Re-doing Humans We’ve been hearing for a long time how dangerous space travel is for humans. There is no doubt this is true. There are all sorts of deadly waves, unconquerable gravity and things which could go wrong to our ship. Many years ago, I read a story about people who were going to live on other planets getting their bodies altered so that they might be able to live on these planets without danger. The offshoot was these people were altered so much they couldn’t be considered human beings anymore. You might be wondering why I am mentioning this, and the only reason is NASA is proposing altering the genetics of human astronauts to make it safer for them to travel through space. Are we going to head down this path and possibly alter human beings so much they may not even be able to come back to their home planet? I believe this is far too extreme. We are a technological society and we are good at discovering ways to advance our technology. Instead of NASA altering the bodies of astronauts which in itself could be very dangerous to them, why not use our technology to make it possible to protect ourselves? Let’s talk about an example of a case. Let’s say there is a planet that has much more gravity than the earth, but we want to send astronauts there. The problem would be they may not be able to move around or even if they could, it would be extremely difficult for them. One would think an exoskeleton might fill the bill in this case. It might even be smart to have exoskeletons built into space suits for astronauts who are going to do human exploration on planets. An exoskeleton allows the wearer to accomplish feats of strength and stamina a human is just not capable of. One of the biggest problems for humans is radiation, we have yet to conquer this problem but we are working on it and I am sure it is just a matter of time before we figure it out. Perhaps some sort of plasma shield around our ship is the answer. Whatever the answer turns out to be this is the way we should go and not by changing the genes in human bodies. Say we did decide to do general gene modification, what could be the result? Knowing how clumsy we humans are we might create some kind of genetic disease which there is no cure for. Would altered human astronauts still look like us? In the beginning they probably would, but as we get more adept at changing human bodies in different ways, they might begin to look like something other than human. It makes one wonder if there are extraterrestrial races out there where this has been done. Could it be some extraterrestrial race decided to alter the genetic material of the bodies of their astronauts and they are condemned to wander through space because they could no longer live on their home planet? When you think about it this idea might not be so crazy. NASA has announced they are introducing new spacesuits which have enhanced safety features. This just proves we can make things better. The suits are primarily designed to protect astronauts on the moon from the dangerous and abrasive moon dust. They were designed in such a way as to prevent the inhaling of the dust and contamination of the suit and its life-support systems. The suit also has a greater tolerance for temperature change and will keep its occupants safe down to -250°F or up to +250°F. The electronics in the backpack have been miniaturized it so have the rest of the electronics in the plumbing system. Duplication of some of the systems has also been created reducing the concern for failures in the systems. The suit is able to support longer duration spacewalks. The original suits that were worn on the moon didn’t allow for easy movement, but the new suits have improved joints and rotating hips. There is also what is known as an Orion suit that will be worn during launches, reentries and high risk situations. It is interesting to note that in the beginning of the space program the Soviet Union didn’t have their cosmonauts wearing spacesuits on reentry and this decision was reversed after a couple of cosmonauts died after being exposed to space when something went wrong with a valve. When clothing is designed today by NASA, they have to take into consideration that people may have to operate computers while wearing this clothing, so when they designed new gloves, they made them touchscreen compatible and far more durable, and new boots were designed that had greater movement potential and better protection from fire. I would’ve thought some sort of mechanics would’ve been built into the suit which would have allowed it to be returned to its base remotely in case an astronaut passed out or was too sick to walk back. Yes, I know it’s easy to say things like this not being an engineer who has to designed for them, but this might be where an exoskeleton would be the most useful. Let me give you an example of the kind of thing NASA is thinking about, when it talks about gene manipulation. There is an experiment going on now at Cornell University. They are studying the feasibility of taking a gene from a creature which has the reputation of being extremely hardy and inserting it into the embryonic human cells grown in a laboratory. The creature is known as a tardigrade or water bear. These are microscopic creatures which can live in space for many months by hibernating. They also have incredible resistance to cosmic radiation. You have to wonder how many humans in the space program would want this stuff injected into their body? NASA knows they are getting into an area with huge ethical problems, and there are also legal issues which will probably prevent this from happening in the near future. Scientists don’t know what the long-term effects of doing something like this would be. They have no idea how it might affect somebody physically or mentally in the future. Harvard University has tracked down 40 of the genes which they think could benefit astronauts. This almost sounds like the story about Dr. Frankenstein’s monster. Some of these genes are said to be able to boost memory and strength while others would make humans less sensitive to pain or anxiety. It seems to me what they really want to do is create a new race of people. I’m sorry but I don’t believe the scientists should be allowed to tamper with the human body.
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