Just noting that kidney stones used to be a lethal condition: today we have a choice of keyhole surgery to bust them, and drugs to prevent them forming in the first place.
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@cstross @clarinette I dunno, with all this I’m starting to wonder if maybe space isn’t the most awesome place to be.
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@wordshaper @clarinette Yeah, it's not healthy and the shopping list for making it survivable really includes at a minimum a low-gee centrifuge for sleeping in plus high voltage electrostatic radiation shields (which so far only exist as paper design studies—they're fiendishly expensive to build and test).
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@cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
Yeah, I've been seeing a lot of people bringing up nonsense space problems, which is particularly frustrating to me because there are plenty of actual hard space problems without dealing with the misinformation noise about nonsense space problems.
The microgravity thing is particularly stupid because we have a straightforward spin gravity solution. It's not for free, but nothing is in space.
1/2
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@cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
The more I read about electrostatic and electromagnetic radiation shielding, the more I think the brute force method of thick mass of propellant and supplies is the way to go. It's expensive but the propellant and supplies are dual purpose.
The fancy electric and/or magnetic shielding options seem expensive and difficult or impossible to actually do and they only cut down exposure by a mediocre fraction.
2/3
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@cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
And this latest electrostatic shield that only works with a beam-like proton source does not work. At all.
Because GCRs aren't beam-like. They come from all directions. So, slightly deflecting them does not help. At all.
3/3
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@cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
Anyway, for me the biggest deal-killer for near term Mars colonization is this:
We have zero data on the health effects of long term low gee exposure (Martian gravity is about 1/3 Earth's). We need to gather this data before considering Mars colonization.
The I.S.S. has gathered data on microgee exposure, and it's pretty bad.
This should make us wary about the unknown effects of low gee exposure.
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@cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
That said, we have LOTS of data on the health effects of 1 gee exposure, and this is straightforward to replicate in orbital space habitats (spin gravity).
Spin gravity could also be used on Mars, but it's far more challenging and expensive, and the failure modes are catastrophic.
2/2
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@isaackuo @cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
You know what else bugs me in sci fi?
Terraforming Mars.
Unless you can pump those rookie gravity numbers up, the atmosphere is just going to keep boiling off into space. There's a damn good reason it *used* to have liquid water on the surface
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@TeflonTrout @cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
That's not really a problem - it would take millions of years for Mars to lose a thick atmosphere, whereas whatever terraforming scheme is used to create the atmosphere should work within hundreds of years or why bother?
So, whatever scheme is used to create a thick Martian atmosphere, just do a little bit of it every few thousands of years to keep it topped off.
As for coming up with a reasonable scheme in the first place, though ...
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@isaackuo @cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
Just bombard it with meteors constantly, including ice ones. Problem solved, slowly
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Ben Royce 🇺🇸🇺🇦 Don't Boo: Votereplied to TeflonTrout last edited by
@TeflonTrout @isaackuo @cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
fuck #mars
floating colonies over #venus
induced magnetosphere, 1 atmosphere pressure will float above the clouds, right temperature at that altitude, perfect gravity
the problem: the winds
so anchor with a heavy rover at constant speed to keep the colony always in twilight, possible because venus rotates so slowly
then you get temp control. and light control: artificial earth days by having the rover speed up and slow down
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M.S. Bellows, Jr.replied to Ben Royce 🇺🇸🇺🇦 Don't Boo: Vote last edited by
@benroyce @TeflonTrout @isaackuo @cstross @wordshaper @clarinette Think we could put Musk in a dome somewhere with a bouncy house floor and convince him he's on Mars so he happily just stays there?
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Ben Royce 🇺🇸🇺🇦 Don't Boo: Votereplied to M.S. Bellows last edited by
@msbellows @TeflonTrout @isaackuo @cstross @wordshaper @clarinette
🤭
yeah but mars is masculine, important for an "alpha male"
venus is feminine, it might give the plutocrat manchild cooties!