Thats where slammd comes in. Astronaut tamara jernigan being weighed in space. As the chair moves back and forth a timer records how much the crewmembers mass retards the chairs movement. Muscle mass is a part of your lean body mass. Its difficult to calculate lean body mass let alone muscle mass. Using slammd astronauts can accurately measure body mass with the help of newtons second law of motion fma force is equal to mass times acceleration.
Instead the subjects mass is measured using this special chair. To better observe the process skylab carried three mass measuring devices two small ones experiment m074 for measuring the intake and outgo of each astronaut and a large one experiment m172 with an oscillating chair designed for daily monitoring of the weight of the astronauts. Russia came up with a slightly different solution called the body mass measurement. Weight is an overall measure of your body mass. One measurement to check the physical condition of the astronauts is to weight them but in space you cant simply stand on the weighing scales like we do on earth. A quick google search will reveal a number of different ways to measure body mass and composition.
At any rate these 9 indicators are some of the most important factors to consider. The most accurate methods are expensive and there isnt a lot of reliable data. The slammd is accurate to 05 pounds. The other device is russias body mass measurement device bmmd seen being demonstrated by reid wiseman in this vine he posted last october. The proposed space balance is based on the levitation mass method lmm that was previously proposed and de. For example it took voyager 1 moving at the staggering speed of 62000 kilometers per hour 38525 miles per hour 35 years to leave the solar system a comparatively tiny part of the universe.
The astronaut rides the bmmd somewhat like a pogo stick and the oscillation of a spring is used to measure mass. As conditions in orbit are without gravity body weight can not be measured. The units of measurement people use on earth arent very useful for gauging distances in outer space. Nasas space linear acceleration mass measurement device slammd used to measure the mass of iss astronauts. This measurement includes all of the elements of your body bones blood organs muscles and fat. Space balance89 in a recently proposed instrument for as tronaut body mass measurement10 the tensile force of a rubber cord is applied to the astronaut under test and the force is measured using a force transducer.
Gallery of Space Body Mass Measurement
