It would be wrong to think that simply pouring money into the development of medicine, into the creation of new high-yielding GM plants and fast-growing GM animals will lead to significant progress in these industries. And it would be wrong to think that stopping funding for the space industry will not lead to negative consequences in the future.
The problem of hunger needs to be addressed on many fronts, but first of all, laws need to be changed. For example, developed countries are buying up cheap land in developing countries in Africa, thereby oppressing the local population. It is necessary to prevent the export of food from poor countries. And, for example, we need to somehow combat myths about the dangers of GMOs and prevent the emergence of laws restricting the use of genetic technologies. (By the way, genetic technologies also help with diseases.)
As for medicine, the development of most of the necessary technologies is paid for from the wallets of the patients themselves: health is usually spent first. And if everyone is treated for free, then the money that is now going to space (they are not so “colossal”) will not even be close to enough.
The development of space-related technologies is necessary for many reasons. For example, we need to somehow solve the problem with the increasing amount of space debris, and at the present stage this is a practically unsolvable problem. You need to have a good asteroid threat warning system. We need to search for planets suitable for colonization, since over the next billion years, due to the evolution of our star, the Goldilocks zone will be shifted and life on Earth will die, or we need to learn to control the climate and remove excess solar energy. And it is also necessary to extract resources in space. In addition, many technologies and new knowledge obtained in contact with this vast empty space can help create new technologies and knowledge in other industries, including vital ones.
Space can not only benefit science, but also culture, promoting people's daydreaming and helping to forget about primordial earthly strife.
In 1970, Zambian nun Sister Maria Jukunda wrote a letter to Ernst Stuhlinger, then deputy director for science at NASA's Space Flight Center, in response to his ongoing research into manned missions to Mars. In particular, she asked how he could propose spending billions of dollars on such a project at a time when so many children on Earth are starving.
Stuhlinger soon sent the following letter of explanation to Sister Jucunda, along with a copy of the iconic 1968 Earthrise photograph taken by astronaut William Anders from the Moon. His thoughtful response was subsequently published by NASA under the title “Why Explore Space?”
Dear Sister Maria Jukunda,
Your letter was among the many that come to me every day, but it touched me much more deeply than others, since it came from a deep-thinking and compassionate person. I will try to answer your question as best as I can.
First, however, I would like to express my deepest admiration for you and those many brave sisters for dedicating your lives to the noblest purpose: helping those in need.
In your letter you asked how I could propose spending billions of dollars on a trip to Mars at a time when many children on Earth are dying of starvation. I know you don't expect an answer like, "Oh, I didn't know there were children dying of starvation, but from now on I will refrain from any space exploration until humanity solves this problem!" In fact, I knew about starving children long before I knew that travel to the planet Mars was technically possible. However, I believe, like many of my friends, that traveling to the Moon and ultimately to Mars and other planets is a risky endeavor that we must undertake, and I even believe that this project will ultimately , will contribute to solving more serious problems we face here on Earth than many of the other potential aid projects that have been discussed and discussed year after year, and which are very slow to produce tangible results.
Before attempting to describe in more detail how our space program contributes to solving our earthly problems, I would like to briefly tell a supposedly true story that may help support my argument. About 400 years ago, in a small town in Germany, there lived a count. He was one of the generous earls and gave much of his income to the poor of his city. This was highly valued because poverty was rampant in the Middle Ages and frequent plagues periodically devastated the country. One day the count met a strange man. He had a workshop and a small laboratory in his house, and he worked tirelessly during the day to afford a few hours of laboratory work every evening. He ground small lenses from pieces of glass, mounted the lenses in tubes, and used these devices to look at very small objects. The Count was especially fascinated by tiny creatures that could be observed with great magnification, and which he had never seen. He invited this man to move his laboratory to the castle and from now on devote all his time to the development and improvement of his optical devices.
