what is the cause behind the loss of weight in space?

Answer 1

I assume you mean the way we currently explore space in zero gravity.

The bones and muscle in the body regenerate themselves based on the amount of stress that they experience. In space, there is no gravitational stress to challange the bones and muscle. The body conserves its energy/material to best deal with the weightless environment.

Also, your head gets stuffy in zero gravity. Food doesn't taste as good.

Answer 2

The weight that we feel is the force exerted by the gravity. In the earth it depends on the mass of the body and acceleration due to gravity.
Weight = mass * g (N)
You know that the acceleration due to the gravity decreases as we go up, ie the gravitational pull decreases. So in the outer space the gravitational pull is less. So less weight.
Also the weight we feel is relative. If we are standing on a platform and we together with the platform is under free fall we won't feel any weight.
In space also it is like that, the space shuttle and we are falling towards the earth freely with same acceleration. So we wont feel gravity hence the weight.

Answer 3

Weightlessness is actually kind of an illusion.

When a body is in orbit around the earth it is actually in 'free fall.' The classic illustration of this is firing a cannon off of a mountain top. Imagine that it is fired so far that it goes completely around the earth. Of course, it doesn't intersect with the earth's surface, so it keeps on going.

Whether someone is inside a space station, or inside a plane which is in a power dive, or an elevator which is free-falling, the same effect occurs. Relative to the vehicle they are in, they are also free-falling. Hence they seem to be weightless.

However, they still have mass. If you push a person in zero-G it still takes the same effort to get them moving as when they are at rest.

Answer 4

It is because you are falling all the time. Just like those Road Runner cartoons, where the coyote is falling off a cliff and a big rock is falling next to him. He and the rock are falling at the same speed, so they seem weightless. The only difference is that in space, you never hit the ground. In orbit, the Earth is curving away from you (due to your forward speed in orbit) as fast as you fall toward it. When traveling beyond Earth orbit, you are basically like a rock that was thrown up. You will eventually fall back to Earth or fall onto another planet. It may take months or years to fall all the way, but you are falling all the time.

Answer 5

you have to remember what causes weight. It is the pull from that thing we are standing on. In most cases that thing is the earth which has a certain amount of mass and therefore pulls us with a certian strength. When you are in space you are farther from earth so its pull downward on u is far less if not completely gone. This is VERY simplified and if u want to know how it really works check out the wiki article on gravity here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity . Good luck to u and i hope one day u can experience weightlessness.

Answer 6

Are you asking about humans losing weight in space or being weightless in space? Humans lose muscle and bone mass in space because they don't need to use major muscles in space to stand or lift things, so they end up losing weight.

But weightlessness is caused by the LACK of gravity that far away and above the Earth.

Answer 7

there in not such a thing as lack of gravity. the gravitational forace though is smaller due to the increased distance. there is though (assuming that no other planets exist or that their forces are so small to neglect) that the vector of the gravity from earth and the gravity of moon cancel each other. of course theoritacally speaking these pints are closer to the moon since its mass is smaller.

if you are talking about people getting thinner. it is due to the lack of "normal" diet and work out. it seems that most of the cosmonauts are exhausted and wrecked after a long time in orbit. and they need quite some time to return to normal. it is even difficult for their muscles to carry their own weight.

Answer 8

Well, if a person goes into the space then he would face with shortage of gravity...which reduces the weight but the mass of the body remains the same...you would find different weight in different planets.

Answer 9

The force attract on your body is gravitational force
That force is inversely proportional to the distance between you and earth. When you are far enough from the earth, the gravitational force that attracted you will be equals to zero.
This can explained why at outer space you will experience the weightlessness phenomenon.

Answer 10

Gravity between two ojbects is a force related to distance they are apart. The moon is close enough to the earth to b e attracted, but far enough away to not fall in. As you leave the earth, the distance between you and the earth increaes and the gravitational force decreases. In addition, by orbiting, in a sense, you are constantly falling but moving faster than you can fall down.