People Just can't take it...
on
On to Mars
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· Score: 1
My understanding is that the idea of humans exploring space came to a screeching halt when we realized that humans just can't take weightlessness for long periods of time without severe bone/muscle loss and so forth. Take a look at the research specialists going up on the shuttle these days; they're all MD's Know why? They're studying the effects of weightlessness on humans. Know why John Glenn went back up in the first place? As a guinea pig. He was an extremely fit septo (octo?) generian with an extensively documented medical history. Basically, his job was to demonstrate the effects of weightlessness on older physiologies. And, in the serendipitous spirit of NASA, this information is turned to any number of other usefull things, like general ageing research and so on, but, in summary... We are not colonizing the moon or landing on mars becuse human bodies just won't take it. And until we figure out how to accomodate ourselves to different gravities, we're pretty much stuck here.
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My understanding is that the idea of humans exploring space came to a screeching halt when we realized that humans just can't take weightlessness for long periods of time without severe bone/muscle loss and so forth. Take a look at the research specialists going up on the shuttle these days; they're all MD's Know why? They're studying the effects of weightlessness on humans. Know why John Glenn went back up in the first place? As a guinea pig. He was an extremely fit septo (octo?) generian with an extensively documented medical history. Basically, his job was to demonstrate the effects of weightlessness on older physiologies. And, in the serendipitous spirit of NASA, this information is turned to any number of other usefull things, like general ageing research and so on, but, in summary... We are not colonizing the moon or landing on mars becuse human bodies just won't take it. And until we figure out how to accomodate ourselves to different gravities, we're pretty much stuck here.