Influence of Space Flight on Fascicle Dynamics and Aponeurosis Movements in the Medial Gastrocnemius Muscle

Abstract

Muscle atrophy is a topic that has to be dealt with for various reasons, for example, to understand and reduce muscle loss in elderly and bedridden patients. Astronauts after a space flight are interesting study participants because they experience muscle atrophy as a side effect of weightlessness and are healthy subjects at the same time. This thesis aimed to evaluate data from the study Sarcolab 3. This study recorded motion and ultrasound data of the calve muscle gastrocnemius medialis before and after the space flight of five astronauts. These recordings were taken at the resting muscle and during contraction, whereas earlier studies mainly focused on the relaxed muscle.