From Space to school: Exercise in Space for Live on Earth

Currently two major challenges are impacting human health in the western societies, one being a move towards a sedentary society, the second one being longevity. Both have a considerable impact on physical as well as mental health. Space life science research helps to understand the underlying degenerative physiological and neurobehavioral processes as living in space, living in microgravity can be regarded as a time lapse of the sedentary and aging human being.
While musculoskeletal deadaptations during long-term space flight are meanwhile well accepted to mirror the adaptations occurring during aging, neurocognitive and neuroaffective deconditioning occurring during space flight and analogue conditions might also help to identify and understand the underlying neurobehavioral markers of a sedentary life-style.
Translational research in space science as well as in ground based studies of the past years has shown that exercise can be regarded as a key factor to counteract physical and mental deconditioning in space, guaranteeing a holistic approach to health and a benefit to the socio-demographic changes of our society.