Will the “Tiangong” get fatter while on a business trip?

The second lecture of the "Tiangong Classroom" on the Chinese space station will start on March 23. The crew of Shenzhou 13 recently sent a video invitation to watch the live lecture. Through the video, people found that the astronauts "became fatter". Is it because the "space food" is too good?

Earlier, in a video of the Shenzhou 13 astronauts reading in space, careful netizens also found that the three astronauts looked "a little fatter":

@Xinhua News Agency video screenshot

Recalling what I have seen before

Astronaut diet

Everyone can't help but wonder

Have they gained weight?

Nie Haisheng, who has been to space three times, said that becoming "swollen" in space is actually a normal physiological reaction. After weightlessness, body fluids need to be redistributed, and more of them are distributed to the head, so astronauts will look fatter; in addition, because human muscles also have weight, when on the ground, muscles are subject to downward force. In space, because muscles lose the pull of gravity, a "facelift" cosmetic effect will also appear.

"The main reason is the effect of weightlessness on the distribution of body fluids." Nie Haisheng said that as time goes by, the situation will improve after astronauts adapt to the weightless environment. He pointed out that everything in space is very interesting. Drifting, drinking water, eating, and even sleeping in a weightless environment are very different from those on the ground.

Nie Haisheng said that only after leaving the ground did he feel how fascinating and beautiful our home Earth is. Looking at the Earth from space, one can discover that the Earth is very small in the universe. We should cherish and build this beautiful Earth on which human beings depend for survival.

The relieved netizens successfully deviated

“Eye bags are cured”

“No more sagging skin issues”

“Looks younger”

It is understood that the Shenzhou 13 astronaut crew is about to complete a six-month in-orbit mission and return to the ground in mid-April. Since entering the Chinese space station in October 2021, the Shenzhou 13 astronaut crew has completed two extravehicular missions, the first space class on the Chinese space station, and realized the first Chinese New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival in space.

Comprehensive sources: Xinhua News Agency, Beijing Daily, China News Service, etc.