Traveling deeper into space may carry some unanticipated health risks. Scientists have published a study noting that Apollo astronauts have died of heart disease at an unusually high rate — of the 7 that passed away during the study, 43 percent fell to cardiovascular conditions. Only 11 percent of those deceased astronauts who stopped at low Earth orbit succumbed to heart disease, which is about on par with the 9 percent rate on the ground. There’s a concern that the increased dose of radiation in deep space, however brief, is intense enough to mess with the functioning of cells that line blood vessels.
via Engadget
Image: Project Apollo Archive, Flickr
