WEBVTT - Artificial Gravity 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:13.840 Forward Thinking. I'll be there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.239 the podcast that looks at the future and says I'm 0:00:16.400 --> 0:00:20.120 free falling. I'm Joe McCormick and I'm Lauren voc Obama, 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.520 and our host Jonathan Strickland is not with us this week. 0:00:23.640 --> 0:00:28.040 He is across the ocean in a strange land, Ireland 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.240 in fact, so not totally strange. What's he doing there? 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:35.640 I guess not drinking Guinness. No vacationing, taking in the site, 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:41.080 catching some rays in Ireland? Yes, probably Okay, Well, best 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.280 of luck to him with whatever he's doing over there. 0:00:43.640 --> 0:00:46.440 But today Lauren and I thought we would talk to 0:00:46.479 --> 0:00:51.000 you about artificial gravity. Yeah, we are traveling into space, 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:54.720 where you can also get a pretty wicked tan um. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.040 So what happens when you go into space. Let's say 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.400 you're a stowaway in a supply capsule that's flying up 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.600 to the International Space Station and you get out of 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.520 your hiding place, much to the annoyance of the astronauts 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.520 around you. Yeah, they're going to be really mad at you, 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.880 I think, is the immediate effect of being in space 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:15.400 in that case. I guess, especially if they didn't calculate 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:18.280 your weight into the fuel costs, and you probably cost 0:01:18.319 --> 0:01:23.000 like a million dollars unless you're very, very thin. And 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:25.600 then you you go over, you float over to the window. 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.600 Wait a second, why are you floating, because that's what 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.520 you do in space? You float? Oh, right, because there's 0:01:31.600 --> 0:01:37.600 no gravity in space. Uh no, No, that is incorrect entirely. 0:01:37.760 --> 0:01:40.680 A common myth is that there's no gravity in space. 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:43.600 But the fact is there's plenty of gravity in space. 0:01:44.080 --> 0:01:46.640 At two fifty miles above Earth, which is a sort 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:51.280 of average flight altitude for the International Space Station, less 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:54.080 than two percent of the distance to the Moon, we 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.040 still feel about eighty eight point eight percent of the 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:01.520 Earth's gravity. So if that's true, why are the astronauts 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:04.960 floating around in the capsule? Okay, they're technically not floating. 0:02:05.120 --> 0:02:08.000 They are falling. That's right. Well, I guess they are floating, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:12.000 But it's not because there's no gravity, You're exactly right. 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:15.320 It's because they're falling. So it's pretty much the same 0:02:15.360 --> 0:02:18.359 phenomenon as if you were to take the I S. 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.320 S and and tow it with an airplane up to 0:02:21.440 --> 0:02:25.240 jet cruising altitude and then just drop everyone straight down 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:28.320 toward Earth and on its way towards the ground, everybody 0:02:28.360 --> 0:02:32.480 and everything inside the capsule would float around because the 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.160 vehicle and everything in it is falling at the same speed. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:38.160 There's no force to hold you to the floor. You're 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:40.920 you're in what's called free fall, right, and so everything 0:02:41.040 --> 0:02:43.840 feels like zero gravity because you're in free fall. And 0:02:43.880 --> 0:02:47.960 we call this situation micro gravity. So why doesn't the 0:02:47.960 --> 0:02:50.160 I S S just hit the ground when it's flying 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.240 around the Earth. Well, that's because it's not falling in 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:55.200 a straight line towards the Earth's center of mass the 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.320 way you would if you fell out of an airplane. Right. 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.160 Orbit is actually falling with style. It's it's falling in 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:05.640 a circle around a big thing. Freestyle falling. Yeah, so cool. 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.440 It's like you get to fall forever and never hit 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:10.919 the ground. It's the best of both worlds. It's floating 0:03:11.000 --> 0:03:15.440 the superman power of flight. Uh no, no injury from impact. 