In the approximately eight minutes it takes to launch a person from our planet’s surface into orbit, the person’s body is subjected to a devastating gravitational force unlike anything on Earth. Scientists working with the European Space Observatory’s Large Scale Centrifuge are now testing whether this massive launch could weaken the membranes of an astronaut’s blood cells, putting them at risk of rupturing.

If this turns out to be true, it could help explain why astronauts suffer from “space anemia.” Research shows that the human body destroys 54 percent more red blood cells when traveling in space than it normally does on Earth, which reduces the presence of iron carriers in the blood.

Researchers believe this is why astronauts often feel tired, weak or dizzy when they return to normal gravity. Blood cells are still recovering from living in microgravity.

“Most of the existing research has been done in microgravity,” explains team leader Georgina Chavez from the Catholic University of San Pablo in Bolivia.

“We thought that astronauts actually go through two major physical changes during spaceflight: To enter microgravity, they first go through a brief but intense period of hypergravity. Therefore, we decided to investigate the possible consequences of this initial phase in terms of situations that could later lead to hemolysis in space.”

The inspiration for the research came in 2022, when another team of scientists discovered that blood cells could break down in microgravity, possibly contributing to space anemia. Chavez and his team wondered if something like this could happen in hypergravity, and they decided to find out. Its experiments include an 8-meter centrifuge owned by ESA and located in the Netherlands. It can simulate hypergravity of up to 20 times Earth’s gravity.

Historically, the gravitational force in space has been three to six times greater than the gravitational force on Earth. To simulate such an experience, Chavez and his colleagues attach human red blood cells filled with a hypotonic solution to a centrifuge. The device then returns to a speed that simulates normal Earth gravity as well as 7.5 and 15 Earth gravity.

Each test takes 10 minutes, 30 minutes or 60 minutes. The blood cells are then analyzed to see how they are doing. The research is ongoing, so we don’t yet know what happens to the blood cells after they go to the centrifuge. With all this, there are reasons to suspect changes.

Previous research in mice had found that white blood cells can be destroyed in hypergravity, and that hypergravity also showed signs of weakening of cells that form the barrier between blood flow and the brain in mice. The inner surface of blood vessels, which help control cell survival, proliferation, death and migration, shows signs of extreme gravitational stress. Scientists still don’t know much about how changes in gravity affect the human body.