I talked earlier about the balance machines at the Dore Centres, which were developed by NASA to monitor astronauts’ balance progress after returning to earth. Wynford Dore has kindly sent me additional information after speaking at the Dore Presentation in Cardiff on March 21st, about the astronauts’ temporary difficulties.
“I’ve been trying hard to find the old astronauts balance problems link - I haven’t seen them for two or three years and they seem to have been taken off the various websites. One of the references I can remember clearly was a French - Russian mission where they described in detail the co-ordination problems experienced by cosmonauts when they returned to earth. Some of them were writing backwards, some of them had orientation problems, a number of them had travel sickness problems for a while. When we first started doing our research one of our specialists went to America to discuss with the expert that had been working with NASA on the development of the equipment we subsequently obtained. NASA have constantly denied that astronauts have “dyslexic problems”. We know some of the symptoms they suffer temporarily are exactly the same as those that are suffered every day by some people.” – Wynford Dore
Astronaut David Wolf also said in National Geographic that upon his return to earth, balance problems caused him to run into doors.
There is more information on astronauts’ balance disorders at:
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=11919
And general information on balance disorders at:
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/balance/balance_disorders.asp
www.dore.co.uk
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