[ExI] Maybe space exploration will be a task for AI humanoids

[efc at swisscows.email]

On Mon, 24 Jun 2024, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat wrote:

> That depends on how the station's owners pay for continued operation. 
> It may well be that such a station will not exist, at least
> not for long, without some sort of economic engine sustaining it. 
> "For science", the primary such engine behind all current and
...
> previous space stations, simply doesn't cut it.  (The first station
> with these three components likely will support a lot of science
> as a byproduct, using that as part but not all of the funding to keep
> going.  Even if it could achieve full technological self

I agree. A business is needed, otherwise it won't work. I can imagine
perhaps manufacturing processes that benefit from being done in a
vacuum? Tax havens? Mining? Tourism? And then of course, some science on
top of that. In short, a mix of many different things would be
necessary.

> sufficiency, there will be a need to pay people to be aboard, so it doesn't become a ghost town.)  See below idea for a satellite
> manufacturing hub.
>
>       Flying it in from earth is cheating, so I'd be
>       curious if it would be feasible to have something permanent in space
>       relying on ice being flown in, or if that is way beyond anything possible
>       with today technology.
> 
> 
> this could be handled with ongoing resupply of food, but if the
> nitrogen content of food is low enough that separate nitrogen

In terms of food, have there been any experiments with insect farming
as a protein source? Plants I imagine should be, as you say, fairly
easy, but would it be possible to farm insects as well?

And last, but not least, has there been any progress when it comes to
muscle atrophy and loss of bone density? I imagine that training is
definitely not going to cut it, but that there would have to be some
kind of drug or additional technology in addition to simply training.