A new spacesuit has been developed by researchers to keep astronaut's bones in good health by designing the suit to press down on its wearer, Press Trust of India reported.
Skinsuit, a new type of suit made by researchers at the European Astronaut Centre in Germany, has been designed to keep astronauts' posture in check. Force is exerted on its wearer from the shoulders towards the feet, Simon Evetts, the lead of the Medical Projects and Technology Team at EAC, said.
"It looks like a tight-fitting Lycra suit you might find at Olympic swimming pools," he told ABC News. "They're individually tailored, so that the right amount of force is provided to each astronaut."
According to PTI, the technology simulates the force an astronaut feels on Earth to keep their skeletons healthy.
"When we're on Earth and we walk or run, we put weight on our bones that cause the different cellular processes to signal bone formation to occur," International Space Station engineer Mamta Nagaraja said. "Without gravity, there's an imbalance between (bone) formation and resorption, so astronauts lose up to 3 percent of their bone mass per month."
Nagaraja said just as there can be multiple factors that can contribute to bone loss, there can also be multiple solutions.
"We see the greatest bone loss in the hip, wrist and spine," she said. "It's worth trying these types of research-based efforts to counteract bone loss."
Patients receiving long-term hospital care can also make use of the suit, Evetts said.
"They're lying down for a long time and not using any of their stabilizing muscles," she said. "With the Skinsuit active, they could put those stabilizing muscles to work."
The Skinsuit won't be going up until 2015, when European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen will head up towards the ISS, PTI reported.
