One day, artificial photosynthesis could provide ultra efficient conversion of the sun’s energy into electricity while simultaneously scrubbing carbon dioxide and perhaps other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. The idea of green—perhaps literally—solar energy collectors on the tops of buildings and cars reminded me of Karl Schroeder’s notes on the invisibility of advanced civilizations. His basic idea is that an advanced society will integrate itself into its environment rather than construct huge technological marvels that stick out like a sore thumb. While it’s difficult to envision how we might offload literal computation—like balancing the checkbook or playing World of Warcraft—into the environment, it certainly appears that artificial photosynthesis and other radical green technologies are the first steps down that road.
A transformation into a zero-footprint society has implications beyond sustainability. Schroeder’s notes are an answer to the Fermi paradox, which asks, “If extraterrestrial intelligence is common, where is everyone?” The answer in this case is that we can’t detect them because they’re essentially invisible thanks to their integration into their environment. As we integrate ourselves into our environment, we too become invisible to outsiders. This is non-trivial.
There is an active and not always amicable debate in SETI circles over whether we should limit ourselves in merely listening for signals from extraterrestrial intelligences (known as “passive SETI”) or attempt to contact them ourselves (referred to as “active SETI”) (additional coverage by David Brin and Daily Galaxy). The contention is the non-zero possibility that active SETI might alert a malevolent entity to our presence, thereby dooming humanity. But if we manage to make ourselves invisible between now and when our signal reaches our would-be foe, they may decide that there’s nothing interesting on our little blue speck after all. Thus, our quest for sustainable technologies might, one day, save us from an alien invasion.
Phoenix Mars Lander to Probe Arctic Ice: On Sunday, the Phoenix Mars Lander will touch down near the north pole of Mars. It’s mission is to investigate the ice that lies just beneath the regolith in the Vastitas Borealis region. Researchers hope to determine the origin of the ice and whether the region was ever hospitable to life.
Organics on Enceladus: In another exciting find from Cassini, the probe found more organic compounds than expected during its pass through Enceladus’s water plums. It also found much higher than expected temperatures. The heat, which suggests subsurface liquid water, plus the organics suggests that conditions may be right for life. Centauri Dreams has more.
There’s been a flurry of exciting announcements in the last week from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. Titan, the most Earth-like moon in the solar system, may have a vast subsurface ocean of ammonia and water. The spacecraft is also making two important flybys, sampling the water geysers of the moon Enceladus and probing the upper reaches of Titan’s atmosphere. With all the water and hydrocarbons, announcements like these are frequently couched in terms of the possibilities for extraterrestrial life. If there is life, it’s probably very unlike anything here on Earth, and Centauri Dreams suggests it may be prudent to reconsider our preconceptions about where to search for life on other worlds. For now, we probably won’t find anything terribly unexpected, but just the mere act of testing materials from distant worlds is enough to keep me rapt.
Saturn’s Moon has Rings, too: I’m fascinated by our solar system, and Saturn in particular. There’s more strangeness, oddity, and diversity in our little neck of the woods than dreamt of by science fiction writers. Now there’s a new entry for the catalog—rings have been detected around Saturn’s moon Rhea [hat tip: Beyond the Beyond], marking the first time rings have been detected around a moon.
A microgravity environment is hard on the human body. Loss of muscle mass, bone density, and blood volume begins immediately and can be dramatic—up to 5% a week for muscles. With NASA planing long-term trips to the International Space Station, the Moon, and Mars, researchers are starting to develop new ways to counteract such atrophying. To study the effects of exercise, they’ve developed a vertical treadmill to simulate the effects of exercise in low- and zero-gravity. Research into the formation of muscles from stem cells in response to exercise may provide a more pharmacological way to counteract atrophying muscles. There are a number of promising methods for adapting humans to microgravity, but more research, into both how the human body reacts to extended exposure to reduced gravity and how to counteract it, is needed.
As much as I believe in the basic goodness of humanity and hope for peace on Earth, the pragmatist in me doesn’t think it’s going to happen any time in next few centuries, at the earliest. Thus, there’s a certain realism to science fiction stories that pit one human faction against another, like Dune. Whenever extraterrestrials enter the picture, especially hostile ones, their faced with a monolithic human society. There’s a subtle message there—humanity will set aside its internal differences in the face of an external threat—although I suspect that at least some of the time thsi is done purely for convenience and simplicity. But what if that didn’t happen? What if we were still squabble amongst ourselves when we made first contact? Somewhat dystopian, but it could also be very interesting. And what if, instead of meeting a monolithic extraterrestrial culture, we found a balkanized one?
As my own geekling enters his eighth month, I’ve been wondering what it would be like if we were raising him in a microgravity environment. It would be a very different story, that’s for sure. Let’s assume that the problems associated with long-term or permanent habitation of space, such as bone decalcification, have been solved.
Shockingly, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of information available on having kids in orbit. I did find one PDF outline, but it addresses the ethics of procreating in space and large-scale issues like getting the children food and social support. I just want to focus on the day-to-day business of raising a kid.
Historically, human exploration has been driven by the profit motive, pure and simple. Columbus was trying to find an easier way to India when he happened upon the new world. Spanish conquistadors were after the fountain of youth and cities made of gold. But these early explorers only had to worry about food and water on the trip across the ocean. They didn’t have to worry about life support at their destination or carrying along a massive fuel supply. But environmental and fuel issues only add the to cost of space travel, they don’t directly hamper it. The real barrier to commercialization of space and commodification of space travel is the lack of resources that can be easily exploited. As a venture capitalist explained recently at the Space Investment Summit:
What we’re looking for is to put a buck in and get $20 out in 4, 5, 6 years. It takes one or two winners like that to get more people looking at it. If you guys can come up with a wave of innovation that is investable at that level, then everybody will flock into space.
Put another way, space entrepreneurs need a “netscape moment.” The only low-hanging fruit is people’s pure desire to go into space. Simply put, space tourism appears to be the only immediately profitable avenue for manned spaceflight. At least, Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, and a handful of other tourism-related companies think it will profitable soon enough.
