work, we understand why. But this isn’t a movie only about Jasper; there’s that blood-stained scrap of paper that eventually winds its way onto his list of mysteries, which Jasper initially tosses aside, insisting “they don’t pay me to be a crime detective.” Jasper on the job. © Shudder While Dead Mail is certainly invested in the plight of the chained-up man who sent that desperate letter, it takes its time crafting the series of events that lead up to his written call for help. And much like the offbeat but fascinating Jasper, the characters that emerge in the film’s main drama feel both specific and singular. There’s Josh (Sterling Macer Jr.), a talented synthesizer engineer who isn’t sure how to level up the musical innovations he knows he’s capable of—and Trent (John Fleck), the older loner who slinks up to him at a demo and asks if he’s ever thought about collaborating with a partner. We already know where this is headed, having seen Josh as a prisoner and Trent’s involvement in some extreme behavior to try to reclaim Josh’s letter. But Dead Mail wants to dig into the dynamics between these two, as we watch Josh tinker on his prototype while Trent buys him cutting-edge equipment and giddily learns to cook his favorite meal. Josh may not realize it, but the audience already knows Trent’s interest has already skipped over the line into something very unwholesome, and we must wait as the tension rises ahead of that inevitable mail-box moment—and whatever happens next. Throughout, Dead Mail makes perfect use of its synthesizer plot to use electronic music both in its score and as part of its diegetic soundtrack; this creates a haunting and nearly funereal effect, since Josh’s particular interests include recreating the sounds of pipe organs as well as woodwinds. The longer the two men work together, the atmosphere of unease grows heavier and heavier. But Trent’s self-perpetuating psychodrama doesn’t exist in a vacuum; there’s always the idea that (despite some circumstances getting in the way of Jasper’s usual process) Josh’s small, blood-stained missive has raised an alarm in the outside world. Trent in his home. © Shudder While tales of dangerous obsessions are not unfamiliar, Dead Mail places its peril in a setting that could not better illustrate the idea of the “banality of evil.” Sometimes an obsequious stranger might have a creepy stare you don’t notice in time—or a dead letter investigator and his intrepid co-workers might be the best “crime detectives” of all. It’s rare to see a movie with such a carefully considered point of view and style that it doesn’t remind you of anything you’ve seen before—so all hail co-directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy for coming up with this one. Dead Mail arrives today, April 18, on Shudder. Do yourself a favor and check it out. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

Wood is the New Black House / Java ArchitectureSave this picture!© Caroline Dethier•Seignosse, France Architects: Java Architecture Area Area of this architecture project Area:  459 m² Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2024 Photographs Photographs:Caroline Dethier More SpecsLess Specs Save this picture! Text description provided by the architects. This project started when a mother of two, who had bought a big seaside house to accommodate both her family home and her working space, contacted us. Her aim was to offer her young kids a close-to-nature growing place while she could easily stay connected to international transport facilities when she was not working from home.Save this picture!Save this picture!The villa is located in a residential neighborhood, in the seaside town of Seignosse, a place well known for its coastal dunes and surfing spots on the Atlantic Ocean. In the last two decades, this little town experienced a strong gentrification effect. In consequence, real estate prices surged hugely, with a pique just after the Covid crisis. So in a place where it's not uncommon for new owners to put down existing constructions and to start over from scratch, our client had a very different approach. This project illustrates how ethical choices more than economic means can drive a transformation project.