The finding by Lockheed Martin and North Carolina State University effectively sinks one of the big issues in missions to Mars and beyond. A simple, easily-applied layer of powder can be an effective defense against radiation.
This procedure would be marginally more difficult than any other type of assembly on any type of vehicle, like putting duco on a car. This, it turns out, is a baseline solution for one of anti-space rhetoric’s more banal objections.
Consider for a moment a large number of people obviously dedicated to raising objections but never finding solutions. The theoretical objections to space exploration are almost unbelievably tedious in their dogma.
Lockheed Martin and North Carolina State University had the insight and acumen to simply find the compound, evaluate it, and pin down a highly productive use for the material.
The “everything’s impossible” BS has to go
Consider also the knowledge base required to make a finding like this. Now consider the lack of knowledge required for the “everything’s impossible” approach to space travel and other future aspirations. Interesting contrast, isn’t it?
Now consider this – Cheap, effective radiation shielding has a lot of practical uses. Satellites, for example, or systems vulnerable to solar flares, spring to mind.
Why would such an important subject be so utterly neglected, never mind denigrated, by people so passionate about “proving” the impossibility of critical future needs? Sometimes this BS is qualified by the use of phrases like “existing technology can’t…”, but we’ve just had 200 years of massive technological advances, based entirely on solving problems like that.
Case in point – Artificial gravity
A classic case of “everything’s impossible” in the same context as radiation shielding is the spaceflight zero gravity issue. Long times in zero gravity lead to a range of physical risks for space travelers. Not least of these are muscle degeneration and “leaky astronaut” circulation issues. These are real problems, and proposals have been stymied for years by the “everything’s impossible” argument. There are pages and pages of discussion on artificial gravity, and even more pages of actual designs, some dating back decades. Some of these designs are, to put it mildly gutsy, ambitious and deserve lots of credit for getting out of the pedantic box and staying there.
The only thing holding back proper experimentation and research is the “everything’s impossible” argument. The artificial gravity issue is critical to future space exploration. It doesn’t matter whether anyone thinks it’s possible or impossible; it must be done.
One of the classic early cases of destroying these totally negative “everything’s impossible” arguments was in 1903. An academic wrote to his friend that everything had already been discovered, and that science would inevitably follow the ideas of the 19th century. Six months later, the Wright Brothers took off. A bit later, mass production, electronics, genetics, space flight, and the 20th century obliterated that sort of thinking forever.
Total obliteration is where “everything’s impossible” needs to go, right now. It’s a useless view of anything. Lockheed Martin and North Carolina State University have delivered a massive hit to this baseless idiocy with their research.
Keep hitting these do-nothing dogmas until there’s nothing left to hit. When you hit light speed, hit the accelerator. If the universe doesn’t like it, it can get out of the bloody way.
