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OzOz · 11-11-2005, 08:18 PM

It's also worth pointing out that undertaking long journeys or setting up colonies in space or on other worlds pretty much forces us to conduct research on ecologies and how they function. This space-inspired work has been going on now for decades. There have been several attempts to set up completely self-contained habitats, including human occupants, and have them run for a year or more. There are lots of questions to be answered that are relevant not just for space flight, but also for here on Earth. How exactly does a whole ecology function? What is the minimum required to make one work? What can make an ecology break down? What can be done to restore it to health and normal operation? What is the best way to recycle waste products? What can be done to minimise or eliminate reliance on non-recyclable products? On a future long-term space endeavour, all these questions will be of high importance. Up there, an ecological system will be required to function with as little active maintenance as possible. After all, there's little point in sending people if they're forced to work full-time just on maintaining the life support systems! Also, up there, you can't just throw your stuff into a truck and move to the next town if your local environment goes down the drain. All these questions and their answers will feed back into better management of our own planet's environment.

On top of that, there are intangible environmental benefits. One of the environmental movement's most iconic images is the photograph of Earthrise taken from lunar orbit by Bill Anders on Apollo 8, the first flight around the Moon, in 1968. It has often been credited with helping to really get people thinking about how fragile the planet we live on is. It's interesting to speculate on just why that photo did it. We had pictures of Earthrise from a few years before, taken by the unmanned US Lunar Orbiter probes. They didn't have much of an impact. Is it because the 1968 photo was taken by a human? It is something I'd love to see for myself. I only wish I had enough to be able to afford the $100 million that the Russians are asking for a seat on their commercial circumlunar flights later this decade.

11-11-2005, 08:18 PM	#57 (permalink)
OzOz Psycho Location: Right here, right now.	It's also worth pointing out that undertaking long journeys or setting up colonies in space or on other worlds pretty much forces us to conduct research on ecologies and how they function. This space-inspired work has been going on now for decades. There have been several attempts to set up completely self-contained habitats, including human occupants, and have them run for a year or more. There are lots of questions to be answered that are relevant not just for space flight, but also for here on Earth. How exactly does a whole ecology function? What is the minimum required to make one work? What can make an ecology break down? What can be done to restore it to health and normal operation? What is the best way to recycle waste products? What can be done to minimise or eliminate reliance on non-recyclable products? On a future long-term space endeavour, all these questions will be of high importance. Up there, an ecological system will be required to function with as little active maintenance as possible. After all, there's little point in sending people if they're forced to work full-time just on maintaining the life support systems! Also, up there, you can't just throw your stuff into a truck and move to the next town if your local environment goes down the drain. All these questions and their answers will feed back into better management of our own planet's environment. On top of that, there are intangible environmental benefits. One of the environmental movement's most iconic images is the photograph of Earthrise taken from lunar orbit by Bill Anders on Apollo 8, the first flight around the Moon, in 1968. It has often been credited with helping to really get people thinking about how fragile the planet we live on is. It's interesting to speculate on just why that photo did it. We had pictures of Earthrise from a few years before, taken by the unmanned US Lunar Orbiter probes. They didn't have much of an impact. Is it because the 1968 photo was taken by a human? It is something I'd love to see for myself. I only wish I had enough to be able to afford the $100 million that the Russians are asking for a seat on their commercial circumlunar flights later this decade. __________________ Maybe you should put some shorts on or something, if you wanna keep fighting evil today. Last edited by OzOz; 11-11-2005 at 08:28 PM..