Silly poll: Space travel

I'm staying here. The conditions of life are very well suited to humans, and there's so much beauty I haven't seen yet.

If and when real starships look like the ones on tv, I might reconsider.

 

Mars flight simulation crew start training — RT

Eleven volunteers from Russia, Europe and China have been selected to prepare for a simulation flight to Mars. Six of them will be chosen and isolated for 520 days to test how the human mind can cope with such stress.
“Over the upcoming months the candidates will undergo standard training for cosmonauts, familiarize themselves with specifications of the spaceship model, and taste foodstuffs which will be used during the 520 days of the ‘flight’ to Mars,†Mark Belakovsky, deputy director of the Mars-500 project, told journalists.
All candidates have high technical education and vary in age from 27 to 44 years. In April, six lucky ones will go into seclusion in a model spaceship located in the Institute of Medical and Biological Studies in Russia. Three spots have been allocated Russians, two for Europeans, and the last one has been reserved for the only Chinese candidate Wang Yue, unless he is deemed not fit.

 

When they realize their mistake, we just get Backup Planet with the Backup Daniel and the Backup everything else and put it back in place!

 

The original source for the my comments on neutrons was a NASA TV show. Several of the presenters were just a few guys who went to the moon, and got bombarded with what was later identified as nuclei. The symptoms were visual flashes.

According to my college physics classes, nuclei are made up of protons and neutrons. Nuclei (neutrons + protons) are a problem when they bore through your DNA at high speed, much more so than the electron radiation that we are more familiar with.

A lot more has been discovered about atoms, nuclei, and such since my college physics. I'm reminded of that every time I pass over the Stanford Linear Accelerator when I travel 280. That thing collides electrons and positrons just to see what flies out of the collision. Positrons didn't make it into my physics classes, but the existence of SLAC suggests that science has gone beyond what I learned in school.

Nuclei are certainly deflected by magnetism, including their neutrons. And I'm not at all sure that neutrons are entirely unaffected by magnetism. In fact, I'm not at all sure that our concept of neutrons is but an ancient simplification of atomic structure.

Anyway, the whole point is that there is some very nasty radiation out beyond our magnetosphere that may preclude human travel there. Maybe we'll find a way to cope with it, but so far it looks more like blind luck in avoiding the worst of it.

Medical products like TA-65 and Product B are a start toward effective DNA repair that will be necessary for space travel. Even if we fail with the space part, improving DNA repair mechanisms will be a major improvement in human existence.

 

There is a good introduction to TA-65 at TA65: the world . Telomeres are the DNA at the end of chromosomes. They get shorter with each cell division, until they are too short to allow further division (the Hayflick limit). TA-65 is a telomerase activator that enables telomere extension, producing younger cells. The exciting thing about the current product is that it seems to favor improvement of critically short telomeres. Thus an immune system rendered ineffective by overuse can be restored to better function.

It has been observed that new medical products take about 17 years between introduction and general acceptance by most doctors. TA-65 is about 5 years into that cycle. So if you depend on the average doctor for advice about TA-65, you've got about another 12 years to wait. Actually, I find even a 12 year wait to be wildly optimistic. It will probably require a new generation of doctors who've read textbooks that cover telomere health.

Back on topic. Space travel is going to be hazardous to DNA. Medical products that extend telomeres and otherwise repair DNA will help space travelers to survive the inevitable DNA damage. If it's enough, then humans may go to Mars and return.

 

Er, no. Your big expense is lifting stuff out of our gravity well.

Not going to happen. Physics forbids it. You would send a request and they would send you back a file.

You would have a "storm cellar" built into the middle of the water tank. The water is your sheilding. When it gets bad you go inside and wait it out. Not perfect, but survivable.

Not really stuck. Physics allows it. Question is how high a price will you pay.

I thought they decided that was cosmic rays?

So you carry a magnetic field with you.

 

It gets really expensive when these two factors are multiplied together.

Physics forbids only good latency, not good link capacity. I could live with that.

 

On my earlier planetary WiFi remark: I know it takes minutes for light to reach Mars from Earth (3-6 minutes.) Phone calls and texting would be impractical. Still, it would be valuable.

 

Lorenzo's Oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

No, it doesn't produce younger cells. There's some controversy over how well it lengthens the life cycle of an old cell. More importantly, your initial assertion of it being a magic bullet for lethal radiation doses is completely bunk. Proteomics as relating to transcription is the most popular train of thought for gene therapy/ mutation treatment.

TA-65's only role is encouraging telomerase production...which does didly squat for cell metabolism, mutation repair, or suspension of cell atrophy. Maybe it does reduce the shortening of telomeres...but telomere length would be the least of your worries if you're exposed to lethal doses of radiation.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyn-xqmMt_g]Robinson Crusoe on Mars - Theatrical Trailer - YouTube[/ame]

 

I would go no matter what the risk....... a lot of research has been done with respect to the various systems needed to get there, and needed to live there......in my personal opinion, we need to spend some money to build some prototypes/systems and see how they pan out.....

 

Anatomically modern? Oh, she's far more attractive than that.

 

There is a video about TA-65 at "www.ustream.tv/recorded/18587202". (just copy the url to your browser - embedding it didn't work).

Dr. Ed Park discusses the science and some of the experience of his patients who have taken TA-65. The described effects are that these people had better function, as if they were younger.

Several side effects mentioned were that people on blood pressure medication had to reduce their dosage, and other people had to get new glasses with weaker prescriptions. Specifically, anyone on prescription drugs may need to have the dosages modified to accommodate their body's improved function.

The big fear is that activating telomerase will initiate or promote cancer. In fact a major push for controlling cancer is to disable telomerase in cancer cells. Dr. Park's experience is that TA-65 is associated with improved cancer outcomes.

Starting at about time index 38 (specifically 39:50) he describes how TA-65 upregulates genes that control DNA repair. TA-65 apparently works on more than just telomerase activation. It also increases DNA repair. If your DNA gets shot up with radiation, you'd really like your repair mechanisms at their highest activation.