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:20.079 Let's just have a vadeva due time, right. Uh no, no, 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:23.960 what's wrong with floating everything? It's not good at all 0:03:24.000 --> 0:03:26.920 for your body. Yeah, it'sn't that a bummer? So floating 0:03:27.000 --> 0:03:29.880 it looks really cool. When you see Chris Hadfield making 0:03:29.919 --> 0:03:33.360 the videos from space and everybody's floating around it. I mean, 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:35.880 number one, it's kind of hilarious for some reasons we'll 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:38.640 point out in a minute. But it looks awesome, oh sure, 0:03:38.680 --> 0:03:40.800 and well, and it's fascinating, and it's something that we 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:42.920 never get to do here on Earth. So there's there's 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.120 a novelty to it, right, unless you ride in the 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.320 vomit commet, which a parabolic flight in an airplane can 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:53.240 simulate microgravity for a moment. But if you're just taking 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.000 a parabolic flight like in the vomit comment, it only 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.839 lasts a few seconds and that's pretty much uch. Okay, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.560 But it turns out, yeah, if you stay in microgravity 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:07.560 conditions for a long period of time, it's really bad 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.480 for your body. Just one of the things, and one 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.760 of the main things is you have bone density loss. Right, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:18.720 And okay, both both the bone and muscle components of 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:21.320 what's bad about microgravity have to do with the fact 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:24.359 that even even just walking around on the surface of 0:04:24.360 --> 0:04:29.159 our planet, you know, continually having to counteract the force 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.400 of Earth's gravity on your body does a lot to 0:04:32.760 --> 0:04:35.480 keep your bones and muscles healthy. By by strengthening them 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:37.920 by making them work. Yeah. Well, so you might think 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:40.160 of your bones as something just kind of like rocks, 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:43.200 but they're actually not like rocks. They're not static right there, 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:46.680 living growing things. Yeah, so that they have metabolic interaction 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.520 with your body, and if you don't put stress on them, 0:04:49.560 --> 0:04:52.159 they can weaken over time. So even if you don't 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.720 get a whole lot of vigorous exercise and you're not 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.680 an athlete, you're still doing a whole lot of work 0:04:57.800 --> 0:05:01.599 just walking around your house because you've got this amazing 0:05:01.680 --> 0:05:03.640 force pushing down on you all the time, and you 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.600 have to push back against the surface of the Earth. Now, 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:09.640 in space, you don't have the stress of constant force 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.680 pushing you down against the floor or surface whatever it is. 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.000 So in other words, it's too easy. In microgravity, Astronauts 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.880 tend to lose about one to two percent of their 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:24.560 bone mass every month, and according to the e s A, 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:28.080 the European Space Agency, there are records of up to 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:32.200 twenty bone mass loss after a six month mission, and 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:35.719 that's scary. This is especially hard on the weight bearing 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.960 bones the lower body, as you can imagine, because they're 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.480 doing a lot of the work that normally happens when 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.080 you're on the surface of the Earth. Of course, there's 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.560 muscle loss too. Astronauts spend a lot of time on 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:50.920 the space station exercising just to stave off the effects 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:54.400 of bone and muscle loss, but that's not enough. There 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:56.960 was a Journal of Physiology report in two thousand ten 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:01.360 called Prolonged space flight induced Alteration in the structure and 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:06.400 function of Human skeletal muscle fibers, and they found basically 0:06:06.520 --> 0:06:12.000 that prolonged weightlessness would contribute to substantial muscle loss in 0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.520 the body, and that even the exercise regimens that were 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.039 in place at the time, we're not doing enough to 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:22.000 hold off the muscle loss. So muscle atrophy was still happening, 0:06:22.240 --> 0:06:24.880 even though you've got people spending tons of time with 0:06:25.000 --> 0:06:28.279 resistance training and on the treadmill. Sure, which means that 0:06:28.279 --> 0:06:30.560 when they get back to Earth they have to really 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.880 work up to being healthy again, healthy enough to to 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.440 not damage their bones from a fall or or you know, 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.200 to be able to do the same amount of work 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.960 that they previously were. Yeah. One of a quote from 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:45.640 their abstract is our results highlight the need to study 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.640 new exercise programs on the I S S that employ 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.600 high resistance and contractions over a wide range of motion 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.400 to mimic the range occurring in Earth's one G environment. 