DailyDirt: Staying In Space Isn't Healthy...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Getting into a metal can bolted to a rocket is inherently dangerous. And even after you've escaped the full force of the Earth's pull, you're still not safe floating around in microgravity. There's radiation and the obvious nothingness that'll kill you in a few minutes if you're exposed to the vacuum of space. Assuming you're protected in a nice shielded spacecraft with plenty of food/water/air, you can spend months up there, but then you'll have problems getting back to terra firma. Survive the landing, and you may find out that your muscles have atrophied substantially. Here are just a few more links to possible challenges with manned space explorations. If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: astronauts, drosophila, health, human spaceflight, infection, jellyfish, manned space exploration, microgravity, space


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    Anonymous, 6 Feb 2014 @ 5:30pm

    "You may leave here for 4 days in space, but when you return it's the same old place."
    -Barry McGuire

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    DNY (profile), 7 Feb 2014 @ 10:25am

    Orbit vs. Space

    So the upshot of this is that one really needs to replace gravity either with centrifugal force (the big rotating space station model beloved of 1950's to
    1970's sci-fi) or constant acceleration to the midpoint of the journey, then constant acceleration in the opposite direction on the second half.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 7 Feb 2014 @ 3:00pm

      Re: Orbit vs. Space

      I think the problem with spinning parts is the weight, complexity, cost, maneouvring difficulties etc.

      Constant acceleration/deceleration may indeed become practical, with ion propulsion, VASIMR and so on. But I don’t think the current designs can give anything close to 1G.

      link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.