MIT – Spacewalkers fingernails falling off
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Astronauts with wider hands are more likely to have their fingernails fall off after working or training in space suit gloves, according to a new study.
In fact, fingernail trauma and other hand injuries—no matter your hand size—are collectively the number one nuisance for spacewalkers, said study co-author Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
“The glove in general is just absolutely one of the main engineering challenges,” Newman said. “After all, you have almost as many degrees of freedom in your hand as in the rest of your whole body.”
The trouble is that the gloves, like the entire space suit, need to simulate the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere in the chilly, airless environment of space. The rigid, balloonlike nature of gas-pressurized gloves makes fine motor control a challenge during extravehicular activities (EVAs), aka spacewalks.
A previous study of astronaut injuries sustained during spacewalks had found that about 47 percent of 352 reported symptoms between 2002 and 2004 were hand related. More than half of these hand injuries were due to fingertips and nails making contact with the hard “thimbles” inside the glove fingertips. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
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Trauma to the finger or the hand is quite common in society. In some particular cases, the entire finger may be subject to amputation. The majority of traumatic injuries are work-related. Today, skilled hand surgeons can sometimes reattach the finger or thumb using microsurgery. Sometimes, traumatic injuries may result in loss of skin, and plastic surgeons may place skin and muscle grafts.
I still don’t understand why the fingernails are coming off.
But I do understand why probably the one I smacked the day before yesterday will be history.