However, the townspeople became angry when they realized that, in their opinion, the count was spending his money aimlessly. “We are suffering from this plague,” they said, “while he pays this man for a useless hobby!” But the count firmly stood his ground. “I'll give you as much as I can afford,” he said, “but I'll also support this man and his work because I know something will come of it someday!”
Indeed, something very good came out of this work, as well as from similar work done by other scientists in other places: the microscope. It is known that the microscope, more than any other invention, has contributed to the progress of medicine, and that the eradication of plague and other infectious diseases in most parts of the world is largely the result of research made possible by the microscope. The Count, by giving some of his money to research and discovery, did much more to alleviate human suffering than he could have done by spending it all on a plague-ridden society.
The situation we face today is similar in many ways. The President of the United States spends approximately $200 billion in his annual budget. This money goes to healthcare, education, social security, urban reconstruction, roads, transport, foreign aid, defense, science, agriculture and many installations inside and outside the country. About 1.6 percent of this national budget was allocated to space exploration this year. The space program includes Project Apollo and many other smaller projects in space physics, space astronomy, space biology, planetary projects, Earth resources projects and space technology. To make these space program expenses possible, the average American taxpayer with an annual income of $10,000 pays about $30 in taxes on space. The rest of his income, $9,970, is left for his needs, vacations, savings, taxes and all other expenses.
You're probably asking now, "Why don't you take $5 or $3 or $1 out of the $30 space dollars the average American taxpayer pays and send those dollars to hungry children?" To answer this question, I must briefly explain how the economy of this country works. The situation is very similar to other countries. The government consists of several departments (Interior, Justice, Health, Education and Welfare, Transportation, Defense, etc.) and bureaus (National Science Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, etc.). They all prepare their annual budgets according to their objectives, and each must protect their budgets from the extreme scrutiny of congressional committees and intense pressure from the Office of the Budget and the President. When these funds are finally approved by Congress, they can only be spent on certain items of expenditure that are identified and approved in the budget.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's budget, of course, can only contain those items of expenditure that are directly related to aeronautics and space. If a budget has not been approved by Congress, then the funds proposed for it will not be available for anything else, they are simply not charged to the taxpayer if no other budget has received approval for a particular increase, which then eats up funds not spent on space. As you can see from this brief discourse, support for starving children, or rather support in addition to the United States already contributing to this very worthy cause in the form of foreign economic assistance, can only be obtained if there is a request from the appropriate department to include a budget line specifically for this purpose and if the item is then approved by Congress.
You may ask whether I would personally support such a move on the part of our government. My answer is a resounding yes. In fact, I wouldn't mind at all if my annual taxes were raised a few dollars to go towards feeding hungry children, wherever they live.
I know all my friends feel the same way. However, we could not put such a program into practice simply by refraining from plans to travel to Mars. On the contrary, I even believe that by working for the space program, I can make a certain contribution to alleviating and ultimately solving such a serious problem as poverty and hunger on Earth. There are two main issues in the problem of hunger: food production and food distribution. Food processing, agriculture, cattle ranching, ocean fishing and other large-scale operations are efficient in some parts of the world, but fall dramatically short in efficiency in many others. For example, large tracts of land can be put to much more productive use by employing effective methods of watershed management, fertilizer use, weather forecasting, fertility assessment, plantation programming, field selection, crop timing, plant research, and crop planning.
The best means to improve all these functions is undoubtedly an artificial Earth satellite. By circling the globe at high altitude, it can scan wide areas of the earth in a short time, it can observe and measure a wide variety of factors indicating the status and condition of crops, soil, drought, rain, snow, etc., and it can transmit this information to ground stations for proper use. It has been estimated that even a modest system of Earth satellites equipped with sensors with data on Earth's resources, working as part of a program for worldwide agricultural improvement, would increase annual harvests by the equivalent of many billions of dollars.
Distributing food to those in need is a completely different matter. The question is not so much about the volume of supplies, but about international cooperation. The ruler of a small nation may feel very uneasy at the prospect of large quantities of aid being supplied to his country by a large nation, simply because he fears that the influence and power of foreign powers may be imported with the supply of food. I am afraid that effective famine relief will not come until the borders between countries become less divisive than they are now. I don't believe that spaceflight will accomplish this miracle overnight. However, the space program is certainly one of the most promising and powerful sources working in this direction.
