[FRIAM] Biospheres

Fri Mar 1 13:25:36 EST 2024

J -

Thanks for this prompt.  I recently tripped over:

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/martians-wanted-nasa-opens-call-for-simulated-yearlong-mars-mission/

and was reminded of my maunderings when Musk first stated his 
aspirations for Mars colonization acutely or eloquently enough to 
convince me he was serious, not just attention-seeking.

 1. Antartica has been continuously "colonized" for about 100 years, but
    by various international scientific researchers at extremely well
    funded (per capita) habitats.   The conditions there (for the most
    part) are *much* more welcome to human life and definitely easier to
    supply.
 2. Seafloor habitats (these were a rage to consider in the 50s and 60s,
    but have lost popularity) seem at least as welcoming as Antartica
    and (for the most part) nicely buffered from wild climactic and
    weather shifts?   Also easier to resupply from "topside"?    I don't
    know how deep you have to go to get the "buffering" I mentioned, but
    certainly not Titanic explorer implosion depths.   Kurzweil recently
    claimed a synthetic "hemoglobin" replacement/supplement (suggested
    dosage == 50/50 mix with natural) which would gift the average human
    something like 6 hours without breathing?   Add oxy/rebreather tech
    and you have homo aquatic methinks?    Don't know about pressure...
    scuba wonks anyone?
 3. Asteroid belting seems to make much more sense for gravitational and
    resource acquisition reasons?   Lots of basic needs available
    "somewhere" in the same gravity well
    (Ice/Oxygen-compounds/metals?).  If you gotta live indoors most of
    the time, why not orbiting in a resource rich environment where you
    never have to dig too deep for molecular resource stock and all
    travel is frictionless and low-gravity-gradient? Atmosphere is good
    for cosmic shielding but not as good as planetary magnetic field?
 4. Biosphere/II were part of a big movement as I came of age and lived
    within 100-200 miles of the project at the time... It looked like a
    folly and rich-person's conceit at the time... little did I know
    what would follow!
 5. Various ideas around Arcologies, starting with the (also Arizona
    Desert) Arcosanti (Paolo Soleri) and made totally over the top (the
    Saudis' Line City of Noem) have intrigued me, and since any
    moon/mars/europa colony we try to build will be much more
    resource-demanding and personally and external-supply restricted, I
    feel like at-worst we should be exploring those concepts while Musk
    tries to fling a million people to Mars (many of them is direct
    descendents?  Maybe a a few thousand vials of his frozen sperm or
    with the Alabama nonsense, a few thousand IVF embryos of his
    parentage (and gawdess knows whose ova?) for genetic diversity?

It all (Mars/Moon/Asteroid Belt colonization) strikes me as being fueled 
by too much the GOFF (good old fashioned futurism) too many of us 
boomers and some GenX were raised on.

If Musk thinks the "woke mind virus" is the earth's (or humanity's) 
biggest threat, I don't know how he thinks colonizing Mars will help.   
Some strange resonance with the aspirations of the break-away European 
Colonies of the Age of Exploration?  How much of the Americas was 
colonized with this desire to leave the "old country" baggage behind, 
only to repeat the same mistakes or trip over the Utopia/Dystopia 
duality?   And then we have to (almost exclusively failed, and usually 
catastrophically) cults and communes of the current era.

I avoided reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Red/Green/Blue Mars series for 
the longest time, not being a big fan of Space Opera, but when he hooked 
me on his climate disaster novels (Washington DC, California settings, 
then his magnum opus a few years ago Ministry for the Future) I went 
ahead and let him update me on the Barsoomian conceits I was raised on 
as a pre-teen.    His Terraforming Mars (red/green/blue Mars) stuff was 
pretty good with lots of tech exploration of just how do you survive on 
mars-as-it-is then get enough water to the surface to start greening up 
some parts, then yet enough more water to start having surface water.   
I forget the tech details now, but suffice it to say I was mildly 
convinced he had researched the basic physics and ideated honestly on 
the engineering challenges.   Of course the social/economic/political 
implications interested me more.  He played around in that space well.

I'm not convinced we have any business colonizing Mars (or any Solar 
planetary body really) soon.   Seems like we have an excellent 
Goldilocks Zone planet whose nurturance (or at least our multi-billion 
year evolution/adaption/co-evolution to/with it) is a fine fit if we 
could just "cool our jets" (literally and figuratively) enough to keep 
the keep the oscillations we are driving into it's medium term 
(centuries?) stability so thoughtlessly.  Drill Baby Drill!

I just started watching the series "the Expanse" which as best I can 
tell is constrained to the general range I've described of 
Earth/Mars/Belt...   it seems pretty long on tech and special effects 
and flashy weapons and space-collisions and bad blood/intentions, and 
really weak on any deference to the realities of orbital mechanics and 
semi-absurdity of the implied economics (measured in delta-V?) but I am 
doing this to be conversant with a good friend.   What we both agreed on 
was that by the time our tech/energetics support that kind of 
free-ranging through the middle of the solar system, genetic engineering 
and cybernetic tech, you would at least expect the humans going about 
all this spacefaring to be *tiny*, maybe giant brains with minimal 
bodies and probably reverting to grasping feet/toes and maybe throw 
(back) in an articulating tail for balance in 0G and an extra 
gripper/poker?    A 30lb human with a 2-3lb brain is a lot more  obvious 
than the 150-300 lb'rs shown on the show.   The metabolic needs just 
don't make sense?   replace a bunch of the muscle/bone/pumps/fluids of a 
human body with cyber versions and the "engineering" 
support/maintenance/repair becomes more suitable to the environment.   
Maybe the brain/mind/spirit upload business will come about eventually, 
then the burden of the human-on-board become even more well aligned with 
other systems?   Or maybe we go the other way and engineer our bodies to 
become the space-ships...  let organic chemistries and biomechanics and 
biomaterials do all the work of radiation shielding, vacuum resisting, 
thermal management, etc.   might be a bit much to do 
ion-thrusters/chemical-rockets/nuclear-rockets with bio-materials?   
Light Sails! Nicholas van Rjin/ Falkayne anyone? James Blish?   Ian Banks?

Mumble,

  -S

On 3/1/24 10:04 AM, Jochen Fromm wrote:
> Corentin de Chatelperron and Caroline Pultz tried to live for 120 days 
> in the Mexican desert self sufficiently, growing their own food. Using 
> their own desalination machines they generated fresh water for the 
> plants and themselves
> https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/110239-000-A/the-biosphere-experiment/
>
> Biosphere 2 near Tuscon was a similar, even more extreme experiment to 
> create a self-sustaining ecosystem. The experiment was considered a 
> failure and the whole center belongs now to the University of Arizona.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere_2
>
> Both experiments showed how difficult it is to support human life in a 
> closed, self-sustaining environment. Do you think self-sustained life 
> on Moon or Mars is possible? Or as the book "A City on Mars" asks "Can 
> we settle space, should we settle space, and have we really thought 
> this through?" 
> https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/dec/14/a-city-on-mars-by-kelly-and-zach-weinersmith-review-one-way-ticket-to-muskow-anyone
>
> -J.
>
>
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