The Apollo mission is an accumulation of effort from many different fields of discipline. While we usually hear feats of engineering and exciting scientific discoveries associated with the Apollo mission, there’s a whole lot of other things going on inside the project. Take, for example, healthcare. Going behind the scenes the mission, BBC recaps the health of the Apollo 7 crew in numbers:
24: Number of decongestant tablets taken by the Apollo 7 crew
Over the course of the mission, Wally Schirra (one of the commanders of the
mission) exhausted the supply of tissues and all 24 of the decongestant tablets
carried in the spacecraft medical kit.
3: Cases of flatulence
because they had to ration their water, the crew of Apollo 13 suffered dehydration.
Three astronauts reported instances of excessive wind – most likely caused by
their diets.
150: Neil Armstrong’s heart rate as he descended towards the lunar surface
At 1,000ft (300m), with fuel running low, it raced at 150 beats per minute and
remained that way during landing.
0.2: Total radiation exposure of the Apollo 11 crew in rads
According to the official Apollo 11 flight report, the 0.2 rads (0.002 grays in today’s
standard international units) experienced by the crew “fell below the medically
significant level.
21: Days in quarantine after returning from the Moon
Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF) and was designed to protect the Earth from any
potential Moon bugs – infections from pathogens in space. Inside, the crew could
relax and be monitored for any ill effects of their voyage to the Moon.
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