Let me just remind you of the final near-tragedy of Apollo 13. When the time came for the astronauts to make their final re-entry into the atmosphere, the Soviet Union stopped all Russian radio transmissions in the frequency ranges used by the Apollo project in order to avoid possible interference, and the Russian ships were stationed in the waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in case of need for emergency rescue operations. If a capsule with astronauts had landed next to Russian ships, the Russians would undoubtedly have given as much attention and efforts to save them as if Russian cosmonauts had returned from space travel. If the Russian astronauts ever found themselves in a similar emergency situation, the Americans would do the same without any doubt.
Increased food production through exploration and assessment from orbit, and better food distribution through improved international relations, are just two examples of how profoundly the space program will impact life on earth. I would like to give two other examples: stimulating technological development and generating scientific knowledge.
The demands for high precision and reliability that must be placed on the components of a spacecraft traveling to the Moon are unprecedented in the history of technology. Developing systems that meet these high demands has provided us with a unique opportunity to discover new materials and methods, invent better technical systems, manufacturing procedures, increase tool life, and even discover new laws of nature.
All this newly acquired technical knowledge is also available for application in earthly technology. Every year, about a thousand technical innovations are generated in the space program, and they are used in our earthly technology, thanks to them, improvements in household and agricultural equipment, sewing machines and radios, ships and airplanes, weather forecasting, communications, medical instruments, utensils and tools for everyday use. life. You may be wondering why we must first develop life support systems for our moon-going astronauts before we can develop remote sensor systems for heart patients. The answer is simple: significant progress in solving technical problems is often made not by a direct approach, but by first setting a lofty goal, which provides a strong motivation for innovative work, which in turn excites the imagination and motivates people to make the greatest effort, and which acts as a catalyst, including for a chain of other reactions.
Space flights, without any doubt, play exactly this role. A trip to Mars, of course, is not a direct source of food for the hungry. However, it will lead to the discovery of so many new technologies and opportunities that the side effects of this project alone will be many times greater than the cost of its implementation.
In addition to the need for new technologies, there is a constant need for new basic knowledge in the sciences if we are to improve the human condition on Earth. We need more knowledge in physics and chemistry, biology and physiology, and especially in medicine, to cope with all these problems that threaten human life: hunger, disease, food and water contamination, environmental pollution.
We need more young men and women choosing careers in science, and we need to support talented scientists who aspire to do fruitful research work. Complex research problems must be accessible and sufficient support for research projects must be provided. Again, the space program, with its excellent opportunities for engaging in truly magnificent scientific research on satellites and planets, physics and astronomy, biology and medicine, is an almost ideal catalyst that produces a reaction between motivation for scientific work and the opportunity to observe fascinating natural phenomena, and material support necessary to carry out research work.
Of all the activities that are directed, controlled and financed by the American government, the space program is by far the most visible and perhaps the most discussed, although it consumes only 1.6 percent of the total government budget, and 3 thousandths (less than one-third 1 percent) of the gross national product. As a stimulator and catalyst for the development of new technologies, as well as for research in the basic sciences, it is unparalleled. In this regard, we can even say that the space program is taking over a function that for three or four thousand years was the sad prerogative of wars.
During the development of civilization, humanity often faced problems. It was largely thanks to them that people managed to rise to a new stage. But thanks to globalization, which has connected the most remote corners of the planet together, each new difficulty in development can threaten the survival of the entire civilization. The problem of peaceful space exploration is one of the newest, but far from the simplest.
Terminological apparatus
Global problems are contradictions that are characterized by a planetary scale. Their severity and dynamics of worsening require the combined efforts of all humanity to be resolved. Modern scientists classify as global those problems that act as an important factor hindering the development of civilization and affect the vital interests of the world community. They are usually divided into three main groups, depending on the aspect of social life with which their occurrence is associated. It is important to understand each one, since their resolution requires effective policies at all levels: national, regional, global.
