Originally Posted by :
For years, there's been talk of one day mankind living on Mars.
And in recent times, with the likes of Elon Musk seemingly on a one-man crusade to get there first, it looks like it might happen fairly soon.
But according to one of the most recent studies into the viability of human life on the Red Planet, it might not be as easy as you'd think.
Yep, research carried out by team at UCLA looked to answer two key questions - the first being around the impact of particle radiation and whether it would pose too grave a threat to human life.
The second was whether the timing of a mission to Mars could protect astronauts and the spacecraft from radiation?
To answer both questions, the scientists used geophysical models of particle radiation for a solar cycle and models of how radiation could affect both human passengers and a spacecraft.
Now, the good news is that the answers to their two questions were 'no' and 'yes', respectively.
According to the scientists' calculations, the spacecraft should provide enough protection during the round trip to and from Mars for the astronauts.
However, if the material the spacecraft is built with is too thick, then it could actually increase the amount of secondary radiation.
They also noted that this would largely be dependent on the timing of the mission as well.
Researchers claimed the best time to leave Earth would be when the solar activity is at its peak.
This is because during the 'solar maximum' the most dangerous particles are deflected, thus shielding the astronauts from the worst of it.
On the other hand, the bad news is that experts recommended humans should spend no longer than four years on any mission to the planet.
According to the study, which was published in the Advancing Earth and Science Journal, beyond this point, the levels of radiation become unsafe.
It reads: "Our calculations clearly demonstrate that the best time for launching a human space flight to Mars is during the solar maximum, as it is possible to shield from Solar Energetic Particles.
"Our simulations show that an increase in shielding creates an increase in secondary radiation produced by the most energetic GCR, which results in a higher dose, introducing a limit to a mission duration.
"We estimate that a potential mission to Mars should not exceed approximately four years.
"This study shows that space radiation imposes strict limitations and presents technological difficulties for the human mission to Mars, such a mission is still viable."
I could see a trip there and back sometime in the near future.
However, I am of the opinion nobody's gonna be camping there for a month let alone four years.
Can't even live in a bunch of connected bubbles in Arizona without sh*t going wrong. And Houston aint fixing no problems on ole Mr. Mars.
Maybe a failure mode analysis would prove me wrong, but the list of bad things that could happen and the severity/possibility of each is much greater than ole man Hunky Dory hanging around for very long.
Particle radiation damages DNA which can kill you via cancer
Or make you sterile as I understand.
This is not new info. We have to bring our atmosphere with us and generate a magnetic field to deflect particles. They were talking about developing plasmas for any ship to protect humans in years past. I wonder what Musk says about all that for his ships. [Reply]
Originally Posted by crayzkirk:
Without a magnetic field, Mars will require some major technology for Humans to be able to survive on the surface. I have become rather pessimistic about our chances; we choose to not learn from past mistakes, refuse to work together or even consider the point of view of those we disagree with. Life as we know it, is very aggressive and violent. Perhaps we will learn to rise above it or we will succumb to our emotions and destroy ourselves.
Asteroid Impact, Yellowstone Eruption, Pandemic or Nuclear War.
On our current trajectory, one of these seems likely.
The end of the human race will happen no matter what. It is as certain as life and death itself. If you live... you will die. Whether it be 10000 years from now or a million if we do happen to make it off this planet and into other solar systems. So does it really matter? [Reply]
I was working at WB marketing when we released this movie. I'd read stuff about a movie being made called "The Astronaut Farmer." I assumed it was about an astronaut named Farmer.
When the poster got released I died laughing. it was the most literal interpretation of the title you could imagine. Dear God. [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRichard:
The end of the human race will happen no matter what. It is as certain as life and death itself. If you live... you will die. Whether it be 10000 years from now or a million if we do happen to make it off this planet and into other solar systems. So does it really matter?
Sometimes I think about what it would be like if mankind survives billions of years to the point in time where all of the stars burn out and get sucked up into black holes, and it kind of freaks me out. We would be interstellar and we would travel from one star system to another trying to get the last of the energy remaining before everything goes cold, and then one day the last light goes out.
I don't know if nuclear energy could prevent that, or if at some point all of the energy gets sucked out of all of the atoms and we're screwed. But theoretically at some point we're going to be screwed. [Reply]
Good. Start exploring places here that need to be explored. The ocean, parts of South America, Central Africa, the arctic in Russia and Norway, etc. there’s wven parts of Asia that are still unexplored.
There’s so much more on our own planet that we can learn [Reply]
Originally Posted by Rain Man:
Sometimes I think about what it would be like if mankind survives billions of years to the point in time where all of the stars burn out and get sucked up into black holes, and it kind of freaks me out. We would be interstellar and we would travel from one star system to another trying to get the last of the energy remaining before everything goes cold, and then one day the last light goes out.
I don't know if nuclear energy could prevent that, or if at some point all of the energy gets sucked out of all of the atoms and we're screwed. But theoretically at some point we're going to be screwed.
See also: Asimov, Isaac, The Last Question [Reply]
Originally Posted by BigRichard:
The end of the human race will happen no matter what. It is as certain as life and death itself. If you live... you will die. Whether it be 10000 years from now or a million if we do happen to make it off this planet and into other solar systems. So does it really matter?
F yes it does. We need the Mahomes records to stand as long as possible. [Reply]
Originally Posted by saphojunkie:
I love the alarmism that believes machine thinking will want a MORE physical presence and reliance.
Any AI can comfortably just go exist in perpetuity without ever interacting with humanity again.
Riiiight
Originally Posted by :
Hundreds of scientists, tech industry execs and public figures – including leaders of Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT – are sounding the alarm about artificial intelligence, writing in a new public statement that fast-evolving AI technology could create as high a risk of killing off humankind as nuclear war and COVID-19-like pandemics.
"Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war," said the one-sentence statement, which was released by the Center for AI Safety, or CAIS, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization.
CAIS said it released the statement as a way of encouraging AI experts, journalists, policymakers and the public to talk more about urgent risks relating to artificial intelligence.
Originally Posted by BigRichard:
The end of the human race will happen no matter what. It is as certain as life and death itself. If you live... you will die. Whether it be 10000 years from now or a million if we do happen to make it off this planet and into other solar systems. So does it really matter?
No not really. There is no purpose to life. No true meaning. Just have as much fun as you can until you hit the bucket. [Reply]
