[extropy-chat] Re: Are dwarfs better for long duration spaceflight?

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Adrian Tymes <wingcat at pacbell.net> wrote:

> --- The Avantguardian <avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Unless the mass of crew is a significant issue for
> > feul economy purposes,
> 
> IIRC, this is what started the whole topic.
> 
> > in which case you are probably
> > better off sending unmanned probes until you get a
> > better propulsion system,
> 
> Agreed.  If you're so close to the limits that the mass of the crew
> (and life support systems) plays a major factor in the engineering,
> you're too close to the limit for sufficiently reliable (as in, odds
> of avoiding fatalities) manned spaceflight, especially if it is
> intended to be long duration.

The point is that a full size humans legs are about 50% of body mass. 
Body mass determines caloric and other nutritional needs: water,
oxygen, etc. If you have legless astronauts, you can carry twice as
many astronauts, or travel of twice as long a voyage, or get to a given
destination on half as much fuel. In zero G, legs are useless anyways,
so wrt missions that will not involve landing (or that may involve
landing, lighter robotic legs that use far less resources could be
used), there is no point wasting fuel moving useless legs around.

Spike's old argument is that if we are dealing with establishing
permanent presence, colonization, of, say, Mars, what you send are to
send as many legless and fertile female midgets as possible along with
a bunch of frozen embryos, and grow your population in situ once you've
landed. The logic is that the only crucially important part of a
colonization effort is to get as many functioning wombs to the
destination as possible. Biological legs are immaterial to the whole
expedition.

As Spike is an engineer, his solution is the best engineering solution,
ignoring some facts. Firstly colonization is only ONE reason for going.
Secondly not all space enthusiasts are legless fertile female midgets.
Thirdly, sometimes the reasons for going are not the real reasons, such
as the possibility of ice cream being only an excuse for going on a
Sunday drive... Pooh knows.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
Founder, Constitution Park Foundation:
http://constitutionpark.blogspot.com
Personal/political blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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