The same stuff that’s been linked to red wine’s heart-health benefits could also someday help astronauts walk on Mars. In a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Physiology, researchers say that resveratrol, a compound found in wines, could lessen muscle loss on the long trip to Mars.
Currently, a one-way trip to Mars will take something like nine months. To make the trek, whichever spacecraft astronauts hitch a ride on will only have space for the bare essentials on board. As such, there won’t be room for much exercise equipment to help crew keep their muscles strong in zero- or low-gravity environments. And that’s a problem for the chosen few who could someday set foot on a planet that has just 40 percent of the gravitational pull of Earth’s.
Weight-bearing muscles will shrink first — and fare the worst — followed by a degradation in so-called slow-twitch muscle ...