0:06:55.760 --> 0:06:58.320 One G will use that term again, that's just one 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:02.839 amount of Earth's gravity, right, and that's that's not all, folks, 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.800 not even the creepiest. What what would you say is 0:07:07.839 --> 0:07:12.200 the creepiest? I would say probably fluid redistribution. That doesn't 0:07:12.200 --> 0:07:14.360 sound good at all. No, So when you enter a 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:19.240 microgravity environment, pretty quickly your body undergoes fluid redistribution, where 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.400 body fluids are concentrated in the upper body, so you 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.760 can see a big inflated chest and neck and a 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:30.160 puffy face. Some astronauts apparently report sinus problems and feeling 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:33.880 like they have a cold or sinus infection. Eventually, the 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:36.680 microgravity causes the body to think that there's too much 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.160 blood in it, so then it triggers you to pee 0:07:40.240 --> 0:07:43.520 a lot, which leads to a fluid deficit. And so 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.840 it's just it's it's not good for you. Um, there's 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.800 there's also space sickness, am I right? Right? This is 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:54.880 a less uh I guess probably less detrimental to your 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:58.000 permanent health, but unpleasant at the time, and it has 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.320 to do with the inner ear, Am I correct. Yeah, 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.000 it's kind of like airsickness or any other thing. I mean, 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.440 it's caused by an imbalance of fluids in the inner ear, 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.360 and you can have nausea, dizziness. It's referred to as 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.800 space adaptation syndrome. There are actually lots of funny stories 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.920 about how different people have experienced it while adapting to space. 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:20.640 But I'm sure it's not funny at the time, especially 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.720 when you're or whatever. It's not not good. No, no, no, 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.960 it's very unpleasant. And you can imagine how it's a 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:32.000 much bigger deal when you're talking about somebody in space. 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:33.760 I mean, this is somebody who needs to be using 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:37.559 their time very efficiently because of how expensive and dangerous 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:40.320 what they're doing is. Uh So it's not just like 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:42.599 being s sick on a on a cruise, which is 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:47.320 a bummer, but you're not essentially detrimental to you and 0:08:47.400 --> 0:08:51.520 your country exactly. But even if you overlook all of 0:08:51.520 --> 0:08:54.800 these major health concerns, because they might come up with, say, 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.760 better ways of exercise on the space station that can 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.120 really really do a good job holding off the muscle 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.160 and bone loss, or some kind of super dramamine too, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:08.680 to calm down your inner ear receptors. Exactly. Yeah, they're 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:12.199 they're drugs. Maybe that might help with fluid redistribution, or 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.200 just maybe some kind of physical exercise you could do 0:09:15.240 --> 0:09:17.560 that could help with that. Uh, there are lots of 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:20.560 things we can learn. Even if we imagine that we 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:24.160 eliminate all of those medical problems, there's still just major 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.199 problems with lifestyle in zero gravity. Oh right, Because I 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:30.400 mean the way that we eat food here on Earth 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:35.640 is dependent upon that food being exposed to gravity. Exactly. Um, 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:40.240 why why can't we have crumb cake in space? Because 0:09:40.280 --> 0:09:42.200 you don't You don't want the crumbs getting into the 0:09:42.240 --> 0:09:45.480 instruments or your face, I mean, or the rest of 