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!The program of our client was not to extend the house which was already a very big house. She wanted to bring back quality to the existing building, in other words, to upgrade both the material and symbolic comfort of the house. The existing construction was composed of elements of various eras, some of them needing heavy maintenance work, which gave the house an overall chaotic look. So, instead of trying to change the general volume of this building, we thought about how we could infuse some spatial quality back into that house. How to unify all these heterogeneous elements.Save this picture!Save this picture!In order to bring spatial quality along with improving the quality of life of the inhabitants, we had to simplify the existing situation. Something interesting was the big dimension of the house, so we decided to enhance this characteristic by creating a big claustra in laminated Douglas that ran from one side to the other. Unifying all the different volumes, but also supporting the different usages of the house.Save this picture!Save this picture!Save this picture!This one wood filter carries various functions. As much as it works as a solar protection, preventing the house from overheating in the summer months, it also shelters on the ground floor the main staircase of the house, an outdoor shower station and a small sauna cabin. On the first floor, it supports and encloses the outdoor living spaces of the house. Last but not least it is also a filter between the house and the surrounding neighborhood, bringing privacy to the home, in an otherwise quite exposed situation.Save this picture! Project gallerySee allShow less About this officeJava ArchitectureOffice••• MaterialWoodMaterials and TagsPublished on April 18, 2025Cite: "Wood is the New Black House / Java Architecture" 18 Apr 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028998/wood-is-the-new-black-house-java-architecture&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save世界上最受欢迎的建筑网站现已推出你的母语版本!想浏览ArchDaily中国吗?是否 You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

This is the sort of design that can seem intimidating but where an addon like Cablerator and the right workflow can make it really easy. Cablerator: https://superhivemarket.com/products/cbl/?ref=834 Cablerator Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnqmLZKRm5CZ0wfuvwdudn9I7znunsXBE Support the channel on Patreon and get videos a week early: https://www.patreon.com/ArtisansofVaul Free Add Ons RePrimitive: https://github.com/eXzacT/RePrimitive Modifier List: https://extensions.blender.org/add-ons/modifier-list-fork/ Old Modifier Panel: https://bluenile3d.gumroad.com/l/sexoc Quick Snap: https://github.com/JulienHeijmans/quicksnap CharMorph: https://github.com/Upliner/CharMorph Simple Tabs: https://chippwalters.gumroad.com/l/simpletabs Edge Flow: https://github.com/BenjaminSauder/EdgeFlow Sculpt Bridge: https://blendermarket.com/products/sculpt-bridge-tool (Affiliate links) SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY BUYING SOME STUFF YOU WERE GOING TO GET ANYWAY ;p Machin3 Tools: https://superhivemarket.com/products/machin3tools/?ref=834 nSolve: https://superhivemarket.com/products/nsolve/?ref=834 Hard Ops and Boxcutter discount bundle: https://superhivemarket.com/products/hard-ops--boxcutter-ultimate-bundle/?ref=834 Hard Ops: https://superhivemarket.com/products/hardopsofficial/?ref=834 Boxcutter: https://superhivemarket.com/products/boxcutter/?ref=834 Resample Mesh: https://superhivemarket.com/products/resample-mesh/?ref=834 Mesh Machine: https://superhivemarket.com/products/meshmachine/?ref=834 Mass STL Exporter: https://sonesson.gumroad.com/l/mass-stl-exporter Just Panels: https://superhivemarket.com/products/just-panels/?ref=834 Construction Lines: https://superhivemarket.com/products/construction-lines/?ref=834 Cablerator: https://superhivemarket.com/products/cbl/?ref=834 Mesh Copier: https://superhivemarket.com/products/mesh-copier/?ref=834 Grid Modeler: https://superhivemarket.com/products/grid-modeler/?ref=834 Curve Machine: https://superhivemarket.com/products/curvemachine/?ref=834 Decal Machine: https://superhivemarket.com/products/decalmachine/?ref=834 Punch It: https://superhivemarket.com/products/punchit/?ref=834 One Click Damage (OCD)/Cracker discount bundle: https://superhivemarket.com/products/ocd--cracker-damage-bundle/?ref=834 One Click Damage (OCD): https://superhivemarket.com/products/ocd/?ref=834 Cracker: https://superhivemarket.com/products/cracker/?ref=834 Flowify: https://superhivemarket.com/products/flowify/?ref=834 Simple Bend: https://superhivemarket.com/products/simple-bend/?ref=834 Conform Object: https://superhivemarket.com/products/conform-object/?ref=834 Curves to mesh: https://superhivemarket.com/products/curves-to-mesh/?ref=834 Mesh Materializer: https://superhivemarket.com/products/mesh-materializer/?ref=834 Favourite modifiers: https://superhivemarket.com/products/favourite-modifiers/?ref=834 Wrap Master: https://superhivemarket.com/products/wrap-master/?ref=834

⇨ Hard Surface Sculpting course: https://www.blendersecrets.org If you're trying to use Alpha brushes in Blender for sculpting, you may encounter this issue: It's blurry, or it seems you don't have enough resolution even though you've got a lot of subdivisions. In this video we look at a few possible causes. We also explore the best resolution and bit depth for Alphas, in terms of quality and file size.

