Wednesday
(0)Beautiful thoughts from Lileks on Monday, at the end of a piece which starts with him complaining in a humdrum way about some humdrum journalists saying that space program money ought to be spent instead on curing cripples:
Just thought of something: What holds the paraplegic in their chairs? What keeps them from shooting around the room, stopping their progress with a finger, floating from desk to desk?Gravity.
And gravity isn’t a big issue . . . where?
I love the internet. And especially the bit where I or other intelligent people have chosen to stick something up every day, but allow themselves to put up boring nonsense if that is all we can think of. That way, two bits of boring nonsense (space programme money should cure paraplegia instead, no it should not) combine and catch fire, while you are doing the piece. Thesis (yawn – but I have to put something so I will complain about this particular something), antithesis (yawn again – but I am right, aren't I?), synthesis (just thought of something … wow!).
Gravity IS a big deal, or lack of it thereof. Some deleterious health effects of zero, or micro gravity are: bone loss, muscle deterioration, increased excretion with resultant dehydration, kidney stones, decrease in auto-immune response, decrease in red blood cell production, and many more.
No practical exploration and exploitation space will happen until a method to create artificial gravity is perfected.
Posted by amos at January 21, 2004 04:38 PM
Most of the ailments you listed are treatable, or will be with more study in the near future.
Besides, we're talking about going to the Moon and Mars, you won't be exposed to 0-g long enough to be too bad. The Russians spent long tours in Mir, less than it will take to get to Mars.
Now, if you're talkin' Alpha Centauri, you're probably right, but that's what centrifical force is for. Send two spaceships, tied together with a carbon fiber cable, and spin. Problem solved.
As for the parapalegics, I'd rather have parapalegia in space (bone loss & all) than here where gravity pins me to the floor.
Posted by Brock at January 21, 2004 05:25 PM
No practical exploration and exploitation space will happen until a method to create artificial gravity is perfected.
Bah. Then we'll just reengineer the human body. The tech to do that will be available this century anyway.
Posted by nobody important at January 21, 2004 05:27 PM
I or other intelligent people have chosen to stick something up every day, but allow themselves to put up boring nonsense if that is all we can think of.
Whew! I or other intelligent people had better look to their pronouns or we am going to sound silly.
Posted by S. Weasel at January 21, 2004 05:37 PM
I seem to have heard something about a certain gene that ensures normal body growth in microgravity. According to reports, black bears do not lose bone mass during hibernation, unlike humans on bed rest and other hibernating animals. Perhaps a calcium hack may not be too far off.
Posted by TheWobbly Guy at January 23, 2004 03:27 PM
In Sir Arthur C. Clarke's 1952 book Islands in the Sky (out of print), the commander of a zero-G space station is not a paraplegic but rather an ex-astronaut who lost both legs in a rocket crash. He just Velcros himself in place when he needs to be still, and uses his hands to float about the cabin.
Posted by petronius at January 23, 2004 06:50 PM
