Habitat Contamination - Warning: Rambling Ahead!

Maybe, maybe not. I infer from your reply that the optimum strategy
is to not screen out infections. Where do you draw the line and why?
Let in TB, whooping cough, herpes, norwalk, asian flu, syphllis,
AIDS, measles, smallpox, common cold, leprosy, mups, rubella, yellow
fever, clymadia, human papoloma virus, dengue fever, west nile
virus, etc.

I mean wouldn't we all be better off if we had continual exposure
and resistance to all of the above? How do we get that resistance?
If we can't get the resistance, to let's say smallpox, should we
immunize or try to destroy the disease? If it's eradicated in the
US, let's say, but still prevalent in other parts of the world,
should we still immunize everyone in the US or try to screen at the
border?

Let's not forget that even now, people don't jet halfway around the
world on a whim for a vacation. It's expensive for most people. With
respect to tourists and Habitats, you'd have to fly from your city
to a spaceport. From there to LEO station, from LEO station to
Habitat. I really have trouble imagining connection times within
minutes of each other. Rather, I'd say it's more plausible that we'd
be dealing in connection times of a few days. Then factor in the
transit time from LEO to Habitat of a few days to a few weeks.

Now, first question: how many tourists can afford that kind of
transit time?

Second question: how long does a quarantine take? Further can a
quarantine period be coordinated with a orientation and training
period? I don't see why not. Imagine a future immigrant, guest
worker, student, or tourist entering into a quarantine hotel. They
go through the external and internal scrubbing to whatever standards
the "immigration department" sets. Then they are isolated from the
outside world. The hotel employees who come into physical contact
with the guests work in shifts and live on site for their shift and
they too go through the same process.

Inside this hotel, the guests get briefed, trained, etc. Can you
finish medical check-ups, physical training, and Habitat briefing in
the time necessary for quarantine to isolate any pathogens? I don't
know how long quarantine takes, but when I read that shuttle
astronauts take FIVE YEARS to train for a specific mission, then I
think that there'll have to be some orientation for future
immigrants and tourists. A few weeks at least.

--- In spacesettlers@y..., Al Globus wrote:
>
> On Friday, December 6, 2002, at 06:41 AM, Combs, Mike wrote:
>
> > At one end of the spectrum we'll have habitats which are
obsessive
> > about
> > keeping viruses, spores, etc. out of the habitat. Their
residents may
> > enjoy
> > life without the common cold and some kinds of allergies
>
> And when someone screws up and infection enters the habitat, a lot
of
> folks will die.
>
> The materials in one asteroid (the largest ) are sufficient to
make
> orbital space colonies with ~500 times the surface area of the
Earth in
> usable real estate. See
http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/