Astronaut gut microbiome alterations induced by long-duration confinement

Throughout long-duration spaceflight, maintaining astronaut health is crucial to the feasibility of a manned mission to Mars. In the longest controlled human confinement study conducted to date, the ground-based Mars500 experiment investigated long-duration health by isolating six astronauts for 520 days.

A study by Emmanuel Gonzalez from C3G and his collaborators from the University of Montreal, Nicholas Brereton and Frédéric Pitre revealed that crew members who took part in the Mars500 experiment showed significant changes in their gut microbiota from their 520 days in confinement.

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