Quote of the Day
Looking at Earth was obviously very, very special. But when you look off to the side, you look out into the darkness of space, and you see your spaceship there, and how gritty it looks, it gave you this sense of, like ‘this isn’t going to be easy.’
Jared Isaacman
September 17, 2024
Jared Isaacman, first billionaire to walk in space, says it wasn’t peaceful (qz.com)
Do you remember what William Shatner said after going into space?
October 13, 2021 William Shatner’s flight on Blue Origin | CNN Business
You look down, there’s the blue down there and the black up there … there is Mother Earth and comfort, and there is, is there death? I don’t know, but is that death? Is that the way death is? … It was so moving; this experience, it was something unbelievable.
Establishing colonies on the moon, other planets, and perhaps ultimately in other star systems is going to take some very special people. The immigration to North America two to three hundred years ago and even the migration from the eastern states to the western territories in the early and mid 1800s was a harsh filter and resulted in a different type of people from their original stock.
It is difficult to imagine the type of person which will result from those willing to engage in space travel and the deprivation of a world so hostile there is not even any atmosphere to breath, a livable temperature range, water to drink, or food to eat. Every essential of human life will need to be brought with them or scratched out of the rocky, dust, surface of the giant rocks they intend to call home.
I would go into space (I attended Parent-Child Space Camp three times and once applied for a Mission Specialist position in the Shuttle program) but that would be knowing I was probably going to be back on earth in a most a few days or weeks. Going to some hostile rock will little chance of ever coming back is a much bigger decision.
I think the “pioneer spirit”, is alive and well. Humans are very curious creatures. Should the tech to do such thing become available, it will have been by those most desiring to use it.
There will be no shortage of hardy souls willing to venture the unknown. And make it knowable.
Those types of challenges humans actually seek out.
It’s ourselves we have a hard time with.
But braving and taming the wilds is what we were made to do.
God made the world as wild as it is for a reason.
Were that reason. We work, we adapt, we fight it through, we overcome.
And God saw his creation, and it was good.
First think of the screening to go into the submarine service. Stuck in tube surrounded by non breathable atmosphere for weeks at a time. The same people, everyday with limited to no communication with the outside world. Typical cruise is no more than four months. Now times that by years. How many can deal with that? One percent, one hundredth of one percent?
For the first couple groups, your port of call will be even more work than you had in your can of Spam and under worse working conditions building the necessary infrastructure for those who come later. People who could do that are a smaller subset than the one above.
I would go but I doubt I would make the cut.
A few other criteria that would weed out who would be on the early groups to go to Mars, besides the emotional stability Gerry talked about:
– Smaller body size: uses less oxygen and food.
– Highly intelligent: minimum IQ 130, need to be able to teach themselves new things and generally be highly adaptable. ADHD is contra-indicated, but high functioning mild autism can be a plus.
– Physically fit and from a lineage of physically fit people: naturally needs less medical supply and support through their lives
– Heterosexual and fertile, thus under 30. This is colonizing. You don’t have a successful colony until you have a second generation that can replace the first generation in all regards. That means there’s no room on the ships for someone that isn’t going to have at least four kids. High preference for people with a history of twins in their family.
– The men will have to be strong and tough, but also highly skilled; the women will need to be highly skilled at interior jobs like medicine, life support, programming, scientific lab work, child-rearing and real education, etc that they can still do while pregnant or caring for kids. Remember the part about colonizing?
There is still a place for a 6’4″ dude, but that 27-year-old had better be a part time weightlifter/marathon runner with two STEM PhDs and a hobby in restoring classic cars with parts he machines himself. A deviation from the ideal colonist has to have a substantial offset in their favor. But they all have to be a MacGuyver in two or more critical skills; there simply isn’t the transportation capacity or life support surplus for complete specialists or shallow generalists.
Because there is a pressure on an initial Mars colony for getting the most bang for the buck out of who can be sent, and who is going to be using up oxygen, it’s going to be highly competitive to get a spot on the rockets or in the colony. So, from this population, what’s the second generation going to look like? By both nature and nurture, pretty much all the kids will also be in the 130-145 IQ range, and much taller and thinner than their parents from growing up in 1/3G. They’re going to have a lot in common with farm kids: given essential chores as soon as they’re capable. By the time they’re 15, they’ll probably all have a couple childhood friends that have died in accidents.
An important thing to consider is that we are artificially limiting the availability of energy by placing so many restrictions on nuclear power. The early science fiction stories about space flight assumed that nuclear would be the primary power in rockets, either through fission-heated hydrogen rockets or by Orion rockets which would literally be pushed by exploding atomic bombs. They also assumed that eventually a smoother fusion power would be developed, as well as ion drives.
If that were the case, travel to the other planets would be MUCH faster, and it would be much easier to have two-way travel.
I thought Shatners words were “Suck It Picard!” 😉
I don’t see substantial space flight happening without two things:
– a substantial breakthrough in propulsion/ power technology (as mentioned above – artificially limited nuclear use, which leads to the second point)
– a substantial reduction in bureaucratic restrictions: look at how much the FAA and “legacy space” fight changes to the system and “new space”.
I’ve read sci-fi books that feature a secret, private, program with breakthrough technology – from what I’ve seen SpaceX go through, I think of this as more and more likely.
Barring some massive discoveries in technology and earth shaking improvements in engineering, colonization of space will make the discovery of the “new world” and the “taming of the west” look like a kindergarten party in comparison. And there is absolutely no guarantee that it will even be feasible or possible.