>select some of the most intelligent/athletic astronauts and scientists on Earth
>send them on month-long journeys to another planet where they are doomed to become frail, tumor-laden, psychotic invalids
https://www.wired.com/2014/02/happens-body-mars/
https://www.wired.com/story/ideas-jason-pontin-genetic-engineering-for-mars/
>Mars gravity is only 38% of Earth's gravity - "Deprived of gravitational load, bones fall prey to a kind of space-flight-induced osteoporosis. And because 99 percent of our body’s calcium is stored in the skeleton, as it wastes away, that calcium finds its way into the bloodstream, causing yet more problems from constipation to renal stones to psychotic depression."
>"The system of accelerometers in our inner ear (...) are engineered to provide the finest detail about movement (...). Imagine a gently oscillating, nausea-inducing scene from which there is no escape. That’s what it feels like when the organs of the inner ear malfunction. And that can be caused by (...) the absence of gravity."
>"There are other, less well-understood alterations. Red blood cell counts fall, inducing a sort of space anemia. Immunity suffers, wound healing slows, and sleep is chronically disturbed."
>"On the surface of Mars (...) or aboard a spaceship, long-term exposure (...) to radiation would kill cells and make them malfunction, or break strands in our DNA and knock out base pairs. Dead or poorly functioning cells cause heart disease or cognitive decline. DNA damage is worse, (...) leading to mutations that cause cancer and heritable diseases.
>"Barring an unlikely series of technological tricks (...) our biology is incompatible with a Mars mission. Permanent colonies there or farther out are unthinkable."
>"But serious biologists (...) have begun to ask whether humans could be genetically altered for space travel."
Is this still a really bad idea? It's inevitable, but there's no way we'll have Mars missions in 2030-whatever. Is gene editing the answer?
>send them on month-long journeys to another planet where they are doomed to become frail, tumor-laden, psychotic invalids
https://www.wired.com/2014/02/happens-body-mars/
https://www.wired.com/story/ideas-jason-pontin-genetic-engineering-for-mars/
>Mars gravity is only 38% of Earth's gravity - "Deprived of gravitational load, bones fall prey to a kind of space-flight-induced osteoporosis. And because 99 percent of our body’s calcium is stored in the skeleton, as it wastes away, that calcium finds its way into the bloodstream, causing yet more problems from constipation to renal stones to psychotic depression."
>"The system of accelerometers in our inner ear (...) are engineered to provide the finest detail about movement (...). Imagine a gently oscillating, nausea-inducing scene from which there is no escape. That’s what it feels like when the organs of the inner ear malfunction. And that can be caused by (...) the absence of gravity."
>"There are other, less well-understood alterations. Red blood cell counts fall, inducing a sort of space anemia. Immunity suffers, wound healing slows, and sleep is chronically disturbed."
>"On the surface of Mars (...) or aboard a spaceship, long-term exposure (...) to radiation would kill cells and make them malfunction, or break strands in our DNA and knock out base pairs. Dead or poorly functioning cells cause heart disease or cognitive decline. DNA damage is worse, (...) leading to mutations that cause cancer and heritable diseases.
>"Barring an unlikely series of technological tricks (...) our biology is incompatible with a Mars mission. Permanent colonies there or farther out are unthinkable."
>"But serious biologists (...) have begun to ask whether humans could be genetically altered for space travel."
Is this still a really bad idea? It's inevitable, but there's no way we'll have Mars missions in 2030-whatever. Is gene editing the answer?
