During the anniversary week of the first human moon landing, Eric Hedman reminds is that we know practically nothing about the effects of partial gravity on human (or any animal) health. This is a sign of how unserious we remain about human spaceflight.
5 thoughts on “Settling Space”
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…those of us who are paying for it should know [the justification]
Which is another way of saying that those that are not paying for it are not owed any justification.
To expose a child who has no say in the matter to this risk to me is completely immoral
Which is to claim that all humanity since the origin of our species is immoral because children have never had a say in the matter and our collective judgement has always been that, that is moral. It would be immoral to give them a say when they are unqualified to make it.
To me, the biggest unknown is…
The problem is there is no end to our imagined sea monsters. When one dies from actually experience a fresh one is soon ready to take it’s place. That pattern is solid as history.
I think our next research outposts, whether on the Moon or Mars, should have a primary mission similar to the ISS.
Finally he accidentally states the proper solution. The same one I’ve been advocating. Learn by doing. The alternative is *surprise* not learning by not doing. That’s been mostly the mode we’ve been in for the last half century. The good news is while our ‘betters’ have been debating our future, people like Elon are actually doing it. They don’t let hand wringing or the consensus stop them from moving forward. SpaceX and others will make my argument for me. All I have to do is watch.
So far people advocating for international fascist regulations have been focussing on evil businesses who would ruin space like they have Earth. What happens when they find out about scientific experimentation on primates and other large animals?
Will ALF stage terrorist attacks on the Moon as they do on Earth? Will they raid a lunar lab and set the monkeys free for a radical lesson in how compatible animals are with the lunar environment?
Ah yes. Horrible humans would damage the unspoiled beauty of space… I have always found this argument rather pathetic. Humans are as much a part of nature as everything else.
we know practically nothing
There are two ways of dealing with this more than common situation. The correct approach is a combination of the two. Research and doing. The problem with research is there s no end point. The problem with doing is the risk level. If your risk level is zero, there is no start point.
It’s better to risk a few lives than to risk all life by not doing. Suppose all human life were lost because we started one day too late. That day exists but is unknowable.
In this case I think it is both. The research is doing. It will eventually have to be people in those gravity lab experiments. If you want to shoot directly to Mars w/o gaining the data first, that is certainly an option and if people are willing to volunteer for it I’m okay with that. Politically others will not be, esp. if there are fatalities or crippling injuries as a result and that’s a real risk IMO.
OTOH we can put up a gravity lab for only a tiny fraction of what it would take to mount a full-on Mars colonization effort. There is no reason I can see why we couldn’t have a functional gravity lab on orbit in a year or two if we started today. We could start experiments shortly thereafter and have the data in hand for 0g at ISS and 3/8g at the gravity lab well in advance of any Mars missions (or 16/100g for Moon missions). Not only can the 0G +xG experiments run concurrently but with as reasonable chance as possible of recovery if effects are shown to be deleterious since at all times you are only hours (not months/years) to Earth return! There’s is no reason not to do this now and every reason not to wait. I think this is what Rand is saying about “not being serious”.