Posted on 03/04/2004 1:03:37 PM PST by LibWhacker
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Experts in the effects of space travel on the human body told a presidential commission on Wednesday that there were challenges but no "showstoppers" in building a permanent moon base, then sending astronauts to Mars.
Aerospace medical experts Stanley Mohler and Mary Ann Frey, both longtime researchers in the field, identified a number of health risks future astronauts could face, from radiation poisoning to meteoroid collisions, but said NASA (news - web sites) was developing plans for every known contingency.
"From the medical standpoint, there is further research to be done, but we don't see any ... showstoppers out there," Mohler told the President's Commission on Moon, Mars and Beyond.
The commission, chaired by former Air Force Secretary Edward "Pete" Aldredge, is charged with developing strategies for implementing the space goals announced by President Bush (news - web sites) in January.
"It should be a relatively straightforward program of establishing 90-day (crew) rotations on a colony on the moon," Mohler told the panel in hearings at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.
Radiation, whether from solar flares or cosmic rays, was the highest hurdle identified by the scientists.
While the moon has plenty of lunar soil to shield habitation modules, a Mars mission, which could last 15 months, most of that time in transit, presents special problems.
But Mohler said the Russians have developed effective countermeasures that involve positioning their ships so the crew is shielded from most of the radiation from solar flares, and research in the United States is producing lighter-weight radiation shielding.
NOT JUST PHYSICAL PROBLEMS
Frey added a second problem to the top of her list: the psychological effects of long-term space travel.
"Crew members will be isolated at great distances from Earth with long lag times in communication. They'll be crowded into close quarters. They will be in danger and their sleep will be degraded," Frey said.
Despondency or depression under these conditions might diminish crew skills level and affect safety, experts say.
Funding is also a threat to crew health, she said, touching on a subject often mentioned at such forums because the Bush plan calls for major advances in space exploration with only minimal funding increases.
"A much greater level of commitment and funding for biomedical research and countermeasure research development must be made than has ever existed before," she said.
"This commitment will pay off in space and on Earth. The spin-offs from spaceflight research and technology have made possible our lifestyle on Earth in every area, including health," Frey said.
One area of concern since the dawn of human space flight did not present a major worry for Mohler -- what to do about routine medical emergencies that arise when the nearest hospital is thousands, if not millions, of miles away.
Mohler said space pharmacies with as many as 200 different medications will be available, as well as "an onsite treatment facility, where, if a person's appendix acts up, they can bring it out."
On Thursday, the commission will hear from John Glenn, a former U.S. senator and the first American to orbit the Earth.
I suppose it's too obvious to mention, but they also need to take all their own atmosphere for breathing and pressure with them. There is none there. The Martian atmosphere is at some 96% CO2 and at only between 4 and 8 millibars pressure. Could not sustain life even if it was 100% oxygen.
No biggy -- just find a conservative who has survived several years in a liberal urban environment. Real outer-space would be a relief.
Nothing that the old wooden ship navies didn't face. Just give 'em a ration of grog and enough space to sing space shanties and they'll be ok.
IMO, the only sensible thing to do is to bring back Project Orion and send a ship the size of a very large skyscraper, weighing a few million tons, shielded with three or four feet of solid steel plating, manned with a crew of thousands perhaps, hauling on board with them fleet of a hundred rovers, as well as many, many tens of thousands of tons of construction equipment and material, all to be launched in one shot directly from the surface of the Earth, then powering its way to Mars in a few weeks, finally landing in toto on the surface of the Red Planet and disgourging its contents of busy little bees. It can be done. It's not science fiction. They were going to do something like it in the early 60s, and knew how. But nascent environmental Luddism prevented it, blast it to all Hell.
BRING BACK ORION!!!
Spin-offs like Tang and... and... uh...
Our prisons are full of 'em. <g>
On a more serious note, it might be worthwhile to study "well-adjusted" long term prisoners, and see how they cope with their lack of freedom. There might be something to be learned that could help with astronauts cooped up for long periods of time.
Another group to (potentially) study would be shut-ins. There are countless people with serious health issues who simply cannot "get out much", and for the most part they learn to get along just fine.
Finally, I'd suggest packing along a decent library with them. It's very easy to get wrapped up in a good novel and lose complete track of time. If "enjoys reading" is included in the basic criteria for selection for these missions, then it shouldn't be hard at all to address a very big part of the "locked up in a tin can" issue. When you're reading a book, your surroundings are immaterial, so long as you've got decent light and a comfortable chair -- neither of which should be a problem.
With digital storage having such amazing density these days, a vast library of e-books can be packed onto a single laptop computer -- enough literature to keep an avid reader occupied for years.
That would be an excellent vehicle for doing some serious "down to business" work on Mars, once they've settled on a location and so forth. In lieu of something like that, it would be absurd to consider a real "base". Sure, they can send a small amount of materials, and cobble something together from "found materials", and maybe climb into some caves. But it would be a lot more productive to be able to transport some prefab housing, scads of supplies, power stations, and so forth.
It wouldn't be much different from what's done today when the military sets up a base in the middle of nowhere via a series of air drops. The big difference would be that the housing would need to be airtight, and the HVAC would need to be redesigned (and enhanced).
A functioning "mini-city" could be erected in nothing flat, and then they could do some serious work, rather than farting around with mini-shelters and just-hanging-on life support systems.
Will it happen? I doubt it. Nice fantasy, though.
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