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:47.200 your face. I mean you want them in your face, clearly, 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.240 but you want the muscle in your mouth, not in 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.719 your eyes. But on the space station, it's going to 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.160 be harder to keep them from getting in your eyes. Actually, 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:55.720 do you know do you know what would happen if 0:09:55.720 --> 0:09:57.880 you tried to put salt and pepper on your food 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.400 in microgravity? Oh? I had never thought about the before, 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.600 but that's terribly like, I don't want salt pepper in 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.160 my ears. You you'd fail. So you get clouds of 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:07.360 salt and pepper everywhere, and they get in your eyes, 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:10.000 and they get in the instruments, and then the insectoid 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.800 invaders would see that the I S s Alien Sentinel 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.880 post is not being manned and they'd mount their invasion. 0:10:16.280 --> 0:10:20.199 There you go, all because of pepper. So instead, this 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.640 is actually true. I've seen pictures of it. Astronauts on 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.000 the I S have literally had droppers for salt and pepper. 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:31.520 So I guess saltwater and pepper water water to to 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:34.800 deposit a droplet that will cling to your food and 0:10:34.880 --> 0:10:37.679 not float away. Well, I mean, that's that's a that's 0:10:37.679 --> 0:10:39.680 a genius idea. And I'm glad that they can seeds 0:10:39.679 --> 0:10:43.560 in things properly in space and even from a dropper. Well, 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:45.400 I mean, and the foods that they have to deal 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.959 with to begin with, they're sort of designed to be 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.640 in bite sized pieces and to have such a consistency 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:55.960 that they don't easily crumble or have little parts that 0:10:56.040 --> 0:10:58.560 come off right. Sure, sure, like if you were going 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:00.800 to eat an apple and space you and just crunch 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:02.800 down on an apple, it would have been prepared in 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:04.880 little apple cubes for you. So that you can just 0:11:04.920 --> 0:11:08.240 pop one in your mouth and not have to bite 0:11:08.280 --> 0:11:12.600 stuff off. Um, so they're sleeping. That's a funny one. 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:15.679 You have to sleep in these hilarious bags kind of 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:17.920 kind of like a like a space hammock, except much 0:11:17.920 --> 0:11:21.440 more embarrassing. Yeah, actually they're kind of cute. I think 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.320 it's funny. I saw a video from the I S 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:26.560 S of one guy showing off his bag and it's 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:28.280 just stuck to the wall and it's like, this is 0:11:28.320 --> 0:11:30.320 where I sleep. And I don't know, it felt like 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:32.720 somebody showing me like like pulling out a drawer from 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:35.880 their dresser, like this is where I sleep. Yeah, yeah, 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.920 um okay. And the big issue that I'm sure that 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.240 everyone is thinking about right now in terms of life functions, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.920 how how do you use the bathroom in space? Yeah, 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:49.480 going to the bathroom in microgravity. Just pause for a 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:53.800 moment and consider it. I actually don't want to consider 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:56.520 it all that all that hard. Um. I mean, I 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.720 mean classically, this was basically just a diaper situation, right, 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.280 you could have a diaper or uh So. There's actually 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.760 a great guest blog post on Gizmoto by the astronaut 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:11.680 Leroy Chow about space toilet behavior um, and he talks 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.200 about how bathroom activities. Yeah, I used to mean you 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.960 you'd wear a diaper or you'd go into a sealable bag, 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:20.760 and so it was a clear bag and you really 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:23.720 didn't have any privacy while you were using it. And 0:12:24.160 --> 0:12:27.160 that sounds fun a really good way to get really 0:12:27.160 --> 0:12:29.840 close to your coworkers, right. Yeah, Apparently with the advent 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.080 of the Shuttle program, we finally got some bathroom accommodations. 