The small hoses for breathing gas were a bad idea, but they did get the systems proved out. Now I'm going to larger-gauge manifolds to match hoses; the photo shows today's rebuild of the bailout breathing gas manifold; the old, smaller one is held there for comparison. Easier breathing all around! Pressure test tomorrow, knocking out some of the 100 or so items on the pre-Copenhagen altitude chamber test!
ABSTRACT
"Designing interstellar starships for human migration to exoplanets requires establishing the starship population, which determines many variables including overall design, architecture, mass and propulsion. I review the central issues of population genetics (effects of mutation, migration, selection and drift) and demographics (population size, age, and sex structure on departure) for human populations on such voyages, specifically referencing a roughly 5-generation (c.150-year) voyage currently in the realm of thought among the Icarus Interstellar research group. I present several formulae as well as concrete numbers that can be used to help determine populations that could survive such journeys in good health. I describe why previously-proposed multigenerational voyage populations, on the order of a few hundred individuals, are significantly too low to consider based on current understanding of human genetic variation and general patterns in vertebrate population dynamics. Population genetics theory, calculations and computer modeling determine that a properly-screened and age- and sex-structured total population (Nc) of anywhere from roughly 14,000 to 44,000 people would be entirely sufficient to survive such journeys in good health. A safe and well-considered figure is 40,000 people. This ‘IMP’ or Interstellar Migrant Population, would be composed of an effective population [Ne] of 23,400 reproductive males and females, the rest being pre- or post reproductive individuals. This number would maintain good health over five generations despite (a) increased inbreeding resulting from a relatively small human population, (b) depressed genetic diversity due to the founder effect, (c) demographic change through time and (d) expectation of at least one severe population catastrophe over the 5-generation voyage."
Department of Anthropology
Portland State University
17 May 2013
7,243 words
Late Draft Form; some figures to be added, but essential findings are secure.
"In this study I model the population genetics of five human generations, each of 30 years, for a total of 150 years, according to the broad goals of Icarus Interstellar's Project Hyperion, scaled to reach an exoplanet within 150 years at just over .03 light speed. I adjust population figures to account for various likelihoods of large-scale disaster, which we should expec...t on a voyage of such a duration. I conclude with an estimate of Nc, or total population of the first generation of interstellar migrants (of a certain age- and sex-structure), to be well capable of sustaining founder-, drift- and inbreeding-effect to range from 18,000 to 60,000, depending on the safety factor employed. Roughly averaging these, we should plan for the first 5-generation interstellar starship population to be of 40,000 people, roughly the size of 10-20 oceangoing cruise ships. Such a population could sustain founder-, drift-, and inbreeding-effects and significant disaster. Based on modern, genomics-informed population genetics, this figure helps to determine many engineering issues, including starship architecture, mass and propulsion."
"[we captured also] a great Booke full of Sea-Charts and Maps, containing a very accurate an exact description of all the Ports, Soundings, Creeks, Rivers, Capes and Coasts belonging to the South Sea, and all the Navigations usually performed by the Spaniards in that Ocean...[the Spaniards tried to throw the chart book into the Ocean and]...{they} cried when I got the Booke."
"On the frontier of Sweden and Norway there are lofty mountains called Dovre-fjell and others like them, which in wintertime are covered in such dense, deep snow that it is quite impossible for travellers to find a firm route over them in the usual way. Yet, to overcome a difficulty of this sort (by their ingenuity) and skilfully lighten their loads, the traders of those parts fasten to their own and their horses' feet wickerwork shoes, or light, broad half-circles of cork or lime bark and, even though they are weighed down with a heavy burden, tread the ridges of snow without fear of sinking...at night, when the moon gives a brilliant light...by the reflection of the white surface, the shimmering brightness illuminates the elevated and sloping snowfields, so that they may pick out from far off the mountain precipices and harmful beasts that have to be avoided...A still greater danger overhangs travelers among mountains that are full of caves, for through the concentration of tiny snowflakes there one can observe the blasts and gusts of wind roused to such violence in those places that, unless they bring along shovels or ice picks with which to clear the way, they have hardly any hope of emerging from mountains so high and valleys so deep."
I'm replacing all plastic fittings with metal; the problem is that without custom fittings the assemblies--like this suit automatic overpressure dump valve (silver cap on pipe extending right) and the manual dump valve (black knob)are very bulky, obviously not suitable for flying, only for testing. But the testing is done! It's time to build the flying system! So I need access to a few lower-profile fittings; working on assembling them this coming week, knocking off items on the 48-point To Do list with a laser focus on a good test this summer in Copenhagen.
1 / FAR OUT= working with the research group Icarus Interstellar, specifically Project Hyperion, to provide humanity with the option to voyage to distant planets by the end of this century (they're doing propulsion physic; I'm working on the population genetics).
2 / CLOSER IN = working with the Mars Society on human settlements on Mars, as a stepping-stone to interstellar voyaging.
3 / EVEN CLOSER IN = working on life-support systems, specifically the space suit & life-support machinery for Copenhagen Suborbitals' private space-access project.
And spreading humanity universally is not an escape from Earth but an insurance policy for civilization and our species. I love archaeology, and the human past; but there is also a human future, and I'm working on that in the somewhat longer-term than the usual political or even human-life time-spans.
