Premise: Humans die after 500 days in space, give or take a week.
Doesn't matter why or how, they just do. I would prefer that they explode, but nothing so dramatic is needed. Kidney failure or swollen lung is good enough. I kind of think of the death as like when they bring deep sea fishes up too fast, and they look swole and unhappy and die. Maybe something like that but with gravity or lack of. Regardless, assume people can't live in microgravity.
Is this a problem? Yeah a big one for astronauts and engineers. Long term occupancy means rotating wheels and the costs (already expensive to keep us jellies alive) go up a hundred- or a thousandfold. Example: a ring 25 meters in radius turning at 6 times per minute gets you 1 gravity. It also gets you a noticeable Coriolis effect, and you'll want larger wheels for less puking. A 100 meter radius wheel ala 2001 Space Odyssey is accceptable, but the cost for such a structure is like putting an aircraft carrier in orbit. Probably a trillion for starters.
Does this put a kaibosh on the manned space program? No. Yes. No.
For cislunar spaceflight? No problem . For deep space missions? Big problem. So, robots.
Robots have done spectacular so far. All of our probes, when we don't crash them, do a darn good job, and usually way beyond their deadtime. Now we we should be throwing some real money at them. Put AIs to good use and have them explore our Solar System for us.
To what end? Just to know what's out there? Because we won't be colonising any other planets unless we can survive space travel.
ReplyDeleteYes, basic curiosity. Those robots have been worth every penny and certainly a better return on investment than cybercabs or those goofy products on Shark Tank.
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