Could Mars-colonized humans survive a return to Earth?
Mars' gravity is 38% of that of Earth's.
Supposing a human born and raised on a Mars colony traveled to earth later in their life, would they be able to survive the increased gravity?
For example, I would weigh 63 pounds on Mars, and would land on Earth weighing 166 pounds.
What physiological effects could be expected? If one could not survive, would it be possible through intensive care?
Some things to consider:
Side effects - for example, would one's bones, due to being much thinner, break easily? Would there be respiratory troubles? I suppose there is only speculation in a lot of this as it's never happened.
Length of time to full recovery. Obviously, given one survives, the body would eventually adjust, bones thicken, etc. What sort of estimate could one give on how long it would take to adjust and become "normal" on this increased gravity?
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1 answer
You could always simply lie down.
Jokes aside, the answer is that there would be quite a few issues. Your spine would not be used to being so compressed. This is a problem with astronauts returning home from extended stays in space. There are two key issues:
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Spaceflight osteopenia: In microgravity, there is less stress on the bones in the body. Therefore, they become less dense. Back on Earth, the bones must support weight. However, they are too weak, and it is extremely hard for astronauts to walk again after long stays in space because of this loss. On Mars, a human would have low bone density; they wouldn't be able to stay upright without much effort on Earth. To counteract this, Wikipedia gives the following:
Increasing dietary calcium and vitamin D is a standard countermeasure for osteoporosis. Clay is reportedly used by NASA for retaining calcium.
You'd need a lot of calcium and vitamin D, but it's possible you could adapt to life on Earth.
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Muscle Atrophy: Something similar happens to muscles. In space, they aren't used to maintaining effort by keeping the body up. Therefore, they become weak. This would also be a problem for someone going from Mars to Earth. Their muscles would only be useful in relatively weak gravity. Wikipedia suggests the following:
One important rehabilitation tool for muscle atrophy includes the use of functional electrical stimulation to stimulate the muscles. This has seen a large amount of success in the rehabilitation of paraplegic patients.
Or you could go the low-tech way and simply work out for a while. It would take quite some time, but it would work.
I think it's safe to say that you would survive, but it would take a lot of effort for you to function normally on Earth.
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