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Trebuchet

Banned

From: Florida

Registered: 2004-04-26

Posts: 419

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/internat … .html]Link

I imagine that if it turns out a stronger gravitational field is needed for early development of the embryo/fetus, that putting one of these in a centrifuge is a viable option.

Of course, this also opens up the freakishly Brave New World colonization scenario where you send a few adults and a shitload of frozen embryos and artificial wombs.

"I'm so glad to be a Beta..."

Brr. Though that might be the only reasonable way to colonize other star systems, in the long term.

Cobra Commander

Member

From: The outskirts of Detroit.

Registered: 2002-04-09

Posts: 3,039

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

A society dependent on centrifuge incubators to procreate. Sex and reproduction severed from one another.

Man-hives spinning away beneath the cities.

Brave new world, indeed.

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Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Trebuchet

Banned

From: Florida

Registered: 2004-04-26

Posts: 419

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

Just look at the bright side of the technology: we no longer need to send adult farm animals to Mars. Just send cow embryos and BAM! Martian cowboys.

BWhite

Member

From: Chicago, Illinois

Registered: 2004-06-16

Posts: 2,635

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

We discussed this at length a few years ago.

My plan was to build gimballed, suspended subway cars and spin them around the settlement. Someone else pointed out that an inclined track works just as well.

Maybe 8 hours a day of 1 gee wold be sufficient for fetal development. Add a dining car and a sleeping car and pregnancy confinement takes on a whole new meaning.

A 3/8ths gee lab in LEO breeding chimps and the like seems like a necessary place to start.

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Give someone a sufficient [b][i]why[/i][/b] and they can endure just about any [b][i]how[/i][/b]

mboeller

Banned

From: germany

Registered: 2004-05-08

Posts: 53

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

Why not simply spin up the complete colony?

This was at least the idea of Paul Birch :

http://www.paulbirch.net/TerraformingMa … uickly.zip  [1.7MB]

Look at gif no. 8 for an example

Martin_Tristar

Member

From: Earth, Region : Australia

Registered: 2004-12-07

Posts: 305

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

You would require a continuous "artifical gravity" type effect for the local area to make sure that the human being doesn't lose the bodily functions.

You could make all females having children to remain on spinning spac stations until they have their children and the children will be required to stay onboard until they reach adulthood or returned to earth or similar 0.7-1g environment for health reasons.

SpaceNut

Administrator

From: New Hampshire

Registered: 2004-07-22

Posts: 29,433

Re: If gravity is essential to embryo development... - then here's how Mars will beat it.

Is it essential also for plant growth?

MOSS IN SPACE PROJECT, SHOWS HOW SOME PLANTS GROW WITHOUT GRAVITY

At least some work is being done.

Experiments on moss grown aboard two space shuttle Columbia missions showed that the plants didn't behave as scientists expected them to in the near-absence of gravity.

The common roof moss (Ceratodon purpureus) grew in striking, clockwise spirals, according to Fred Sack, the study's lead investigator and a professor of plant cellular and molecular biology at Ohio State University.