In this beginner's Blender tutorial series I'll take you through the step by step creation of a soft pretzel. In this second video we'll be finishing up the project by texturing everything and rendering the scene. Save the project files below to get started - https://cgmasters.com/tutorials/pretzel_project_files.zip Tutorial Summary: In the second and final part of this series we'll be texturing everything in the scene. You'll learn about normal mapping to fake bumpy surfaces, using vertex paint to show different colors on the pretzel surface, and you'll learn about Blender's all-in-one Principle shader node. You'll also learn about using HDRI's to realistically light your scene, and then what settings to use to render out your final image. You'll learn all the basics of texturing and rendering in this one.

When NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams inadvertently spent nearly nine months in space, their bodies likely underwent a series of physiological changes due to the pressures of living in space.The duo left Earth on June 5, 2024, in what was supposed to be a roughly weeklong test mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Instead, they spent 286 days waiting to hitch a ride back to their home planet after their spacecraft experienced multiple issues.Upon their arrival on Earth, the two astronauts were assisted out of the SpaceX Crew Dragon “Freedom” as their bodies acclimate to gravity on March 18, 2025.Astronauts, Genetics, and Space EffectsSusan Baily, professor of radiation cancer biology at Colorado State University, says that the longer an astronaut spends in space, the more complex their transition to Earth will be.“It’s all very disorienting when you first get up into space, and that disorientation can last anywhere from days to sometimes weeks,” adds Chris Mason, a professor of genomics at Cornell University.Because each body has a different genetic makeup and unique lifestyle, how a person responds to space can vary between individuals.Bailey and Mason, among others, authored the NASA Twins Study, which followed identical twin astronauts, one of whom spent a year on the ISS and the other on Earth. The research examined “molecular and physiological traits that may be affected by time in space” to establish a basis for assessing the hazards of long-term space travel.From genetic changes and an increased cancer risk to bone and muscle loss, astronauts are affected mentally and physically both in the long and short term, depending on their experience in space.Short-term EffectsComing back to Earth’s gravity serves as the “universal cellular surprise or, in a nutshell, the ‘holy crap’ moment,” says Mason.On Earth, gravity’s force is constant, forcing the body to bear weight and maintain muscle and bone strength through consistent use. ISS, however, is a microgravity environment, meaning that it experiences about 90 percent of Earth’s gravity, causing objects and fluids to float through space.“In microgravity, there is no resistance or weight bearing, so muscles and bones don’t get the exercise and use that they require,” says Bailey. “Even with exercise, there is still a period of adjustment that astronauts have to go through to get the body and the brain used to supporting itself again after returning to Earth.“Astronauts often gain one or two inches of height because of a lack of compression on the spinal column. There is also increased pressure in the brain because gravity is no longer pulling the body’s fluids down to the feet. This can impact the eyes and heart and, in some cases, lead to cognitive decline. However, most of these eventually return to normal once they are back on Earth.“The good news is that the body does adjust again; it adjusts to space and then it adjusts back to the Earth environment and gravity. It just takes a little while,” says Bailey.Astronauts may also experience skin irritation upon their return, as clothing hasn’t been rubbing on their skin as usual. It’s also possible that these stressors can result in autoimmune issues.“In many astronauts, the immune system is very activated; we like to say that it’s perturbed,” says Mason. “More than half of astronauts are observed to have oral herpes reactivations of cold sores, indicating the immune system is under stress.” Long-term effectsAccording to the twin study, long-term space travel has been shown to “prompt mitochondrial dysfunction, immunological stress, vascular changes and fluid shifts, and cognitive performance decline, as well as alterations in telomere length, gene regulation, and genome integrity.”Radiation exposure during space flight can also affect health, aging, and disease trajectories as it damages the DNA in cells, leading to short-term effects like skin changes or fatigue and long-term consequences like an increased cancer risk.