A New Human Race To Explore The Stars?

In an earlier post we talked about robots doing our dirty work and exploring the universe, relaying images back to us allowing us to see what they have found without actually risking our own necks.  If you fancy a look then the post is here ”Is Humanity A Space Fairing Race?” . 

I have a funny feeling that this will just be the early stages of exploration and we would get fed up looking at the images, or most probably experiencing the images in a virtual world, as there will always be that nagging feeling at the back of our heads that this isn’t actually real.

I feel that we will still feel a yearning to actually experience these places ourselves. This would have to be a long way into the future as I am not talking about the solar system but much further beyond and probably a bit beyond that again.

Future Replacement Body?

Perhaps we would be frozen and woken when we get there or live in a generation ship where we live in an environment a bit like the Earth and generations into the future would see our destination. There are other possibilities but one thing that would have to happen would be for our bodies to change naturally or mechanically to cope with the difference in the conditions.

One of the biggest problems with living in space is weightlessness. Living in this type of environment impacts on 3 types of human tissue. Gravity receptors, fluids and weight bearing structures of the body.

Gravity receptors- There is no gravity in space (and if you don’t know that then you are a lost cause), well nothing significant anyway. This lack of gravity leads us to have a few problems with knowing which way is up and down which we need to know after living on the Earth. After a while we get used to it and down is taken and sensed as where the feet are. On getting back to Earth the body rapidly adapts back to down being down. There is also a three day period where sickness can occur.

Fluids- The second effect of weightlessness takes place in human fluids. The body is made up of 60% water, much of it intra-vascular and inter-cellular. Within a few moments of entering a microgravity environment, fluid is immediately re-distributed to the upper body resulting in bulging neck veins, puffy face and sinus and nasal congestion which can last throughout the duration of a trip and is very much like the symptoms of the common cold, nasty!

Weight bearing structures- The third and most worrying effect of long-term weightlessness involves bones and muscles. Without the effects of gravity, skeletal muscle is no longer required to maintain our posture and the muscle groups used in moving around in a weightless environment are very different to those required in terrestrial locomotion. Consequently some muscles atrophy rapidly. loss of weight and muscle make it very hard for somebody returning to Earth or another gravity environment to breathe and if the stay in space is too long then returning to a gravity environment may be impossible.

Energy Being

Radiation is another big problem and can affect all sort of things. One of the not so nice things is a cancer that kills cells involved with the immune system and therefore will spread infection. Cancer in general is obviously not such a good thing and the protection that the Earth provides needs to really be provided in space.

Let’s not forget that psychological effects (going bananas) have a big effect on how long it is possible to stay in space as well.

The above problems would have to be solved to be able to stay in space a long time. Perhaps the body would develop and change naturally into a subspecies of humans that could survive these conditions without any harmful effects and would probably even thrive. This subspecies would probably be exiled to space and would never be able to lay a foot on a normal gravity world.

This may not be a problem to them as they would probably have their own habitats that were  nicer to live on than Earth. Earth by that time I imagine would probably be one big city with one big black cloud above it and a load of people in grey suits moaning about the weather.

There would also be the possibility to genetically change and engineer a new body that would survive in space. They would be resistant to radiation, have a brain that auto corrects for changes in gravity and an improved immune system.

It may even be possible to change our consciousness from a high gravity planet’s body to a space going body. There would also probably be a big trade in theft of bodies while their owners are away so lock yours away somewhere secure!

Boredom while travelling between the stars would be a big problem but as long as we are given something to do such as we do on the Earth we wouldn’t get too many problems. I expect sex would be a big thing and would take up many hours of the day. Even that though I expect could get boring so a big gym, a computer with the Internet (intergalactic Internet of course) and an extremely large LCD TV with all the latest blue Ray DVDs might go down well.

Beyond this I can’t see the need for bodies so perhaps we would just be a blob of energy travelling between the stars. I’m not even sure that a ship will be necessary to house the energy.

Who knows, perhaps those blobs of energy from other planets are reaching us now and then again perhaps not. Who knows? (I wish I did.)

Space travel effect on humans.

Future Humans?