Aging Effects for Hearts in Microgravity

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The discussion highlights the significant challenges of human space settlement, particularly regarding health risks associated with zero gravity and high radiation exposure. While some solutions, such as artificial gravity and radiation shielding, have been proposed, they remain largely untested in practical applications. The conversation suggests that unmanned drones could perform preparatory work in space, potentially mitigating some risks. Economic considerations are also a major factor, with a focus on developing technologies for resource exploitation, such as asteroid mining, rather than manned missions. Overall, while many challenges exist, they may not be insurmountable, but the long-term effects on the general population remain largely unknown.
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Currently reading A City on Mars, a good pop-sci skeptical look at space settlement - this is only one of a host of potential medical issues that pose severe ethical issues to test properly and, combined with the economic and engineering challenges likely ensure that humans will not live outside of earth at any scale
 
BWV said:
Currently reading A City on Mars, a good pop-sci skeptical look at space settlement - this is only one of a host of potential medical issues that pose severe ethical issues to test properly and, combined with the economic and engineering challenges likely ensure that humans will not live outside of earth at any scale
Yeah, that makes sense. Because it's not possible due to a number of human-space compatibility issues :rolleyes:
 
While there are a great many challenges, this doesn't necessarily mean they will all be insurmountable, the greatest risks are likely to be in space and the effects of 0 gravity and high radiation exposure have been extensively studied. Despite the idea of using rotation as a form of artificial gravity, which potentially could solve a lot of problems, this remains untested. We also know a great deal about radiation shielding but there is an issue of getting it into space, again increasing the use of space based construction and resource collection could be the way forward.
Initially, there is no reason that some preparatory work could not be completed by unmanned drones, though they might also be subject to radiation effects. Many of the issues might be easier to deal with on planetary bodies like mars, though the problems would be different.
I think the real issue might end up being how well we have identified and understood the risks. I think that considering the already huge costs involved, many of the potential solutions might form quite a small percentage of economic considerations, there might also be economic advantages in developing exploitation of the asteroid belt with drones. It might make the most sense to reduce the focus on manned missions, the manned part being a major problem to use the time to develop the knowledge and technologies needed. I don't really see anything to indicate that these issues would prevent progress.
 
Laroxe said:
While there are a great many challenges, this doesn't necessarily mean they will all be insurmountable, the greatest risks are likely to be in space and the effects of 0 gravity and high radiation exposure have been extensively studied.
But given that only a handful of elite athletes (i.e. astronauts) have been exposed to these conditions and for no longer than about a year, we still have no clue about the long-term effects on ordinary people, let alone children or pregnant women
 
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