Humans Aren’t Made for Space

I stated that I believe that virtual reality is the future of vacations. I described that I would choose disabled people as the main target audience if I tried to make such an enterprise running. Who has read some of my articles could know that I have a disabled brother. But this wasn’t the only circumstance, which inspired me to such an idea. My interest in space was the other circumstance. Astronauts increase their cancer risk by staying on the International Space Station (ISS) because two weeks on the ISS mean to get as much radiation as in six years on the surface of the Earth. Half of the radiation taken up on the ISS is taken up while passing through the South Atlantic Anomaly. This is an area, where the magnetic field of our planet is especially weak. It is only the peak of a currently worldwide decreasing magnetic field. Current space travelers try to avoid areas with weak magnetic field and hence high cosmic radiation as good as they can. So the ISS is also orbiting the Earth only below the Van-Allen Belt, which shields our planet against cosmic radiation. With other words permanent stations on the Moon or on Mars aren’t a good idea. Mankind should send robots instead. But I also understand the necessity of manned space flights. So I suggest to supplement virtual reality centers with robots for virtual presence. Such robots would be sent to the Moon, or also in the deep sea and elsewhere, and collect the data for creating the virtual reality. Two-way communication and hence interaction with the tool for virtual presence should be possible with a distance as far as to the Moon. This could very much improve the realism of the experience. Scientific data can be collected as a by-product. Interaction wouldn’t work on Mars because dealing with a delay of some seconds is already necessary with a virtual presence of the Moon. Well, the same precautionary measures as with rovers on Moon and Mars are necessary. Customers will probably be intolerant if any measures hinder the realism of the experience. So what the future of space travels, including manned space flights, really requires is to build more robots!

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