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Astronaut Scott Kelly Describes One Year In Space -- And Its After Effects (brisbanetimes.com.au)
53-year-old astronaut Scott Kelly shared a dramatic excerpt from his new book Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery in the Brisbane Times, describing his first 48 hours back on earth and what he'd learned on the mission:
I push back from the table and struggle to stand up, feeling like a very old man getting out of a recliner... I make it to my bedroom without incident and close the door behind me. Every part of my body hurts. All my joints and all of my muscles are protesting the crushing pressure of gravity. I'm also nauseated, though I haven't thrown up... When I'm finally vertical, the pain in my legs is awful, and on top of that pain I feel a sensation that's even more alarming: it feels as though all the blood in my body is rushing to my legs, like the sensation of the blood rushing to your head when you do a handstand, but in reverse. I can feel the tissue in my legs swelling... Normally if I woke up feeling like this, I would go to the emergency room. But no one at the hospital will have seen symptoms of having been in space for a year...
Our space agencies won't be able to push out farther into space, to a destination like Mars, until we can learn more about how to strengthen the weakest links in the chain that make space flight possible: the human body and mind... [V]ery little is known about what occurs after month six. The symptoms may get precipitously worse in the ninth month, for instance, or they may level off. We don't know, and there is only one way to find out... On my previous flight to the space station, a mission of 159 days, I lost bone mass, my muscles atrophied, and my blood redistributed itself in my body, which strained and shrank the walls of my heart. More troubling, I experienced problems with my vision, as many other astronauts had. I had been exposed to more than 30 times the radiation of a person on Earth, equivalent to about 10 chest X-rays every day. This exposure would increase my risk of a fatal cancer for the rest of my life.
Kelly says the Space Station crew performed more than 400 experiments, though about 25% of his time went to tracking his own health. "If we could learn how to counteract the devastating impact of bone loss in microgravity, the solutions could well be applied to osteoporosis and other bone diseases. If we could learn how to keep our hearts healthy in space, that knowledge could be useful on Earth." Kelly says he felt better a few months after returning to earth, adding "It's gratifying to see how curious people are about my mission, how much children instinctively feel the excitement and wonder of space flight, and how many people think, as I do, that Mars is the next step... I know now that if we decide to do it, we can."
Our space agencies won't be able to push out farther into space, to a destination like Mars, until we can learn more about how to strengthen the weakest links in the chain that make space flight possible: the human body and mind... [V]ery little is known about what occurs after month six. The symptoms may get precipitously worse in the ninth month, for instance, or they may level off. We don't know, and there is only one way to find out... On my previous flight to the space station, a mission of 159 days, I lost bone mass, my muscles atrophied, and my blood redistributed itself in my body, which strained and shrank the walls of my heart. More troubling, I experienced problems with my vision, as many other astronauts had. I had been exposed to more than 30 times the radiation of a person on Earth, equivalent to about 10 chest X-rays every day. This exposure would increase my risk of a fatal cancer for the rest of my life.
Kelly says the Space Station crew performed more than 400 experiments, though about 25% of his time went to tracking his own health. "If we could learn how to counteract the devastating impact of bone loss in microgravity, the solutions could well be applied to osteoporosis and other bone diseases. If we could learn how to keep our hearts healthy in space, that knowledge could be useful on Earth." Kelly says he felt better a few months after returning to earth, adding "It's gratifying to see how curious people are about my mission, how much children instinctively feel the excitement and wonder of space flight, and how many people think, as I do, that Mars is the next step... I know now that if we decide to do it, we can."
You mean shrinkage?
Probably sending a high-altitude balloon would have accomplished the same thing for 1,000x less spending...
And then just raise its orbit to get it out of the atmosphere and accelerate it to a stable orbital velocity and keep it in free-fall like the ISS (around 17,000mph) and you're there!
Though you'll need a bigger balloon to carry the hundreds (thousands?) of tons of rocket needed to get it into orbit.
I think you've just reinvented the Rockoon, which is still being pursued, but not, afaik, for large payloads like a space capsule that can support a human.
Well, back when Larry Niven's Ringworld became popular, some engineering students actually did the math based on Niven's own description of the fictional ring, and concluded that the Ringworld was not stable around its star. Niven later integrated those stability problems into the plot of future Ringworld novels.
