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Growing Flowers In Space (nasa.gov)
An anonymous reader writes: This weekend, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly posted a picture of the first flower to bloom in space. The International Space Station has been home to the Veggie plant growth facility for almost two years, and scientists have been working hard to figure out how to keep crops alive in microgravity. It's a challenge to keep plants properly heated and hydrated, and their current specimens been attacked by mold as well. "More crops for Veggie are heading to the orbiting laboratory aboard SpaceX-8. The Veg-03 run will include two sets of Chinese cabbage, and one set of red romaine lettuce. In 2018, there are plans to launch dwarf tomato seeds to the space station. Smith said the lessons learned from growing zinnia flowers will be critical in the process of growing tomatoes, a fellow flowering plant. Studies are also in progress to see how adjusting the lighting in the Veggie plant growth facility can affect plan mineral composition. There will be preflight testing to determine what 'light recipe' to use aboard the station."
Sheesh, the Chinese are taking over everywhere!
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
Sorry to be a wet blank here, but these were not the first blooms in space; the Soviets did it back in 1982
Plant growth, development and embryogenesis during Salyut-7 flight, Adv Space Res. 1984;4(10):55-63.
(info courtesy nasawatch.com)
Toil is Stupid. Don't be Stupid.
> This is important if we're to ever have long space flights.
According to the article, mold was a problem with the zinnia. Perhaps we should forget trying to replicate terrestrial horticulture just like back in Kansas, and focus on growing edible and/or decorative molds.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
That sounds very improbable.
You cannot "upload" a consciousness into a computer. At the very best, you'll be able to make a copy.
And if you happen to be able to makes a perfect copy, it means it will think like a human. Wouldn't a human mind go insane on a centuries-long trip?
Well, gee, we can look at supporting the fragile biology because it exists and we can do real science around that ... or we can rely on something which is nowhere near existing (uploading human consciousness into computers).
So basically you're saying we should wait until we perfect technology we don't even remotely have, and not bother doing stuff we actually can?
I'm sorry, but saying we should halt science to wait for science fiction means we'd never fucking do anything, because we'd all be sitting around waiting for the science fiction to magically happen.
I'll put my faith in real science instead of something have no idea will ever be possible.
You might as well say we should wait until we've evolved to be able to survive in space. Like that's gonna just happen by magic.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
The way you can tell is that the article mentions that their plants had been attacked by mold. Really? And why were mold spores allowed to come into the plant growth facility?
I take it you have never worked in mycology.
You can't eliminate them, they are everywhere and in amazing quantities. Even in my ISO Class 100 clean room working under a laminar flow hood, I still get the rare unintended mold growth in a culture. Normally from a simple procedure mistake.
You have mold spores on your skin, in your hair, on everything you own, etc.
Just for the fun of it I set up the laser particle counter in my kitchen one day, gave an average reading of 6,954,652 particles, at a flow rate of 0.1 CFM, between .3 microns and .5 microns per cubic foot of air.
LOL, what??? Are you joking??
A quick google says that mold spores are 3 to 40 microns.
Allowed?? How the hell do you plan on filtering out everything on the 3-40 micron scale? From the same article:
You clearly don't understand what you're talking about.
Nobody "allows" mold spores in. Nobody can really prevent them.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
I will leave you with the following question: If you had a unicorn, would it shit skittles and piss moonbeams?
Because, really, mine is just as likely as yours given existing technology.
So, why even consider it?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If you could make a perfect copy to hardware, you can reset it back to a known good state whenever you need to or it goes insane. Also, if you could put a human consciousness into a computer, you'd need some hardware to interface with or some other way to approximate human sensations. Imagine your brain waking up and having no sense of sight, hearing, touch, etc. You wouldn't need a centuries-long trip through space for a mind to go insane.
Putting it in a computer would be a neat trick, but downloading it back into a new meat sack would be far more interesting. Upload the consciousness to a computer and store it and drift through space for hundreds of years or more. When you get to the other end, start growing some perfect clones and reinstate the consciousness. As far as the person is concerned, practically no time has passed,
Well if you didn't know, I'll file your comment under "wild speculation disguised as analysis."
And the answer to your question, of course, is "The original." You didn't even consider if your phrasing made sense, did you?
Also, "atom for atom" isn't even the right scale to attempt what you think you're describing. :o