Groups and their characteristics
Depending on the areas of public life that they affect, the following global dangers for humanity are identified:
- Problems in the field of international relations. This group includes the dangers of war and peace, the survival of mankind, and applications. Recently, the problem of peaceful exploration of space and the ocean has also arisen. Solving these problems requires concerted action by all and the creation of international institutions.
- Issues affecting human life in society. The main ones in this group are food and demographic. It is also important to preserve the cultural heritage of our civilization and overcome the negative aspect of the scientific and technological development of mankind.
- Problems of human interaction with nature. These include environmental, energy, raw materials and climate.
positive and negative aspects
The starry sky, which humanity never tires of admiring throughout its history, is only a small part of the cosmos. Its limitlessness is difficult to comprehend. Moreover, it was only in the 60s of the last century that people first took the first steps towards its development. But we immediately realized the enormous opportunities that the exploration of other planets opens up. The problem of peaceful space exploration was not even considered at that time. No one thought about reliability and only sought to get ahead of other countries. Scientists focused on new materials, growing plants in the atmosphere of other planets and other equally interesting issues. At the dawn of the space age, there was no time to worry about waste from used technology. But today it threatens the further development of the industry.
Global problems of humanity: peaceful space exploration
Space is a new environment for humans. But already now there is a problem of debris clogging the near-Earth space with debris from obsolete equipment. According to researchers, the liquidation of the stations resulted in about 3,000 tons of debris. This figure is comparable to the mass of the upper layer of the atmosphere, which is located above two hundred kilometers. Contamination poses a risk to new manned objects. And the problem of peaceful space exploration threatens further research in this area. Today, designers of aircraft and other equipment are forced to take into account the debris in Earth's orbit. But it is dangerous not only for astronauts, but also for ordinary residents. According to scientists, one of one and a half hundred pieces of debris that reached the surface of the planet could seriously injure a person. If a solution to the problem of peaceful space exploration is not found soon, then the era of flights beyond the Earth may end ingloriously.
Legal aspect
Outer space is not under the jurisdiction of any state. Therefore, in fact, national laws cannot operate on its territory. Consequently, when mastering it, all participants in the process have to come to an agreement. For this purpose, international organizations are created that develop rules and monitor their implementation. National laws must comply with them, but it is not possible to keep track of this. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that the problem of peaceful space exploration arose because of this state of affairs. Until the permissible limits of human impact on near-Earth space are determined, the danger will only increase. It is important to determine the status of space as an international object of protection and to study it exclusively in accordance with this provision.
The problem of peaceful space exploration: solutions
The 20th century was marked not only by outstanding discoveries that changed our understanding of the world around us, but also by the worsening of all existing problems. Today they have become global, and the continued existence of our civilization depends on their solution. In the last century, man was finally able to conquer the starry sky. But the rosy predictions of science fiction writers have not yet been destined to come true, but the emerging problem of peaceful space exploration makes us think about the veracity of dystopias. Sometimes there is even a feeling that humanity is moving uncontrollably towards its destruction. But before we forget how to think, there is hope to direct the energy of our minds in the right direction. The global problem of peaceful space exploration can be solved. You just need to overcome your selfishness and indifference to each other and the environment.
At the time of the lunar landing in 1969, many sincerely believed that by the beginning of the 21st century, space travel would become commonplace, and earthlings would begin to fly to other planets. Unfortunately, this future has not yet arrived, and people have begun to doubt whether we even need this space travel. Maybe the moon is enough? However, space exploration continues to provide us with invaluable information in the fields of medicine, mining and security. And, of course, progress in the study of outer space has an inspiring effect on humanity!
