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#interplanetary

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Instead of going to or back to the or searching for "intelligent" life, we should be working to understand the worlds in the oceans and learning to communicate with all the life on this planet we don't understand.

How are we going to understand "alien" life when we don't understand Earth's?

Start at the beginning, here.

The problem with this subject is that it makes so many unchallenged assumptions, beginning with whether or not it is even worthwhile to conduct manned exploration of #space, given the laws of #Physics. Sadly, a lot of people without a solid foundational education in Physics assume that technology will simply continue to get "better", because our past experiences of #technology have created a steady progression.

But, we are approaching the point with our understanding of the
#universe that we know to a very fine degree how little there is left to know about the universe that we can meaningfully affect, due to the simply nature of the amount of energy it requires to do anything at an #interplanetary, let alone #interstellar scale.

There is no "magic" energy source and there isn't ever going to be a "hyperdrive" or "warp drive" that enables travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light, let alone
#FTL faster than light travel. And even if it were possible to create distortions in #spacetime, we already understand that the energy levels which would be required for that to happen are not attainable by human tools, probably not even if you have deluded yourself into thinking humans will ever be able to build a #sustainable #fusion reactor powerplant, let alone one small enough to outfit a #spacecraft.

Many of the psychological problems that this type of
#research is attempting to solve arise out of the simple fact that the only people who are ever going to be considered for manned space missions are themselves #elites with huge #egos and towering senses of #entitlement engendered by their supposed merit. Such people are inevitably going to create conflict between each other. These are people who are inherently competitive and combative, and putting them into a pressure cooker is guaranteed to cause an explosion, at some point.

Yes, literally a pressure cooker, because that's really what a spacecraft is, in the first place—a pressurized, heated containment vessel.

There are millions, billions of people here on Earth who every single day are facing the very same psychological, technical, and resources challenges that manned exploration of space entails; however, we as a society are spending billions of dollars on novel technologies in an attempt to alleviate these challenges for a minuscule, elite cohort, instead of investing in the proven, non-technological solutions we know would alleviate these conditions for billions of people on Earth.

Comparing 17th Century terrestrial
#exploration to 21st Century exploration of interplanetary space is comparing apples to oranges. For one thing, we have radios, now, which would make #communications possible even between #Mars and Earth in less than 1 hour, something Henry Hudson couldn't have enjoyed beyond a few miles' radius, at best, in his time. And yet, even though we figured out how to communicate with a spacecraft outside the Solar System some 45 years ago, we still struggle to provide reliable communications to the people of Earth, still today—not because we don't know how, but because we as a society don't believe everyone deserves it.

It's not a technological problem, it's a political problem, caused by psychological problems in the hearts and minds of those who wield social, cultural, political, and economic power right here on Earth.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPxZ6F6hsns

Replied in thread

@w3cdevs @w3c this topic has fascinated me. I’ve wondered about caching or other things that could be done for astronauts. There are many asynchronous protocols, but so much of the Internet uses TCP, and won’t work well with caching. Delay Tolerant Networking has been one hope: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delay- #interplanetary #network

en.m.wikipedia.orgDelay-tolerant networking - Wikipedia
Continued thread

On #Earth, 2.4 mSv is normal. Above 100 mSv, cancer is likely. People on the #ISS face levels of 200 mSv, and #interplanetary levels of #radiation ☢️ are around 600 mSv. Researchers speculate that travel to #Mars 🔴 could involve a 30% risk of #cancer.
#Metals, including #lead and #aluminum, would make poor shields 🛡️ in #DeepSpace medicalnewstoday.com/articles/

#RadiationProtection
#HumanSpaceflightHealth

Medical News Today · The health hazards of space travelBy Yvette Brazier
Continued thread

This is the "Vacuum Monster" a balloon-borne instrument to collect #interplanetary dust particles in the #stratosphere

It was developed in the 70s by Dr. Donald #Brownlee at Washington University and named after the creature in the #Beatles movie Yellow Submarine that sucked up everything.

It consisted basically of an air pump that pulled air through an array of cylindrical collection rods. Particles are collected on the oil-coated rods by inertial deposition.

#ElonMusk's #influence youtube.com/watch?v=tYAD6oQZNc

"#Multinational corporations have grown so large as a result of #globalization that they have sufficient economic power to take over or strongly manipulate national #governments, continually attempting to take over competitors in order to become the sole controller of the #interplanetary market" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_tri