Wired in Space

The solid rockets flared, and the space shuttle Columbia roared through a hole in the clouds toward the heavens. Inside the crew cabin the sudden acceleration to 17,000 miles per hour slammed Drew Gaffney back into his seat with a force three times that of normal gravity. He felt his pulse racing under the stress. Within minutes his neck veins began to bulge and his face puffed up, the result of a massive migration of fluids to the upper body. You feel congested, he recalls now. Not nasally congested, but cerebrally congested. It’s like there isn’t enough room in your head for your brain. Gaffney was getting his first taste of a phenomenon known in the space trade as fat-face, chicken-legs, a physiological change experienced by astronauts that has always been attributed to zero gravity. It’s a phenomenon that has fascinated biomedical researchers for years. Normally, because of gravity’s pull, ...