1. Protection from a possible collision with an asteroid
If we don't want to end up like the dinosaurs, we need to protect ourselves from the threat of a collision with a large asteroid. As a rule, about once every 10 thousand years, some celestial body the size of a football field threatens to crash into the Earth, which can lead to irreversible consequences for the planet. We really should be wary of such “guests” with a diameter of at least 100 meters. The collision will raise a dust storm, destroy forests and fields, and doom those who survive to starvation. Special space programs are aimed at identifying a dangerous object long before it approaches the Earth and knocking it off its trajectory.
2. The possibility of new great discoveries
A considerable number of various gadgets, materials and technologies were originally developed for space programs, but later they found their application on Earth. We all know about freeze-dried products and have been using them for a long time. In the 1960s, scientists developed a special plastic coated with a reflective metal coating. When used in the production of conventional blankets, it retains up to 80% of a person’s body heat. Another valuable innovation is nitinol, a flexible but resilient alloy created for satellite production. Dental braces are now made from this material.
3. Contribution to medicine and healthcare
Space exploration has led to many medical innovations for earthly use: for example, a method of injecting anti-cancer drugs directly into a tumor, equipment with which a nurse can perform an ultrasound and instantly transmit data to a doctor thousands of kilometers away, and a mechanical manipulator arm that performs complex actions inside the MRI machine. Pharmaceutical developments in the field of protecting astronauts from loss of bone and muscle mass in microgravity conditions have led to the creation of drugs for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. Moreover, these drugs were easier to test in space, since astronauts lose about 1.5% of bone mass per month, and an elderly woman on Earth loses 1.5% per year.
4. Space exploration inspires humanity to new achievements
If we want to create a world in which our children aspire to become scientists and engineers, rather than reality TV hosts, movie stars or financial tycoons, then space exploration is a very inspiring process. It's time to ask the growing generation the question: "Who wants to be an aerospace engineer and design a vehicle that can enter the thin atmosphere of Mars?"
5. We need raw materials from space
There is gold, silver, platinum and other valuable metals in outer space. Some international companies are already thinking about mining asteroids, so it is possible that the profession of a space miner will appear in the near future. The Moon, for example, is a possible source of helium-3 (used for MRI and seen as a possible fuel for nuclear power plants). On Earth, this substance costs up to 5 thousand dollars per liter. The moon is also considered a potential source of rare earth elements such as europium and tantalum, which are in high demand for use in electronics, solar cells and other modern devices.
6. Space exploration may help answer a very important question.
We all believe that there is life somewhere in space. In addition, many believe that aliens have already visited our planet. However, we still have not received any signals from distant civilizations. That's why scientists searching for extraterrestrial civilizations are ready to deploy orbital observatories, for example, the James Webb Space Telescope. This satellite is scheduled for launch in 2018, and with its help it will be possible to search for life in the atmospheres of distant planets outside our solar system based on chemical signatures. And this is just the beginning.
7. People have a natural desire for exploration.
Our primitive ancestors, originally from East Africa, settled throughout the planet, and since then, humanity has never stopped the process of moving. We always want to explore and experience something new and unknown, whether it's a short jaunt to the moon as a tourist, or a long interstellar journey spanning multiple generations. Several years ago, a NASA executive articulated the distinction between the "understandable reasons" and the "real reasons" for space exploration. The understandable reasons are questions of economic and technological advantage, while the real reasons include concepts such as curiosity and the desire to leave a mark.
8. Humanity will probably have to colonize outer space to survive.
We've learned how to send satellites into space, which helps us monitor and combat Earth's pressing problems, including wildfires, oil spills, and depleted aquifers. However, a significant increase in population, banal greed and unjustified frivolity regarding environmental consequences have already caused serious damage to our planet. Scientists believe that the Earth has a “carrying capacity” of 8 to 16 billion, and there are already more than 7 billion of us. Perhaps it is time for humanity to prepare to explore other planets for life.
The world of science regarding astronautics, despite small advances in this field, has been virtually stagnant for the past 50 years. Although colossal amounts of money are spent on research, this does not bring practical results to humanity. This indicates a deep systemic crisis in the global space industry. Why? This situation is primarily due to the fact that world society is in a state of cultural, moral and spiritual systemic crisis; the consumer attitude to life dominates in the thinking of modern people. Scientific funding has moved from the stage of “benefiting people” to the stage of “it’s prestigious that they are doing this in our country,” but in fact, scientific stagnation occurs.