“We’re very protected on Earth from a lot of the more damaging types of radiations from the Sun and our atmosphere, as well as the magnetosphere around the Earth,” says Bailey. “As a person goes further and further away from the Earth, and even in low Earth orbit like the space station – about 250 miles or so above the surface of Earth – they get much higher doses of more damaging radiation.”Cancer develops over long periods of time, so it’s not immediately clear how space radiation may influence astronauts’ risk of cancer. However, Bailey notes some radiation-induced forms of leukemia can appear within three to five years.Space as a Living Laboratory to Model Accelerated AgingRadiation can also accelerate aging and certain age-related health conditions, like cardiovascular disease and dementia. Telomeres at the ends of chromosomes, threadlike structures of DNA found in each cell’s nucleus, serve as a biomarker of aging.“Telomeres are very important because they protect the end of the chromosome from degradation and help prevent DNA damage,” says Bailey, adding that telomeres help maintain genomic stability.Telomeres shorten as a person ages through cell division and psychological and physical stress. In other words, the length of telomeres indicates how quickly someone may be aging.Stressors associated with microgravity, radiation, diet, exercise, and even loneliness have all been shown to induce aging in astronauts. Many of these factors cannot be altered while people are in space.“On Earth, for example, a person can manage their lifestyle better or make healthier choices; all the things that we associate with a healthy lifestyle can help maintain telomere length,” says Bailey.In a very controlled environment like space, astronauts can’t make these changes to alter the level of radiation or oxidative, psychological, or emotional stress they’re exposed to. Even diet and exercise are limited in space.To better understand how aging may be accelerated in space, NASA launched CIPHER, a project to “pinpoint how the human body reacts to long-duration missions in space” to prepare astronauts for future missions to the Moon and Mars. The CIPHER database includes many investigations to better understand the health effects of long-duration space flight.An Astronaut’s Work Isn’t Finished when Back on EarthMuch of coming back to Earth is coming back to the human experience and relishing in small things, like seeing family or taking a bath (there are no showers in space).“Just the simple pleasure of taking a hot shower is almost universally deeply loved upon return,” says Mason.Because the long-term effects of humans in space aren’t completely known, astronauts should be monitored for “the rest of their lives” because their work doesn’t end when they get back to Earth or when they retire from NASA.“The body really is amazingly adaptive; it adapts to the space flight environment fairly rapidly, and then on the return, even though it may take a little longer, the body adapts back to gravity as well,” says Bailey.But humanity’s experience with space is “fairly limited,” and scientists don’t fully understand what the long-term implications of space travel mean for human health.As commercial spaceflight becomes more common, Bailey adds that people who haven’t been trained their whole lives to fly in space will also require new considerations: How do they perform in space, and how are they monitored upon their return to Earth?The varying effects recorded in astronauts are logged in the Space Omics and Medical Atlas, or SOMA, a collection of known research on the effects of space on the human body. Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:NASA. CIPHER Nature Portfolio. Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA) across orbitsMadison’s reporting focuses on marine and environmental issues, climate change, and novel scientific discoveries related to health and technology. Raised on an island in southeast Alaska, Madison is now based in western Montana. Her writing has been featured in Time, Snopes, Business Insider, Mountain Journal, EcoWatch, and Alaska Magazine, among others. When not writing, Madison teaches yoga, raises chickens, and fosters adoptable dogs and cats.