NASA might save 700,000 dollars a day by giving astronauts enough Vitamin D

Created November 2017

$360,000/ hour to operate Space Station $720,000/working hour (assuming work & exercise = 12 hours/day)

Astronauts spend 2 hours a day exercising to prevent bone loss

Probably only work and exercise 12 hours a day, so only 10 hours a day of work

Note: The only supplement NASA gives crews is vitamin D - Sept 2015 2,000 IU daily, which is not enough

I speculate that if astronauts got 8,000 IU of vitamin D daily that:

  1. Astronauts could spent 1 hour a day more actually working

    • each hour of the space station crew costs $720,000

  2. Astronauts would be healthier – and thus less time off due to sickness

  3. Less DNA damage from high-energy environment

I had been thinking about the value of a person's time

Then realized that an astronauts time is very costly

Henry Lahore, Founder of VitaminDWiki, Nov 2017

Web - in addition to Vitamin D, astronauts also need Magnesium

Suspect that the water recycling system on Space Station removes Magnesium

Tags: Cost savings Shut-in