This state of affairs also applies to the field of space exploration. There are too many unsolved problems facing the world of science, such as: meteorite danger, astronaut health in space, cosmic radiation (radiation), etc.
An unexpected encounter between a spaceship and a meteorite can end tragically for the aircraft. The speed of meteorites that we see in the night sky as “shooting stars” is on average 50 times faster than the speed of a bullet. Also, artificial space objects, the so-called space debris, such as lost satellites, fragments of exploded rockets, bolts, cables that orbit the earth, pose a considerable danger. The cluttering of space and the reluctance of people to jointly solve these problems creates a threat of deepening confrontation between countries. For example, a unique orbit, the only one for all actively operating communication satellites, is the geostationary orbit. However, today, out of 1,200 objects located on it, only a few hundred are actively working satellites, the rest is “space debris” of civilization. This suggests that in the next 20 years, while maintaining the same intensity of launching satellites into geostationary orbit, the unique resource will ultimately be exhausted and competition for the required place in this orbit will increase many times over.
The inability of the human physical body to adapt to the conditions of outer space. Experimental flights have shown that the lack of gravity has a detrimental effect on human health. A year on Earth does not eliminate the consequences of flight, because... in conditions of weightlessness, bone mass is lost, fat metabolism is disrupted, muscles weaken, and a person, having returned to normal conditions of existence, cannot stand on his feet, and consciousness, sometimes, unable to withstand the drop, simply turns off. Experts say that the consequences of a long stay in space can be very sad for a person: this is not only a problem with memory, but also a possible loss of some body functions associated with the reproductive process, the occurrence of cancerous tumors and much more.
High level of radioactive radiation. Particles released into outer space have a huge energy charge of more than 10 20 eV, which is millions more than what can be obtained, for example, in the Large Hadron Collider. And all this happens because the conditions in which elementary particles are located on Earth and in space have significant differences. Modern science has too few answers regarding the behavior and properties of elementary particles.
Launch into space. Nowadays, astronautics, just like 52 years ago, relies on rocket technology, that is, humanity can only go into space with the help of rocket launches. Currently, astronautics does not have promising carriers capable of making a new evolutionary leap in the development of this industry.
But society can solve any problems if we transfer human development from the vector of selfish consumption to the vector of spiritual creation. Everything in the world consists of elementary particles. But absolute, accurate knowledge is needed about what exactly elementary particles are made of and how to control them. Only with the help of such knowledge can one create the necessary conditions to achieve the desired results and reproduce processes in the required quality and quantity. Already now, thanks to the knowledge of the PRIMORDIALALLATRA PHYSICISTS are conducting scientific research in many areas, including in the field of the latest technologies for space exploration.
, prepared by the international research group ALLATRA SCIENCE: “Knowledge of PRIMORDIAL ALLATRA PHYSICS opens access to an inexhaustible source of energy that is everywhere, including in outer space. This is renewable energy, thanks to which elementary particles are created, their movement and interaction occur. The ability to receive it and transfer it from one state to another opens up a new, safe, easily accessible source of alternative energy for every person.” Considering that the visible world consists of elementary particles, knowing their combinations, it is possible to artificially create in the required quantities food, water, air, the necessary protection from radiation, and so on, thereby solving not only the problem of human survival in space, but also the development of other planets.
PRIMORDIAL ALLATRA PHYSICS is built on universal human moral principles; it is capable of providing comprehensive answers and solving not only these problems. This is a science that leads to evolutionary cosmic breakthroughs, this is a huge potential for creating new research and scientific directions. Knowledge of PRIMORDIAL ALLATRA PHYSICS gives a fundamentally new understanding of the answers to the questions: “What to fly?”, “How far can you fly?”, “Under what conditions can you fly and how to create artificial gravity, close to earthly conditions, on board a spacecraft?”, "Howlive autonomously in space?”, “How to protect a ship from cosmic radiation?”. They also reveal insight into the Universe itself, which is a natural “laboratory” of elementary particles and performs “experiments” under conditions that are impossible on Earth.
