Summary from elsewhere
The International Space Station (|SS) has low microbial diversity, which could lead to astronaut health issues, according to a study published in Cell.
Researchers found that the microbial communities resemble those found in sanitized environments like hospitals rather than natural settings.
Co-senior study author Pieter Dorrestein explains that increasing microbial exposure could improve astronaut health during long-term space travel.
The study suggests incorporating natural elements, like soil, into the ISS to enhance microbial diversity and astronaut well-being.
The study in question:
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There’s a great sci-fy novel called Heart of the Comet where we’ve colonized Halley’s Comet in order to move it’s orbit and mine it. The doctor keeps releasing “challenge viruses” to keep everyone’s immune systems healthy.
LOL, people keep ending up with colds and bitching, but they know it’s a necessary evil. Never seen this explored before or since this article.
Can’t be healthy if you’re not sick 🤔
Man, my house must be extremely ideal then.
Maybe but please don’t forget your dishes and laundry!
Turns out Earth 2 was right
Unpopular opinion, I know, but humans simply are not built for space. Trying to force this square peg into a round hole is such a tremendous waste of resources at this point.
I wish we could divert all of human space flight budget to automating probes. We’d be mining the asteroid belt by now. Once we have space-based automated manufacturing, then it will be the time to bring in the humans.
Regardless, we would need some understanding of the subtle and complex effects of leaving the planet before we could mitigate issues that would arise.
Absolutely. I just think we’re putting the cart before the horse, and human space flight should come later.
It’s a scary word to use, but humanity does need some form of eugenics for space travel.
No, not the racial kind.
We need to breed resistance to radiation and adaption to low oxygen or low gravity environments.
We need to be able to be stuck in cramped quarters around other people for years without eventually killing each other.
We need to be able to be cryogenically frozen for long periods of time and then reanimated.
None of this is possible without fundamentally editing the genes of humans. We essentially need to evolve into a new species.
I still think that’s trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. For biological humans to be able to explore the solar system, we need to advance in space-based manufacturing and AI control of those systems. Then there’s no more need for cramped spaces, for one. The AI can capture the appropriate asteroids, start towing them towards earth, and have a massive space shuttle ready to take on passengers when it arrives. Same for planetary accommodations, where the AI can set up everything before we arrive.
Having to launch every single piece of material from out of the gravity well of earth is just not scalable or realistic.
For us to be more than just tourists in our solar system, and especially before we get to other stars, I really think we need to sort out how to digitize human minds.
I still think that’s trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. For biological humans to be able to explore the solar system, we need to advance in space-based manufacturing and AI control of those systems. Then there’s no more need for cramped spaces, for one.
You are somewhat right but you forgot that we are already able to build and use cramped spaces for months, think about a military ships, submarines or the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Having to launch every single piece of material from out of the gravity well of earth is just not scalable or realistic.
That’s the real point, not the cramped space.
For us to be more than just tourists in our solar system, and especially before we get to other stars, I really think we need to sort out how to digitize human minds.
Nah, we just need to start to think to use the same approach of a naval fleet: send more then one big ship. This way also a generational ship could be easier to build and run.
Isn’t that mostly what has been happening? We send humans to do things humans need, and send robots when it’s impractical for humans.
I would argue it’s almost always impractical to send humans.
Even on the ISS? They do real science than can’t be done on earth, and we didn’t have technology to do that science with robots. Maybe we do now, but it’s probably more worthwhile to develop those robots for deeper space activities rather than a dying space station orbiting earth.
I think we do have it now. It’s time to shift.
No, we don’t.
A robot can only do what it is programmed to and the current AIs are well beyond what we would need.
Have you read A City on Mars yet? I’d recommend it!
People are very fervent about space travel as humanity’s ‘destiny’ or last hope, which i agreed with until the book convinced me otherwise. You’re correct, we are basically infants coming out of the cradle and expecting to run (space) when we should be learning to walk (Earth).
I haven’t, but I’ll put it on my wishlist. Thanks!
Yeah, I knew I was gonna get downvoted for it. I get it. I am also enamored with human space flight, and it’s why I’m such a massive sci-fi fan. It’s such a romantic notion. I feel no joy in accepting that humanity isn’t meant for the stars.
But Neanderthals weren’t meant to colonize the earth. Sometimes the species needs to leap forward to meet new challenges.
I do want to say that you’re totally right about space based manufacturing key to any real expansion into space. I mean automated would be nice, but it’s not totally necessary. Getting manufacturing to work in space at all is going to take some serious experimentation, so it can’t really start 100% automated. But on the other hand, I do expect robotic drones to play a major role, even in the beginning.
One benefit we couldn’t get from robots is the disease and medical knowledge we’ve gained from human space travel
https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/about/everyday-benefits-of-space-exploration/improving-health-care.asp
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9833174/
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/space-station-leads-to-breakthroughs-in-human-health-on-earth/
Some of these could have been done without space travel for sure, but it’s hard to predict what we’ll learn before we do things
Totally. I think there’s plenty to learn from human space flight. I just think we need to put it lower on the priority list for the moment, unless we can get it better funded.
humans simply are not built for space.
Humans aren’t built for 0g, and I expect we will never live whole lives like that. But living in space does not require living in 0g.
I’m quite certain that if humans manage to survive and continue to thrive for another 200 years, we will absolutely be living in space. And at that point it will be inevitable that the number of humans living in space will eventually come to dwarf the number living on planets.
Gravity isn’t the only issue. Radiation and cosmic rays are a much bigger problem than that. Psychological issues from being in cramped ships for so long. Food production. All sorts of other crap, too.
Radiation isn’t that big a deal. If you have a large enough structure for a colony, or even large enough for 50 people, then you have plenty of mass for radiation shielding. At that scale it’s a non-issue.
Psychological issues from being in cramped ships for so long.
Well, only at first… Families don’t want to live in cramped ships, so they won’t. They’ll live in artificial habitats with grass and open spaces. Eventually they’ll be large enough to have rivers and mountains.
But even without all that, just ask anyone who’s served on a submarine if it’s possible to survive in cramped quarters. It’s doable.
