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Not realistically, no. For example > 40 percent of the astronauts who lived on the International Space Station suffered some sort of damage to their eyes, incl
by HenryKissinger 7y ago
Not realistically, no. For example
> 40 percent of the astronauts who lived on the International Space Station suffered some sort of damage to their eyes, including optic disc edema, globe flattening, and folds in the choroid, the blood-filled layer between the retina and the white sclera.
In order to modify humans not to experience these effects in space, you would need to take those 60 percent of astronauts who did not suffer these effects, have them reproduce, check that their children inherited the right genes (i.e. the genes that insulate them from these effects), wait for those children to grow, train them as astronauts, send them into space, check for any other health effects, bring them back to Earth, make those people who do not experience adverse optical effects have children of their own who are immune to other health effects of exposure to microgravity, check that these children have all the right genes, etc. Rinse and repeat over generations. Forced evolution, basically.
Gene therapy would dramatically expedite the process, but you need to first identify which genes protect astronauts from xyz health effects of long-term exposure to microgravity, and then modify the genes of your astronaut candidates to fit the right genetic profile. You must also avoid nasty side effects. If the procedure you used to tweak the genes of your astronaut to prevent bone density loss, for example, results in the astronaut having a higher likelihood of developing a cancer, you must find another way to protect the astronaut from bone density loss without increasing his likelihood of developing a cancer.
A more "brute force" approach would be to send a large cohort of randomly selected humans into space, say 10,000, have them spend a few months in orbit, monitor them for any adverse health effects, and select those few (if any) who did not experience any side effects to be the parents of a future, genetically enhanced, astronaut corps. While everyone else is crippled to various degrees by their stay in space.
- guerrilla 7y ago> Forced evolution, basically. This is equivalent to what Plato advocated. His solution to the problem of people not willingly going along with it was for the state to keep it a secret. He was a bit more of a fascist than most people recall.
- edgyquant 7y agoWell he did say the best form of government was an absolute monarchy (albeit with a philosopher king.)
- Andrew_nenakhov 7y agoThe real "brute force" approach is to send millions to space and make colonies all over the moon, asteroid belt, mars, outer planet's moons, everywhere - and see who will survive and if they leave any descendants.
- ses1984 7y agoYou can devise a spacecraft that provides some gravity for occupants, either via rotation or acceleration. Rotational gravity is probably way easier to solve for than adaptation to micro gravity.
- zbentley 7y ago> In order to modify humans not to experience these effects in space, you would need to take those 60 percent of astronauts who did not suffer these effects, have them reproduce That assumes that the 60/40 split had anything at all to do with genetics.
- throwawayhhakdl 7y agoDefinitely. It would be surprising if genetics affected almost any of these problems tbh. Much more likely is that the damage arises in a poisson ransom process or whatever and we have little recourse
- jacobush 7y agoAlso, IMHO it’s a bit arrogant to believe we know the best traits. Humans are complicated systems. Maybe halfblind, motion sick and paranoid people are better at surviving out there than happy contempt people never bothered when the centrifuge breaks down. Or whatever. I agree that the best brute force test is to just put a lot of people up there and see what happens. The best survivors might not be the obvious candidates.
- elfexec 7y ago> have them spend a few months in orbit Wouldn't it be better to keep them there? Those that survive/thrive get to breed and rinse and repeat. Keep them in space their entire lives, generation after generation and evolution would produce a space-faring capable group of humans.
- m4rtink 7y agoThats far too long term & primitive. Direct mechanical augmentation (artificial eyes!) or possibly even genetic one would likely achoeve the same much more quickly.