Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station
As seen in this video from last fall, it's important for astronauts (or taikonauts* to exercise in space, to make sure they are ready when they return to Earth from China's space station (Tiangong):
[*Apparently China officially calls its space travelers hángtiānyuán, meaning "astronaut" or "space navigator", where hángtiān means spaceflight and yuán means member]
Science fiction fans from the 1950's - a decade before the space program - would not be puzzled by this, and would know just how it was done - thanks to Murray Leinster's 1953 novel Space Tug. Leinster was well acquainted with the related problem of space travel - he called it space weakness.
"When we got back," Joe told Brown, "we were practically invalids. No exercise up here. This time we've brought some harness to wear. We've some for you, too..."
Joe got out the gravity-simulator harnesses. He showed Brent how they worked. Brown hadn't official instructions to order their use, but Joe put one on himself, set for full Earth-gravity simulation.
(Read more about the gravity-simulator harness)
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