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:37.679 And so the International Space Station has a toilet, but 0:12:37.920 --> 0:12:40.800 in a very loose definition of the word toilet. So 0:12:40.840 --> 0:12:43.120 in the absence of gravity, how are you going to 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.640 get everything where it needs to be. So the toilet 0:12:47.760 --> 0:12:52.920 uses quote airflow two direct waste to its intended destination. 0:12:53.080 --> 0:12:56.160 And to me, that sounds like a somewhat euphemistic way 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:01.840 of saying that you poop into a vacuum cleaner. Uh Man, 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:08.560 space is so sexy, you guys. Fortunately, according to Leroy Chow, 0:13:08.640 --> 0:13:11.880 there is a funnel at the end, so apparently they 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:17.120 worked pretty well. But sometimes sometimes accidents happen and people 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:18.960 make a mess and then they have to clean it up. 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:22.319 You can already see why the idea of artificial gravity 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:25.680 is very appealing, right right, Okay, But but there's there's 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:29.720 also some more perhaps I mean, not that using the 0:13:29.720 --> 0:13:31.880 bathroom in space it's not a serious problem. That's a 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:33.760 that's a daily thing that everyone has to do, and 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:36.720 it's definitely a major concern. But but what about something 0:13:36.800 --> 0:13:39.280 even even more concerning, like like what if you needed 0:13:39.360 --> 0:13:42.280 surgery in space? What if something happened? Oh yeah, Actually, 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:45.000 just earlier this year, there were reports that a Nebraska 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:47.840 based company called Virtual Incision was coming up with a 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:53.040 single incision surgical robot that was specifically designed for emergency 0:13:53.080 --> 0:13:56.640 surgeries during space flight. So it would be remote operated 0:13:56.679 --> 0:13:59.199 by another member of the crew, and it would enter 0:13:59.240 --> 0:14:01.640 the body through us single hole. And one of the 0:14:01.679 --> 0:14:04.760 purposes of this model is to require as little opening 0:14:04.840 --> 0:14:07.920 of the skin as possible, because, as you can imagine, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.719 it really wouldn't be a good idea to have fluids 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:14.400 from insides you soaring out into the cabin through a 0:14:14.520 --> 0:14:19.080 large open incision. Uh, certainly not. Also, as we all 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:22.560 learned from Event Horizon, it gets really messy when globules 0:14:22.560 --> 0:14:25.920 of blood are just flying everywhere. Yep. And we have 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:29.240 learned a lot from Event Horizon. We truly have. If 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:31.520 you haven't heard it, please go listen to the tech 0:14:31.560 --> 0:14:35.720 Stuff episode about the technology of Event Horizon. Uh. One 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:39.160 more thing, a little more future focused, or hopefully future focused. 0:14:39.160 --> 0:14:41.640 And this is not applying to anything. Now. Let's say 0:14:41.640 --> 0:14:44.120 that we want to colonize space, so just which we 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:46.880 kind of do. Yeah, yeah, spread out from Earth, go 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:52.560 into space and live there indefinitely. All the things we've 0:14:52.600 --> 0:14:55.840 mentioned already will matter a lot, but it will really 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:59.920 start to matter when we want to introduce the next generation. Yeah, 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:03.440 how how do we reproduce in space? And that's not 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:06.560 merely just like a mechanical problem. I mean it's like 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:11.120 a biological issue. There are serious questions about what happens 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.880 when mammals try to conceive and ingested to grow a baby. Yeah, 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:18.800 in a microgravity environment. I mean little little on all 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:22.080 of the other radiation and other issues that there are 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:25.120 with being in space. But yeah, we it's such a 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.680 huge issue that we did a whole two podcasts about it. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:32.680 They published on February twelve, and and we're called Babies 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.720 in Space Inconceivable, Get it. It's kind of a pun 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.320 about conception. Um. I think that one was more about 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:43.160 radiation and then The second one was about microgravity, right right. Yeah, 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:45.880 the second one is called babies in space. That's heavy 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:51.200 because my microgravity. Well, it is heavy because there are 0:15:51.240 --> 0:15:54.040 some studies to suggest that it really might be a 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:57.320 bad idea trying to conceive in space. Right. So there's 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.120 something about inter cellular protein transfer. Right, there's a few 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:04.480 issues that we that we know are at play. Um. 