Columbus, scurvy, deformed space fetii and plaintiff lawyers

This is an interesting morality / ethics / legal issue regarding space
exploration. Clearly, the European explorers of the New World did not
have all problems solved before exploring and developing it. Crews
regularly suffered from scurvy and other diseases during the crossing of
the Atlantic, and many explorers starved or froze to death trying to find
the Northwest Passage.

One approach to space biomedical risks is to carefully research before
committing to an extended mission every possible biomedical downside to
extended periods of freefall and heightened radiation. This approach is
favored in the common 21st-century Western worldview, as exemplarized by
unending pee-in-the-bottle experiments conducted on STS.

Another approach is to throw people out there ( a la Columbus, Magellan,
etc. ) and make do, no matter what the biomedical consequences. The
notion that we should delay the exploration and settlement of space until
we know all the long-term effects of freefall and radiation would seem
quite odd and timid to someone from the 16th century. Crews on exploratory
missions in those days expected to have fatalities during the mission.

Even today, people live in parts of the world where the long-term
biomedical effects are hazardous (think Central Africa with its sleeping
sickness, parasites, etc.). Our view of space biomedical risk is thus
determined not only by the century in which we live, but also by the
country in which we live.

Clearly, the approach of fully-researching all biomedical effects ahead of
time is the approach that minimizes risk. But it may take boatloads more
money and time than the riskier alternative of surging forward without all
questions answered.

(We have to think about the effects of plaintiff lawyers on the whole
economics equation, too. I can just imagine the glee with which such
low-lives would greet a deformed space fetus --- quite an opportunity for
bringing punitive damages against all the parties involved in the space
venture.)

At a high level, I wonder if the U.S. citizenry has stomach enough to lead
space settlement. We are so risk averse now, at least legally. In the
back of my mind I just wonder if China might ultimately lead the way into
space. They're less risk-averse than we are, and they no doubt would
welcome Lebensraum.

Ron Menich

"Combs, Mike"
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03/21/01
12:06 PM
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Would the foetus develop normally? Would the child be born normally?
Has any practical research been done on this issue?

If this is an unknown I would suggest that this issue should be
resolved before there are any plans to colonise either the moon or
Mars or any other moon/planet with low gravity.

And it could be researched in the low-gravity sections of an orbital
habitat without even leaving Earth orbit.

Regards,

Mike Combs