Timothy Birdnow

Here is an interesting story. It seems that zero g causes an increase in nitric oxide in the brain which can lead to, well:

"Well, I think that certain parts of the brain end up receiving way too much blood because nitric oxide – an invisible molecule which is usually floating around in the blood stream – builds up in the bloodstream. This makes the arteries supplying the brain with blood relax, so that they open up too much. As a result of this relentless surge in blood flow, the blood-brain barrier – the brain's "shock absorber" – may become overwhelmed. This allows water to slowly build up (a condition called oedema), causing brain swelling and an increase in pressure that can also be made worse due to limits in its drainage capacity.

Think of it like a river overflowing its banks. The end result is that not enough oxygen gets to parts of the brain fast enough. This a big problem which could explain why blurred vision occurs, as well as effects on other skills including astronauts' cognitive agility (how they think, concentrate, reason and move)." End excerpt.

So, Mars may not be possible at all. In fact, if we do not develop adequate artificial gravity techniques (now pretty much undeveloped as the coriolis affect comes into play with small rotating systems) Gravity would change the higher up one goes; gravity at your head would be different than at your feet in a small rotating system. We may find ourselves denied space travel in general except in the Earth-Moon system.

That would be a bad thing.

I once read it theorized that human brain waves are tied to the Earth's magnetic field and that leaving the Earth's field could lead to disruptions in brain wave patterns, perhaps causing neurological or psychological disorders. (see the Schumann resonance ._I've never seen where this has been confirmed. We have sent astronauts mostly to low Earth orbit, well within the safety area. We don't know if this could matter away from the planet.

We should earnestly hope this isn't the case. Mankind needs to expand into the Universe, and especially the solar system. Eventually we'll need the resources. And we need to be away from Earth so our species can survive a planet-wide disaster (like a comet strike or whatnot.) Our future is out there; if we stay here we will wither and die. Society will have to become more regulatory, more intrusive, more restrictive as the population grows. Space settlement will give us a way out of this.

In the end there are a lot of problems with space travel, ones we never realized and many things that we did.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 01:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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