FINDING ways to prevent astronauts getting kidney stones could be crucial to
the success of long space flights such as missions to Mars. Studies on crews
from the Mir space station show that they are much more likely to get kidney
stones.
The stones can form without causing any pain. “But once renal stones start to
move they can be excruciatingly painful,” says Peggy Whitson, an astronaut and
biochemist at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. “You’d have an
incapacitated crew member and potentially have to abort the mission.”
Earlier studies on short space shuttle flights up to 18…
