Quote from: Russel on 11/30/2017 02:32 amI can't comment on the absurdity of a colony because its off topic. But I can say that 5 tonnes per colonist is hopelessly unrealistic.What I will say that is on topic is that 6gs is a lot of force on a civilian plucked at random. What makes it worse is months of bone loss in zero g.Its not a case of grinning and bearing. Its a case of being stretchered out.Years ago when I was a lot younger and fitter I pulled 6.5 g in a jet fighter for about 20 seconds. Not being a dedicated pilot, I was wrecked for a good 24 hours afterwards. A barely trained person enduring those g's for 5+ minutes during EDL is going to suffer for days.
I can't comment on the absurdity of a colony because its off topic. But I can say that 5 tonnes per colonist is hopelessly unrealistic.What I will say that is on topic is that 6gs is a lot of force on a civilian plucked at random. What makes it worse is months of bone loss in zero g.Its not a case of grinning and bearing. Its a case of being stretchered out.
Kelvin that's still for healthy people who haven't lost bone density in zero g.
Quote from: Russel on 12/04/2017 02:40 pmKelvin that's still for healthy people who haven't lost bone density in zero g.My understanding is that for colonists, the trip time has to be only 3 months in order to reuse the BFS each synod.We have a lot of experience with that timeframe, including reentry afterwards. A lot of medical science has been done to model the effects, and predict the effects of exercise (or lack of)It also isn't happening tomorrow. There will be experience with small crews to Mars. Probably there will be experience with moon bases. Maybe colonists will need some sort of regimen. Personally I think anyone choosing to go to mars should first spend a year in a simulated Mars base on earth. It is not something to do on a whim like buying an airline ticket. This could also help prevent disease outbreaks in flight, and help with developing mars base technology.The big unknown at the moment seems to be long term bone health in moon and mars gravity. Maybe even a single synod in Mars gravity will be debilitating. As far as I know, that could still be a show stopper. Im not claiming to be an expert though. Perhaps science can already make a very good guess. We will know before it progresses to 100 colonist trips though.
I believe we already know a full year in uG on the ISS is not a showstopper. I have no reason to think the 1/3rd G of Mars would be. Potentially worthwhile sending up a well chained chimp and returning them first.Or a volunteer.
Quote from: tdperk on 12/05/2017 12:43 amI believe we already know a full year in uG on the ISS is not a showstopper. I have no reason to think the 1/3rd G of Mars would be. Potentially worthwhile sending up a well chained chimp and returning them first.Or a volunteer.I think there is time to work it out too. Supposing Mars does turn out to be a failure, eaten by space goat or something, we could just choose another direction like asteroid colonies and space habitats with full 1g spin gravity. I personally expect significant LEO space tourism before mars, if Elon really achieves the "747 of space" that the plan hinges on. BFS carrying 100 colonists probably doesn't happen until at least 3 or 4 synods and a lot of experience in cislunar space could happen before that, if this thing is flying regularly.