"Borked Pseudo Mailed" wrote in message
d.net...
"jacob navia" wrote in message
...
In any trip for humans beyond the moon (mars and beyond)
artificial gravity is a necessity.

Space.com reports:
[1]

quote
Astronauts that spend long months aboard the International Space
Station
lose bone strength faster than previously thought and have a higher
risk
of breaking their hips later in life, a new study reports.

A survey of 13 space station astronauts found that their bone
strength
dipped by at least 14 percent on the average during their half-year
stays aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Three of the astronauts lost up to 30 percent of their bone strength
during their long-duration spaceflights, putting them on par with the
bone strength of older women with osteoporosis on Earth, the study
reported.
end quote

If in only 6 months trips they lose 14% of their bone strength,
in a trip of 2 years (the minimum time for a Mars trip) the strength
of their bones would disminish in such a measure that it would be a
one
way trip only. They could not resist earth gravity when they come
back.

This means that artificial gravity is a must for any trip that takes
more than 2-3 months. Note that the risk of breaking their bones much
later in life increases since apparently is very difficult to get
the lost strength back.

This is another big problem with humans in space and with human
spaceflight.


I've been advocating artificial gravity for many many years now, but
it seems NASA is suffering from some sort of tunnel vision, convinced
they can solve the ill effects of weightlessness by medicines and
exercise.

That is why '2001 A Space Odyssey' is still one of my favorite movies,
because both the space station and Discovery used artificial gravity
systems, and it seems people in the 60's were far better informed than
we are. Decades of research has come up naught, there *is no* way to
combat the absence of gravity but to produce it artificially. The
evolution of species on Earth has depended on gravity for billions of
years. Why are we so ignorant to think that we can solve the adverse
effects of weightlessness within a couple of decades? Why aren't we
more pragmatic?

================================================== =

Well, researchers are working on it. I can't speak for NASA, nor do I
think things are so simple our 'we' can include everyone. In the mean
time, Robert Zubrin answers this and very many other relevant questions
in his book, "The Case for Mars" (1996). There's lots of good resources
in cyberspace but I think Zubrin's book is the best place for someone to
start who wants to acquire the resources to do something constructive as
vs recycling old words.

Titeotwawki -- mha [sci.space.policy 2009 Jan 28]