[MIKE MEMORY and COMMON-SENSE CALLUM are watching Apollo 13 in Common Sense Callum’s multi-media room.]

MIKE MEMORY: I read once, right, that if an astronaut spends a long time in space, their bones actually start to lose mass. It’s called spaceflight osteopenia and affects the hips, legs, and the spine. It’s the microgravity, you see, it decreases the natural bone building that we all experience every day. Today, you and me, our bones will slightly break and decrease and rebuild themselves. But it just doesn’t happen in space because the floating about means there’s less stress on the bones, so they effectively start to wear away due to lack of use. Load-bearing exercise, you know, walking, running, sports like football and basketball, are the best way to keep healthy bones. But that microgravity means they just can’t exercise without being strapped down to a treadmill up there. Once they return to Earth it can take up to four years for their bones to recover.

COMMON SENSE CALLUM: Makes sense.

MIKE MEMORY: Yeah, I thought so too.

[Curtain]

Carl Burkitt 2025