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NASA's HI-SEAS Project Results Suggests a Women-Only Mars Crew
globaljustin writes "Alan Drysdale, a systems analyst in advanced life support and a contractor with NASA concluded, "Small women haven't been demonstrated to be appreciably dumber than big women or big men, so there's no reason to choose larger people for a flight crew when it's brain power you want," says Drysdale. "The logical thing to do is to fly small women." Kate Greene, who wrote the linked article, took part in the first HI-SEAS experiment in Martian-style living, and has some compelling reasons for an all-women crew, energy efficiency chief among them: Week in and week out, the three female crew members expended less than half the calories of the three male crew members. Less than half! We were all exercising roughly the same amount—at least 45 minutes a day for five consecutive days a week—but our metabolic furnaces were calibrated in radically different ways. During one week, the most metabolically active male burned an average of 3,450 calories per day, while the least metabolically active female expended 1,475 calories per day. It was rare for a woman on crew to burn 2,000 calories in a day and common for male crew members to exceed 3,000. ...
The calorie requirements of an astronaut matter significantly when planning a mission. The more food a person needs to maintain her weight on a long space journey, the more food should launch with her. The more food launched, the heavier the payload. The heavier the payload, the more fuel required to blast it into orbit and beyond. The more fuel required, the heavier the rocket becomes, which it in turn requires more fuel to launch.
Instead it is: Radiation and muscle loss
Long term travel exposes humans large amounts of radiation, in particular from cosmic rays, and from
In addition, living in a low gravity environment destroys your bones.
These two issues are far more problematic than food, air, and water.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
Yeah, that's great and all, but the right way to post this is that the ideal astronaut has a low calorie requirements and leave unsaid that the people who can fill that role is women. No need to drag sexism into the fight when there are perfectly logical rationals for crew selection.
My mother was killed in a flame-war, you insensitive clod!
And this comparison is useful to point out because.... ?
Nah, just send one guy. He can do all the heavy lifting; plus he'll be the happiest guy in the solar system.
#DeleteChrome
I'm indifferential to them.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
First spaceship to Mars; one male captain and a crew of women!
They suck down less oxygen too. Divers know this firsthand ;-)
Despite how radical that statement sounds, it's actually perfectly reasonable for a zero-G environment. They're not only dead weight, they're also in the way and make you require larger accomodations.
Even in Mars's gravity field a legless person would deal quite well, at least inside the facility (picture how easily you could get around without your legs if you suddenly were given 2.5x the arm strength, didn't have your legs weighing you down, and on top of that add in how most double amputees already have good arm strength to begin with). They should be able to "hop" with their arms all the way to a 2 1/2 meter ceiling without trouble, and the full arc would take a good two seconds to come back down. On the moon it'd be even easier. Of course, if they're legless, why would they even need such tall ceilings to begin with?
Next to my desk we have an Ire Extinguisher. Our boss is really assertive, so we like the idea of having it.
I love the fact that Mars is the only planet known to man that is solely inhabited by robots
Next to my desk we have an Ire Extinguisher. Our boss is really assertive, so we like the idea of having it.
the correct answer to space travel is obvious, its dwarfs
Obviously. Because dwarfs with high constitutions get saving throw bonuses, and they all get to hit bonuses vs. space orcs and galactic goblinoids.
I can see the fnords!