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:07.080 There there's evidence in both plant cells and fruit flies 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:12.240 the microgravity could disrupt intracellular protein transfer um. In in 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.960 fruit flies that were developed in space, this led to 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.440 a much weakened immune system, which is actually really significant 0:16:19.480 --> 0:16:22.680 to human beings because we, along with lots of other mammals, 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:26.080 share a similar immune system to fruit flies, especially when 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:30.200 it comes to fungal resistance. So what this means is that, um, 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.240 that there's a possibility that if you have a baby 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:34.680 in space, it will die of a terrible fungal infection. 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.120 That's that's that's not good. We need to work on 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:40.680 that kind of thing. Um. There was also in simulations 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:44.360 of micro gravity on Earth with mice. The babies produced 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.160 were normal, So that's cool, but um, but fewer embryos 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.120 made it to birth than usual. Oh yeah, there were 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.360 also studies with jellyfish. Remember, oh right, Yeah, So they 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:57.400 took some jellyfish up in a Space Shuttle flight Aurelia, 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:06.240 Rita moon least, and these jellyfish underwent stroblation during the procedures. 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:09.320 So stroblation reminds me of what that. What that was 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:12.800 where the polyps separates into the f array, which is 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:17.159 like a larva. And they did that before and after launch. 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.480 And so there was a study published on this in 0:17:20.800 --> 0:17:23.720 and they studied what happened to the jellyfish after they 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.560 spent nine days aboard the Space Shuttle during the larval 0:17:26.600 --> 0:17:30.159 and polyp stages, and then they returned to Earth. So 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.520 jellyfish have graviceptors, which are these little hairy pockets that 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:38.359 contain calcium sulfate crystals that help them orient their bodies 0:17:38.400 --> 0:17:40.920 with respect to Earth's gravity. So again sort of like 0:17:40.960 --> 0:17:43.080 the inner ear thing that we've got where we've got 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.400 you know, tiny receptors and fluid and everything working together. Well, 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.920 except this is a crystal mechanism, not a fluid mechanism, 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.640 but right, And the study found that the jellyfish they 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.280 developed pretty much normally, like their bodies looked normal. They 0:17:56.320 --> 0:17:59.280 were quote morphologically very similar. I think that just means 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:02.199 it looked a jellyfish. They looked pretty much normal, but 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:07.920 they had pulsing abnormalities, which difficulty moving right because the 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:13.240 jellyfish pulses right share in order to swim swimming quotation marks. 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:15.400 And then there was a follow up study the same 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:19.040 year that basically confirmed that something wasn't working right with 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:23.360 their movement. So so even though they looked fine, just 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.760 something was off. Yeah, and we should take that very 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:30.080 seriously because as as sad as it is to make 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.440 jellyfish that have pulsing abnormalities, we really wouldn't want to 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:38.000 subject to human baby to that. I mean, assuming that 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.879 that something didn't go wrong even before that point. If 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:43.639 a baby was born after being conceived in space, we 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:46.239 just don't know what would happen to it, And and 0:18:46.280 --> 0:18:50.200 that is a really scary, deep level trial to to undertake. 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.480 We don't want to just willy nilly dive into that 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.080 sort of thing, right, So I hope we've made the 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.280 case now that there is a really really pressing need 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:01.280 for artificial gravity, Like it's a big deal if we 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:04.240 actually want to do things in space. It's not just 0:19:04.320 --> 0:19:07.440 kind of a convenience. It matters a lot. Sure, Sure, 0:19:07.440 --> 0:19:10.360 it's it's not just for strutting through the hallways like 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.560 like Ryker looking all looking all cool. Right, it's really 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:18.880 it's important to well different different levels of importance. But unfortunately, 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:23.000 unlike in the movies, wherein it's just kind of assumed. 