Why We’ll Never Live in Space

From an article by Sarah Scoles in the October 2023 issue of  Scientific American October 

"Human bodies really can't handle space. Spaceflight damages DNA, changes the microbiome, disrupts circadian rhythms, impairs vision, increases the risk of cancer, causes muscle and bone loss, inhibits the immune system, weakens the heart, and shifts fluids toward the head, which may be pathological for the brain over the long term—among other things."

Physiology aside, the economics don't add up.  The cyber moguls currently leading the way into space only do so because of vast subsidies made available from the U.S. budget.  The project will never be more than a great drain of resources.  Furthermore, the resources launched into the void beyond Earth's atmosphere are not then available for other vital priorities which are actually supported by a majority of citizens -- housing, equitable health care, coping with climate change, curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons...

None of the above, of course, will deflect the enthusiasm for space exploration among people who have been drenched in decades of Star Trek reruns.  The lure of  casting aside all the old habits and constraints and overcoming great challenges is nearly irresistible -- not to mention those spiffy Star Trek uniforms.

Not mentioned in the Scientific American article was a possible substitution for the challenge of Space which does not require absorbing large doses of radiation.  That is the exploration of the Earth's oceans which cover 70 percent of the planet's surface and account for 97 percent of our water.  Millennia of engagement with the seas have clearly only skimmed their surfaces.

The challenges of penetrating and living in the depths are surely in many ways as daunting as those presented by Space exploration, but the potential real benefits are greatly more tangible, and the solution to meeting the challenges are more a matter of adhering to sound science rather than pushing human physiology beyond sustainable limits.

Katsushika Hokusai

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Update:

For a good example of NASA boosterism about space travel see the recent NY Times article,

Maybe in Your Lifetime, People Will Live on the Moon and Then Mars

"NASA believes that with 3-D printing and soil made out of moon dust, they can create a subdivision in space in the next two decades."

The article is all about tech gimmicks, with no mention of the daunting challenges to human physiology posed by life in Space detailed in the Scientific American piece.