Human Biological and Cultural Evolution in Space Colonies

Yipee! My feature article in Scientific American is now on news-stands! Starship Humanity A shorter recap is on an interview at Space.com. There will be plenty of naysayers, but I think they're particularly short-sighted.

All In

All In -- meaning that all of my energy, mental and physical, all of my resources, financial and personal, are in the project now. I'm working at a high level of intensity, building lists and then knocking them down one item at a time. In the coming year I'll bring the suit to flight-worthy status, earn my balloon pilot license, and build the gondola, replacing all of the wood of the mockup with aircraft aluminum.

Above, the newly-reconfigured cockpit: suit pressurization gas and breathing gas are controlled on the left panel (completely rebuilt since 9am today!); all electrics and the balloon burner levers are on the right panel; all flight monitors (e.g. altimeters, vertical speed indicator etc) are up above. The front is unobstructed so that in emergency I can disconnect from the various hoses and go right out the... front of this sucker! Everything is still in wood and zip-ties, with exposed wiring etc, as I dial in the final arrangement. Everything must be in easy range of my hands when I'm fully pressurized, yet clear enough to bail in the event of emergency. The suit determines the size of the seat, the seat determines the size of the gondola/cockpit, the gondola/cockpit determines the size of the balloon, the size of the balloon determines the n and volume of fuel tanks...So 'hard wiring' anything into place at this time would be foolish.

Also a photo of PVC fittings now being replaced with beautiful, shining stainless steel! The center fitting is coming out soon; not sure that I actually need it.

Christmas & System Development

A great family Christmas, followed by more work on the suit: today, installing two stainless steel fittings and some modifications to the seat armrests. In the mean time, two photos from the pool test: me with John Haslett, my expedition partner since 1998, and one of divers Ross Smith and Jeff Groth walking me backwards into the deep end of the pool, where they strapped me into the flying seat and ran through some pressurizations and depressurizations, while I communicated with John on the radio. Video still in process!

My Interview with Scientific American Now Online

My recent interview with Scientific American, regarding human evolution off-of-Earth, is now available online.. Plenty of people dislike the concept of humans migrating from Earth, but I see it as an insurance policy for civilization and our species. If someone delivers cheaper and more reliable space access than we have had in the past 50 years -- and it appears that will occur as more inventors are engaged in private space-access development -- then eventually I think we will be colonizing space, yielding that insurance policy. One recent reaction to my article and interview is awfully wrong about how human evolution works, and I'll be replying to them presently. For the moment, here is their reaction, filed under 'Crap Futurology'! I expect more resistance to--and misunderstandings of, both evolution and space colonization ideas--than acceptance of them. That is fine with me. I think they're stuck in old ideas. Some old ideas -- e.g. mutation, migration, selection and drift shaping evolution at every generation -- are fine, as they've been shown to be facts. But others, e.g. 'humanity will never be able to colonize space' are not facts, but only premises. I'll press on :p

This photo accompanies the previous post (see below). From left to right, John Haslett--my buddy of 15 years of expeditions, and the world authority on the sailing characteristics of the aboriginal sailing vessels of West Ecuador, based on his years of building and sailing replicas (John came up from LA to learn the system and work as Flight Command for the balloon expedition)--me, Kevin of the FRANK FILM team, and Melissa and Brandon O'Learey of the FRANK FILM team. Thanks all!

Film and Dive Crew Photos

An exhaustive three days of tests resulted in an immersion test, where I was strapped into the flying seat 10 feet deep in a swimming pool, with attendant divers watching for problems and monitoring the suit for leaks. Suit came through with flying colors, no problems! Processing photos and video now. For the moment, two photos (for some reason this first photo is not showing, so I will try to post it separately): in the first, from left to right, John Haslett--my buddy of 15 years of expeditions, and the world authority on the sailing characteristics of the aboriginal sailing vessels of West Ecuador, based on his years of building and sailing replicas (John came up from LA to learn the system and work as Flight Command for the balloon expedition--me, Kevin of the FRANK FILM team, and Melissa and Brandon of the FRANK FILM team. In the other photo, after the pool test, from left to right, Ross Smith (archaeologist / diver), Jeff Groth (President of the Oregon Scuba Club and a highly-experienced diver and ex-commercial diver), kneeling is Kevin again, standing behind him my nephew Hayden Smith, then my brother Mark Smith, then John F. Haslett, Melissa and Brandon again, and Karen Ulbright (local diver) and then me. I can't adequately thank these folks for spending a cold day in a freezing pool (Mark's!) to help all of this work. Mark saved the day with a wine cork to plug a hose connection I'd left open, and with the humorous phrase "That's one small sip for mankind," when early in the test I inhaled a bit of poolwater (not a suit failing but an oversight of mine in prepping the suit for the test...this was solved easily) :)

Back to Central Oregon!

One of my climbing partners, McRee Anderson, recently visited from Arkansas, and we had a great time in the volcanic-rock, juniper-scattered rock-scape of central Oregon. It was great to catch up with McRee, learning about his new family and his recent expeditions in Africa and Central America. And a long campfire allowed us to revisit many fine mountaineering adventures together, including a lightning storm that stopped us dead in our tracks in the Canadian Rockies, hail in the Colorado Rockies, gruesome avalanche escapes in the Cascades, and plenty of others.

Breathing Gas Check

15 seconds of video showing today's BG (breathing gas) check. Direct link.

Fast

"I wish to have no Connection with any Ship that does not Sail fast for I intend to go in harm's way." Captain John Paul Jones, 16 November 1778, in a letter to le Ray de Chaumont.