0:19:23.040 --> 0:19:25.040 I think that that, oh, in the future will have 0:19:25.080 --> 0:19:27.040 worked out this artificial gravity thing and we don't even 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:29.320 really need to talk about it that much. Yeah, Usually 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.159 what you see in the movies is it's modeled on 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.359 something that would normally work within Earth's atmosphere, so like 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.560 an airplane or something where there's just a floor hallway 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:40.919 and seats or a deck, you know, even like a 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:44.359 like a sailing ship. Yeah, and people just walk around 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:48.439 on them there. Uh. It seems to be an assumption 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:53.119 that there maybe there's something underneath the floorboards that's creating 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.879 the gravitational field that holds you there. So that's an 0:19:56.920 --> 0:20:00.280 interesting question. Do we have a way to create real 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:06.880 gravity without having something with mass? And the answer is no, Yeah, 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:11.080 that's that's not how gravity works. To create gravity, as 0:20:11.119 --> 0:20:14.960 far as we know, you need something with mass. Everything 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.760 with mass creates gravity. But to have an appreciable amount 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:21.720 of gravity that you could walk around, and you need 0:20:21.760 --> 0:20:24.120 a lot of mass, an appreciable amount of mass, right, 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:27.120 I say something about the size of the Earth if 0:20:27.160 --> 0:20:29.720 you're going to have people walking around as though it 0:20:29.840 --> 0:20:33.200 is the Earth's gravity. Yeah, okay, So what if you said, like, well, 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:35.119 what if we just got some kind of really really 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:39.400 dense material and put that underneath the floorboards your spaceship 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:43.000 so it would pull you down towards the floor. Yeah, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.679 a nice idea, But first of all, what kind of 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.760 dense material would that be? So if the spaceship is 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:51.520 going to be of any manageable size, it sounds like 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:56.520 you're proposing exotic, as yet unknown material that somehow don't 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.320 decay as very dense material tends to do pretty quickly. Yeah, 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:02.960 so that's basically just playing pretend. That's not a lot 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:07.560 of help. So second, what what if you create Earth 0:21:07.600 --> 0:21:10.720 gravity with real mass? How would you move your ship? 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:15.320 As the mass of your ship increases, you're essentially eliminating 0:21:15.320 --> 0:21:18.840 the difference between the ship and the planet you came from. 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:21.560 So what's the point? You might as well just move 0:21:21.600 --> 0:21:23.480 the Earth wherever you want to go. Yeah, it's it's 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.160 not like it needs to be aerodynamics. So, you know, uh, 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.280 plowing a little bit deeper into people on the internet 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:33.080 and lazy science fiction writers. What about gravitons. Can't we 0:21:33.160 --> 0:21:36.879 just use gravitons to create gravity? Well, we might if 0:21:36.880 --> 0:21:40.880 they weren't entirely hypothetical, right maybe, I mean, we don't 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:44.280 even know the thing is, so gravitons are hypothetical particles. 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:48.280 They are a hypothesis, and they're predicted to mediate the 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:52.480 force of gravity in what's called quantum field theory. So 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:56.280 the same way that photons are the particle of electromagnetism, 0:21:56.760 --> 0:22:00.920 gravitons would be the equivalent massless particle delivers the force 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:03.840 of gravity. Right there. They're really nice because they make 0:22:03.960 --> 0:22:07.040 math work out just fine in terms of what we 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:12.040 have already theorized about the universe. However, we've never detected them, right, Well, 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.320 we don't even have a viable theory of quantum gravity yet. 0:22:15.960 --> 0:22:19.120 Please keep in mind that gravitons have never been observed 0:22:19.160 --> 0:22:23.280 in reality. Thus they're currently still considered hypothetical. Like we said, 0:22:23.600 --> 0:22:28.040 they're consistent with some popular theories like superstring theory, but 0:22:28.080 --> 0:22:32.119 there's no direct evidence that these things exist in the 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:36.479