Yana Semyonova
Speaking about the exploration of large space and about flights to other planets, not only our Solar system, but also beyond it, a person forgets that he, in fact, is an integral part of the Earth. And how our body will behave outside its native blue planet, and what problems will generally arise in space exploration, is still unknown. (website)
Although you can even guess how. It is no coincidence that Russian cosmonauts once joked that in orbit a pencil is much more useful than memory, since they noticed that the latter began to malfunction there. And this is still in Earth orbit, but what about flights to other planets...
Problems of human space exploration
NASA is currently conducting a long-term experiment involving single-celled twin astronauts. The first spent a whole year on the ISS, and the second lived quietly on Earth at that time. Please note that NASA employees, despite Scott's return from the international space station, are in no hurry to draw conclusions, saying that final results can be expected only in 2017.
However, researchers from many countries have been studying this problem for a long time, since the development of astronautics on Earth will largely depend on its solution. And science still cannot answer even the question of how long a person can stay away from Earth, not to mention many others.
Firstly, a person cannot exist for a long time without what is familiar to him, and so far this problem in space exploration has not been solved. Secondly, modern technologies cannot protect an astronaut from the effects of radiation and other cosmic radiation that literally permeate everything. Astronauts on the ISS, for example, even with their eyes closed, “see bright flashes” when these rays affect their optic nerves. But such radiation penetrates the entire body of a person in space and can affect the immune system and even DNA. In this case, any astronaut protection automatically becomes a source of secondary radiation.
The impact of space on human health
Researchers at the University of Colorado recently examined mice that had spent two weeks in orbit (aboard the space shuttle Atlantis). Just two weeks! And during this short time, unpleasant changes occurred in the rodents’ bodies; they all returned to Earth with signs of liver damage. Before this, notes Professor Karen Jonscher, space researchers did not even imagine that it was so destructive to the internal organs of everything living on Earth, including humans. It's no coincidence that astronauts often return from orbit with symptoms similar to diabetes. Of course, on Earth they are immediately treated, but what will happen to a person during a long stay in space, and even far from his home planet? Will the problem of the influence of space on humans be fully resolved?
By the way, scientists are constantly interested in this question - conception and reproduction in space, since people are planning long-term, or even lifelong flights to other planets. It turns out that in conditions of weightlessness, eggs, for example, are divided completely differently, that is, not into two, four, eight, and so on, but into two, three, five... For a person, this is tantamount to the absence of conception or termination of pregnancy in the earliest stages.
True, the other day Chinese scientists made a “sensational statement” that they were able to achieve the development of a mammalian embryo in microgravity conditions. And although the article by journalist Cheng Yingqi sounds ambitious - “A giant leap in science - embryos grow in space,” many researchers were very skeptical about this information.
Disappointing results regarding human exploration of space
So, if we summarize, even without waiting for the results of NASA’s experiment with twin astronauts, we can draw a disappointing conclusion: humanity is not yet ready for flights into deep space, and it is not yet known when this will happen. Some researchers even argue that we are not even ready for flights to the Moon (from which we can conclude that the Americans have never flown there), not to mention Mars and other grandiose space plans.
Ufologists, in turn, insist on the no less authoritative opinion of other scientists that overcoming outer space, as we are going to do now, is a dead end. In their firm belief, the developed travel in the Universe in a completely different way, for example, using wormholes - time-spatial holes that allow them to instantly move to any point in the Divine universe. Perhaps there are more advanced methods that are beyond our understanding. Earth's space rockets so far only claim to master the near-Earth orbit, and exclusively in all respects, from the snail's speed (by the standards of the Big Space) of movement to the complete vulnerability of astronauts in these primitive devices...
