DailyDirt: Who Wants To Be An Astronaut?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Not too long ago, becoming an astronaut was an amazing achievement that only a very few, rigorously selected and intensely trained pilots could ever hope to attain. But nowadays, while it's not exactly commonplace to be a space traveler, if you have enough disposable income, you could pay the Russian Space Agency for a ride or line up to buy a ticket on a commercial flight (to the "edge" of space). Over 500 people have been in space (from 36 different countries), and plenty more people will follow them. Here are just a few things you might want to know about space travel before you plan your next trip.- South Korea started its astronaut program in 2006, and Yi So-yeon became the first Korean woman to go into space on a Soyuz mission in 2008. South Korea spent about $28 million to get Yi up to the International Space Station, and she recently retired as an astronaut. Her retirement raises some questions about whether the trip was a worthwhile venture, but then again, some folks have been asking what the point of going to space is for decades. [url]
- A manned trip to Mars would take months, and it won't be easy to keep people happy and safe in small living quarters for that long. If astronauts could hibernate on the way, it might make the journey more tolerable. Bears can hibernate for months, but people have only been in a medically-induced hypothermic torpor for about 10 days. [url]
- Astronauts have noticed a "Charlie Brown" effect due to microgravity that makes their faces swell because fluids tend to accumulate in the head in space. The result is like having congestion, and it apparently affects the sense of smell (and taste), leading to curious cravings for spicy foods. [url]
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Filed Under: astronauts, hibernation, iss, mars, medically-induced hypothermic torpor, soyuz, space, yi so-yeon
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I'm guessing none of the people asking that question have ever heard of those things known as 'satellites', or the related technology 'satellite communications'?
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So that's why Aliens are always portrayed as having large heads.
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Trip to Mars
It would take months with the conventional chemical rockets we use now. It could be reduced to weeks with a nuclear rocket.
NASA actually built such a rocket, with manned space flight in mind. It was called NERVA. It worked well in ground tests, but it was never put into space. The project was axed due to budget cuts...
http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/NERVA.html
I know that a lot of environmentalists get upset every time the word "nuclear" is mentioned, but fact is you'd pretty much need some sort of nuclear reactor to keep humans alive in space, or on the Martian surface. It's one thing to power a small robot (which can endure temperature extremes, and doesn't need air, food or water). It's quite another to operate a life support system.
If humans made it to the surface of Mars and want to set up a colony, they would need fuel to stay alive for any length of time. Drilling for fossil fuels is not likely to be successful, but if indeed there is oil and natural gas on Mars, it wouldn't be very useful since the atmosphere lacks oxygen to burn it. Wind power on Mars...unfortunately, the thin atmosphere means that a 100 mph wind packs less energy than a one mph wind on Earth. Solar is the only option besides nuclear, but keeping humans alive during the extreme cold Martian night (Antarctic-like temperatures, or worse) will require an awful lot of energy storage. If we can't get that to work in Antarctica, I don't see how we would on Mars.
Radiation occasionally bathes the surface of Mars, but it comes from solar storms at unpredictable times. Not really a source of energy, and in fact a hazard. Colonists will have to look for uranium or thorium if the colony is to survive long-term independent from supplies from Earth.
If a crew makes it to Mars, they might survive the cold and radiation, but they might not survive the Greenpeace protesters.
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you know what happens when you eat spicey beans
they never tell you about that do they
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@3
OR they are simply midgets on a rampage wearing head gear
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