Weightlessness

This is a sensation which feels approximately like dropping suddenly down a lift shaft. Short time experiments in cabins of jet planes flying at great speed along a parabola have shown that people endure weightlessness in different ways. For some it is a pleasant sensation. However, it was not clear how prolonged weightlessness would affect the human organism. It was established that the transition from gravity to weightlessness was better endured than the other way round. Another important flight factor is the accommodation the astronaut makes to the physical limitations of his vehicle; the peculiar conditions of eating, drinking, working and relaxing; the solitude; the various protective devices; the absence of customary external stimulation he normally experiences on earth; emotional tension; limited movement and so on. Major Titov's flight showed that after special training man adapts himself to weightlessness and does not experience any particular inconvenience. This is due to the great adaptability of man's nervous system and its ability to compensate quickly for the absent systems by using the signals of remaining ones. There Is a great deal of duplication in the regulating apparatus of our body. If one system of signals is switched off, the others continue functioning. Thus it turns out that the practice of duplicating works well for weightlessness, and co-ordination is not disturbed. This remarkable discovery holds promise that longer states of weightlessness during flights to other planets would not affect co-ordination. Man would consciously control the ship, guiding it to its objective.