Would a circular station like in 2001 or an O'Neill Cylinder like Babylon 5 actually be as stable as we all assume? Would there have to be movable masses located around the perimeter that could be shifted to account for internal mass movement of people and materials? Would it simply make more sense to have a craft on a long tether, tied to a counterweight on the far end, the whole thing tumbling as it travels? The latter solution probably would be a poor one for a close-orbiting station but might make for a good interplanetary craft, where the counterweight could be machinery or supplies that are useless during the transit but would be essential on arrival. Such a craft would probably need a winch to pull the tether in and bring to two halves together, that winch itself could be in the counterweight part to help ensure that there's sufficient mass for the system on a return trip that presumably has shed a lot of the original mass.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Yep. And what separates reality from sci-fi isn't just what is physically possible. It's often what is financially possible.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Luna is the key to getting off this planet.
1) We master fast, safe travel to and from Luna. Think some kind of cross between Space-X and the Shuttle and Apollo LEM. Maybe something like Space-X takes you to IIS, then you board a Shuttle to Luna orbit, then a sturdy LEM departs the cargo bay or top half, and lands on Luna surface then can take-off back to Shuttle leaving nothing behind, then Shuttle travels back to IIS, then Space-X back down to Earth while Shuttle stays in orbit.
2) We establish a permanent colony on Luna. Dig down and use Lunar rock to shield from radiation. Build large loops underground that centrifuge up to 1G for normal living. Learn hard lessons of living off Earth, but with not too horrible 4 day return if needed using technology in Step 1.
3) Build Space Elevator - it is possible on Luna with existing materials and technology. Very hard if we have to ship the materials up, but we may find what we need on Luna.
4) Use Lunar resources to build large interplanetary vessel powered with ion drive in Luna orbit with the Elevator. Step 3 is huge, but this will make Step 3 look like a picnic. It would have to have enough shielding to keep radiation down to earth normal levels, rotate to simulate 1G for living, and be able to make the trip to Mars, or elsewhere, and back without refueling, and carry it's own Space-X, or two, for landing on the surface and taking you back up to the ship and all the fuel that requires.
5) Make permanent colony on Mars using lessons learned in Step 2. Dig down to shield. Centrifuge to 1G for living. Etc.
We get to Mars eventually, but we learn how to get there and how to live there by doing it on Luna first. Next would be in the Asteroid Belt on some minor planets. Or perhaps turning large asteroids into space stations. Lots of possibilities once you know how to get this far.
What "incredibly strong materials"? You think we can't make a rope that carries 100-200 tonnes of load or so? Why would you need "space station size carbon nanotube structures" for that?
Ezekiel 23:20
We have perfect data on what 1g does to a person. Following extended ISS and MIR missions, we have pretty decent data on 0g - and the answer is that it slowly kills us. But we have literally no data WHATEVER on what 0.17g (moon) or 0.38g (mars) does to us.
Is that enough gravity to avoid 100% of the problems in 0g? Does it actually have ALL of the problems of 0g?
We really have no clue.
Given the nature of orbits and getting to Mars and back, you either have to stay for no longer than 2 weeks - or you have to stay for an entire year. If we send people to Mars for 2 weeks - after 6 months in zero-g flight - and with another 6 months of zero-g to get home again - the effect on the crew will be within the range of adverse conditions that we've seen for 12 months in zero-g (VERY BAD!), regardless of what 2 weeks at Mars gravity does to them. But if we send them for an entire year - then they could easily be anywhere between dead and fully healthy when they head home.
The 2 week mission provides us with no information whatever. The second approach is REALLY dangerous. If Mars gravity is no better than zero-g then the astronauts will have had 2 years of inadequate gravity...and they may well end up dead. We have NO CLUE what 2 years of inadequate-gravity does to people.
So what we NEED to be doing - as a matter of urgency - is sending a spinning 1/3rd g artificial gravity environment into orbit and sticking some astronauts inside it for months at a time. All we need is a reasonable sized crew compartment (Hi Bigelow guys! This is your thing!) and a decent counter-weight with a strong cable between them. All the crew have to do is live there and exercise daily. Heck, I bet we could find people who'd pay millions to do it.
This is actually a MUCH more important thing to know than what we'll gain by sending people to Mars. It determines whether mankind has any kind of future at all in space or whether it's robots all the way.
None of the efforts to get people to Mars appear to have that anywhere in their mission plans...which is crazy!
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