GDS @ Bloomfield College | Less cargo that needs to be sent to Mars
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Less cargo that needs to be sent to Mars

02 Jan Less cargo that needs to be sent to Mars

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Elon Musk is well known for his ability to create a media sensation. Scarcely a week goes by that the founder of SpaceX and Tesla doesn have an announcement or update to make often via his social media outlet of choice, twitter. And as a major figure in the NewSpace industry, anything he says is guaranteed to elicit reactions (both critical and hopeful) from the space community and general public.

Canada Goose sale Just last week (on Monday, Sept. 17th), he revealed new information about the Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) and who its first passenger would canada goose be when it conducts its first lunar mission (which is planned for 2023). And on Friday (Sept. 21st), Musk canada goose coats on sale shared some updated plans on when canada goose factory sale a SpaceX Martian colony could be established. Sending tiny unmanned probes across the vast gulfs between stars is still mostly science fiction. But to send humans on that journey? That’s just a level of technology beyond comprehension. Canada Goose sale

canada goose coats For example, the nearest star is Proxima Centauri, located a mere 4.25 light years away. Just for Canada Goose online comparison, the Voyager spacecraft, the most distant human objects ever built by humans, would need about 50,000 years to make that journey. canada goose coats

canada goose clearance sale I don’t know about you, but I don’t anticipate living 50,000 years. No, we’re going to want to make the journey more quickly. But the problem, of course, is that going canada goose clearance sale more quickly requires more energy, new forms of propulsion we’ve only starting to dream up. And if you go too quickly, mere grains of dust floating through space become incredibly dangerous. canada goose clearance sale

Canada Goose Parka Based on our current technology, it’s more likely that we’re going to have to cheap canada goose uk take our time getting to another star. Canada Goose Parka

canada goose deals And if you’re going to go the slower route, you’ve got a couple of options. Create a generational ship, so that successive generations of humans are born, live out their lives, and then die during the hundreds or even thousands of year long journey to another star. canada goose deals

Artist’s impression of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The double star Alpha Centauri AB is visible to the upper right of Proxima itself. Credit: ESO

canada goose coats on sale Imagine you’re one of the people destined to live and die, never reaching your destination. Especially when you look out your window and watch a warp ship zip past with all those happy tourists headed to Proxima Centauri, who were start enough to wait for warp drives to be invented. canada goose coats on sale

No, you canada goose uk shop want to sleep for the journey to the nearest star, so that when you get there, it’s like no time passed. And even if warp drive canada goose store did get invented while you were asleep, you didn’t have to see their smug tourist faces as they zipped Canada Goose sale past.

buy canada goose jacket Is human hibernation possible? Can we do it long enough to survive a long duration spaceflight journey and wake up again on the other side? buy canada goose jacket

canadian goose jacket Before I get into this, we’re just going to have to assume that we never merge with our robot overlords, canada goose uk outlet upload ourselves into the singularity, and effortlessly travel through space with our cybernetic bodies. canadian goose jacket

canada goose black friday sale For some reason, buy canada goose jacket cheap that whole singularity thing never worked out, or the robots went on strike and refused to do our space exploration Canada Goose Coats On Sale for us any more. And so, the job of space travel fell to us, the fragile, 80 year lifespanned mammals. Exploring the worlds within the Solar System and out to other stars, spreading humanity into the cosmos. canada goose black friday sale

Artist impression of astronauts exploring the surface of Mars. Credit: NASA/JSC/Pat Rawlings, SAIC

Come on, we know it’ll totally be the robots. But that’s not what the science fiction tells us, so let’s dig into it.

We see animals, and especially mammals hibernating all the time in nature. In order Canada Goose Online to be able survive over a harsh winter, canadian goose jacket animals are capable of slowing their heart rate down to just a few beats a minute. They don’t need to eat or drink, surviving on their fat stores for months at a time until food returns.

canada goose clearance It’s not just bears and rodents that can do it, by the way, there are actually a couple of primates, including the fat tailed dwarf lemur from Madagascar. That’s not Canada Goose Jackets too far away on the old family tree, so there might be hope for human hibernation after all. canada goose clearance

buy canada goose jacket cheap In fact, Canada Goose Outlet medicine is already playing around with human hibernation canada goose uk black friday to improve people’s chances to survive heart attacks and strokes. The current state of this technology is really promising. buy canada goose jacket cheap

Canada Goose Outlet They use a technique called therapeutic buy canada goose jacket hypothermia, which lowers the temperature of a person by a few degrees. They can use ice packs or coolers, and doctors have even tried pumping a cooled saline solution through the circulatory system. With the lowered temperature, a human’s metabolism decreases and they fall unconscious into a torpor. Canada Goose Outlet

canada goose But the trick is to not make them so unconscious that they die. It’s a fine line. canada goose

The results have been go now pretty amazing. People have been kept in this torpor state for up to 14 days, going through multiple cycles.

The therapeutic use of this torpor is still under research, and doctors are learning if it’s helpful for people with heart attacks, strokes or even the progression of diseases like cancer. They’re also trying to figure out if there are any downsides, but so far, there don’t seem to be any long term problems with putting someone in this torpor state.

A few years ago, SpaceWorks https://www.canadagooseuk.net canada goose outlet sale Enterprises delivered a report to NASA on how they Canada Goose Parka could use this therapeutic hypothermia for long duration spaceflight within the Solar System.

Currently, a trip to Mars takes about 6 9 months. And during that time, the human passengers are going to be using cheap Canada Goose up precious air, water and food. But in this torpor state, SpaceWorks estimates that the crew will a reduction in their metabolic rate of 50 to 70%. Less metabolism, less resources needed. Less cargo that needs to be sent to Mars.

canada goose store Credit: SpaceWork Enterprises, Inc canada goose store

Canada Goose Jackets The astronauts wouldn’t need to move around, so you could keep them nice and snug in little pods for the journey. And they wouldn’t get into fights with each other, after 6 9 months of nothing but day after day of spaceflight Canada Goose Jackets.