Do we age differently in space?

Do we age differently in space? Sort of. The pack of gravity on board orbiting spacecraft has some effects that are much like an accelerated form of ageing.

For example, muscles begin to waste away with lack of exercise and the strength of your bones deteriorates in a very similar way to the effects of osteoporosis.

Your heart also becomes less efficient because it doesn’t have to pump blood against gravity. Fortunately, these effects are easily reversed on return to Earth.

Ironically, though, travel at high speeds means that through the strange effects of Einstein’s theory of relativity, astronauts actually experience time passing slightly more slowly than those of us on Earth.