Day-to-day life in space

[Susano]

http://www.glumbert.com/media/spaceplay

[L. Marcus]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

PS: Zero-G Operations 11- FTW!!!

[tkdguy]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Cool! Playing this video would make a great way to start my hard sci-fi campaign.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

How adaptable are human beings ultra-long-term to microgravity? By that, I mean would a person who was born and raised in it ever be able to function in an environment that has gravity? Could he mentally grasp the idea of things falling when you let them go? Would his body physically be able to cope with having it pull on him? Would his muscles or nervous system be able to cope with challenges like walking?

[ghost-angel]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

The question is ... would his bones calcify properly in orbital freefall?

[austenandrews]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Neurologically speaking, I'm sure being raised in freefall would mean the brain fails to develop certain functions that we take for granted. At the same time, it may develop other functions that we never foresaw.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Neurologically speaking' date=' I'm sure being raised in freefall would mean the brain fails to develop certain functions that we take for granted. At the same time, it may develop other functions that we never foresaw.[/quote']

 

But that would make it impossible to function in any environment other than freefall -- not exactly a desirable state of affairs.

[Susano]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

But that would make it impossible to function in any environment other than freefall -- not exactly a desirable state of affairs.

 

Correction -- microgravity.

[Kristopher]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myostatin

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

But that would make it impossible to function in any environment other than freefall -- not exactly a desirable state of affairs.

 

Correction -- microgravity.

 

He's right. It's not really possible to function for more than several minutes in an environment of freefall. One way or another, it'll end.

[BlackSword]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Orbit is a continual state of freefall. Between planets you are in microgravity.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

None of which changes my problem: that people who have acclimatized to space from birth cannot function anywhere else. Given the real-world absence of any reliable supplies of handwavium to deal with pesky problems like this, this would mean that if you send a ship to Alpha Centauri that when they arrive the people who get there won't be able to do anything, and when they come back the people who return cannot land on the Earth and survive for more than a few hideously painful minutes.

 

And with even six months in space causing problems, doesn't that make the much-talked-about Mars mission fairly foolish?

[Susano]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

None of which changes my problem: that people who have acclimatized to space from birth cannot function anywhere else. Given the real-world absence of any reliable supplies of handwavium to deal with pesky problems like this, this would mean that if you send a ship to Alpha Centauri that when they arrive the people who get there won't be able to do anything, and when they come back the people who return cannot land on the Earth and survive for more than a few hideously painful minutes.

 

And with even six months in space causing problems, doesn't that make the much-talked-about Mars mission fairly foolish?

 

One reason people are spending 6 months in space is to try and figure out what the problems are and how to deal with them. When the mission to Mars launches, the spacecraft will almost certainly have a section that spins in order to provide some artificial gravity and help prevent long-term damage. And any trip to Alpha Centuari is going to have to be in a sleeper ship or a generation ship, and I can only assume the latter will be spun as well.

[Maur]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

That all depends on the type of ship one sends and how the crew goes. If you send a ship with a constant thrust engine so it is always accelerating at some appreciable level of Terran gravity, then those onboard will still have the instincts for gravity and its effects. If you put them into a state of hibernation then they will wake up with no change in their memory or expectations of how things will work.

 

Of course, this presumes that after childhood one can't learn new skills which is obviously false. Even an adult that had spent their entire life in microgravity (in orbit or deep space, same feel of gravity), then as long as the bones and muscles of the body were developed up to deal with gravity, then they would learn that things fall and how and could adjust their instincts to react to the new environment.

[Bygoneyrs]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

We live in a great time in our history, hopefully within my life time I will live long enough to see Man return to the moon and build semi-permant settlement there. Also I hope to see Man set foot on Mars and begin to explore her. I would also like to see unmanned probes sent to major moons of Jupitor and Saturn as well too. Being that I am currently 43 years old now, and we tend to live on a average at least as old as ones parents did (my father died at 76 and mom at 88). So if I am lucky I will live at least to age 76 or slightly older, so maybe I might get to see the above really happen. I hope too, to inspire my two kids (ages 12, 8) to get involved within the space program in some way as well too.

 

Penn

[BobGreenwade]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

One reason people are spending 6 months in space is to try and figure out what the problems are and how to deal with them. When the mission to Mars launches' date=' the spacecraft will almost certainly have a section that spins in order to provide some artificial gravity and help prevent long-term damage. And any trip to Alpha Centuari is going to have to be in a sleeper ship or a generation ship, and I can only assume the latter will be spun as well.[/quote']Unless, of course, we manage to find some way of getting there faster (spacewarping and artificial wormholes being two surprisingly promising possibilities).

[austenandrews]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Of course' date=' this presumes that after childhood one can't learn new skills which is obviously false. Even an adult that had spent their entire life in microgravity (in orbit or deep space, same feel of gravity), then as long as the bones and muscles of the body were developed up to deal with gravity, then they would learn that things fall and how and could adjust their instincts to react to the new environment.[/quote']

 

That's not entirely clear. I watched an interesting special on profoundly neglected children that demonstrated how a child's brain develops in certain ways based on specific stimuli. If a child lacks certain basic stimuli - say, no one ever talks to the child - at critical developmental stages, they do not develop - in a concrete, physiological sense - the areas of the brain that deal with said stimuli. Scans of their brain reveal physical areas that are underdeveloped. At some point the opportunity to develop those areas is lost completely.

 

Given that, it seems to me that the lack of gravity might have permanent physiological implications to a developing child. Maybe even to the basic functions of life itself.

[Susano]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Unless' date=' of course, we manage to find some way of getting there faster (spacewarping and artificial wormholes being two surprisingly promising possibilities).[/quote']

 

Traveling through hyperspace isn't like dusting crops, boy!

[L. Marcus]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

The odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field is 6,720 to one!

[Susano]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Never tell me the odds!

[L. Marcus]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Too late.

[Michael Hopcroft]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Meanwhile, Congress is trying to put a moratorium on funding for the Mars Mission President Bush is so fond of. or at least some of Congress is trying to redirect the funding towards other priorities; I was unable to find the source article so it isn't entirely clear.

[Susano]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Right now Congress is against anything Bush is for, so....

 

There's also the "that's nice, but what use is it?" factor, in which some Congress critters ignore the massive spinoffs and advancements the space program provides so they an go back to their voters and say "see? I cut government waste!"

[McCoy]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

Also I hope to see Man set foot on Mars and begin to explore her.

We have the technology to send a human expedition to Mars. The biggest challenge is finding six people who can share what amounts to an efficency apartment for two and a half years without getting homocidal.

[Nyrath]

Re: Day-to-day life in space

 

The biggest challenge is finding six people who can share what amounts to an efficiency apartment for two and a half years without getting homicidal.

More specifically, an efficiency apartment that you cannot leave.