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Old June 15th 20, 09:07 PM posted to alt.astronomy
Porcospino
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Posts: 7
Default No Confirmed UFOs Ever So Far - perhaps long lived

On 2020-06-12, Sjouke Burry wrote:
At any reasonable speed, you will be barbecued slowly by alfa, beta and
gamma
radiation.
I dont think living beings can survive.


Maybe. We actually don't know a whole lot about long-term, low-level
exposure to radiation, how the body responds it and whether there are
possible solutions: there is some research about drugs that could
mitigate the effects of radiation; galactic cosmic rays (which are for
the most part protons and alpha particles) could be shielded against
with hydrogen-rich materials like plastics or by surrounding habitats
with regolith mined from asteroids; etc.

So we don't really know if it's a massive problem in the first place
and, in case it is, whether mitigation is impossible. But of course it
will be one of the challenges of interstellar travel.

One SF book I read, used self-replicating space probes.
When they passed a star system, they started mining, and produced
replica-probes, sending those in all directions.
That grows exponentially, and after a few millennia, their corner of the
galaxy
was covered with probes.
If they detected life, send back probes loaded with that info.
For a longe-lived species, that works, and you dont have to leave home.


Agree that that's a possible solution (although there could be benefits
to colonization 'in person'). Even if radiation isn't a showstopper
imagining a a life support system that can operate without any
external input for decades might be really challenging.