19 ms·
As far as I know, Humans need lots of gravity to develop, so any settlement could not reproduce, at least until means to counteract the effects of microgravity
by bayesian_horse 8y ago
As far as I know, Humans need lots of gravity to develop, so any settlement could not reproduce, at least until means to counteract the effects of microgravity are discovered.
- kamaal 8y agoYou spin your O'Neill cylinders, that's how you get gravity.
- bayesian_horse 8y agoO'Neill cylinders don't work on the moon.
- pavel_lishin 8y ago"Aw, Mom, why can't we go live on the moon with Dad?" "Now, Billy, you know your bones and brain need at least .85G to develop properly. You can go live with Dad when you turn 16."
- TeMPOraL 8y agoWould be more worried about this eventually happening the other way around. "Aw, Mom, why can't we go live on Earth with Dad?" "Now, Billy, you know your bones and muscles are used to lunar 0.16G, and won't support your body in full 1G. Your heart isn't strong enough for those conditions either." See also: Belters from The Expanse.
- pavel_lishin 8y agoYup, also Andy Weir's Artemis, and to a lesser degree Larry Niven's everyone-except-Jinxians.
- TeMPOraL 8y agoAlso the anime Planetes had touched this topic, AFAIR.
- kamaal 8y agoAt this point in time, any mass settlement in space won't involve going down another gravity well. Pulling stuff out of a gravity well is enough work as it is. Mostly you will have people living and working in neighborhoods, in space, just like you have cities and lot of empty unused land between them on earth. Like space cities. Then cluster of space cities, then may be a region full of such clusters etc.
- andygates 8y agoLunar G isn't microgravity. We genuinely don't have the data, which is why this, Eucropis, and subsequent work is a big deal.
- jerf 8y agoYou can still build something that spins at 1G though. It just isn't a cylinder anymore, but something more like a continuous racetrack.
- airstrike 8y agoEasier said than done https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EHKQIC5p8MU https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EHKQIC5p8MU
- kamaal 8y agoPretty much any project that involves humans settling in space in itself is a long shot goal by todays terms. Even if you start mining the asteroids any time in the coming decades, it won't be any thing less than a century after that, until you put humans into permanent colonies.
- TremendousJudge 8y ago>Humans need lots of gravity to develop I don't think reproduction of vertebrates has ever been tried in space. Definitely not humans. It simply isn't known how growing up in moon gravity or no gravity at all affects people. They most likely would never be able to visit the Earth, but maybe they can live healthy lives regardless. Or maybe it's impossible and the fetus dies in the womb. It simply isn't known.
- Symmetry 8y agoHumans certainly need some gravity but whether lunar 1/8 g or martian 2/5 g is enough is something we have no experimental data on.
- EForEndeavour 8y agoVery minor correction that does not affect your point: lunar surface gravity (1.6 m/s^2) is only about 6 times weaker than that of earth (9.8 m/s^2), not 8 times.