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One of the first problems that must be solved by any group planning to colonize space is getting there. Rockets are likely to be too slow, too dangerous, and far too expensive when substantial numbers of people, animals, and plants are involved.
Perhaps there is a better way. The electromagnetic launch system designed by Dr. Henry Kolm (formerly of MIT) offers the possibility of putting two-ton payloads into low-Earth orbit in less than two seconds, and with no risk of explosion. Furthermore, it may be able to do so at a rate of up to six payloads an hour at a price of about $10,000 a payload. The cost of developing such a system, says Kolm (who has formed his own company, Electromagnetic Launch Systems), would be considerably less than what has already been spent on the shuttle program.
Attaining escape velocity in two seconds, however, generates acceleration stress of close to 1,000 gravities. Up to now, there has been no way for human passengers to survive such stress. Neutral density encapsulation might make it possible.
Some years ago, Dr. Tom Shaffer of Temple University developed a liquid hydrofluorocarbon that can carry enough oxygen into the lungs to support mammalian life. His original purpose was to save severely premature infants, whose lungs are not able to handle gaseous oxygen. In this, he succeeded. Extensive animal studies and preliminary experiments with human infants show that his new liquid makes it possible to bring fetuses to healthy term after as little as 12 weeks in the womb. But the substance has other applications, one of which is to neutralize almost all the effects of acceleration stress.
Consider: What kills human beings at acceleration much over 30 g is not the acceleration itself, but the fact that the vehicle accelerates at a rate different from that of its passengers, and the different parts of the passengers' bodies also experience different rates of acceleration. This is because of the differences in density between, say, the astronauts' bodies and the environment within the capsule, and differences in density between the air pockets of the lungs and the surrounding body tissues. So an unprotected human in a space capsule accelerating at 1,000 g would be killed instantly for two reasons. First, in an air-filled capsule, the more dense human body, even if placed on an acceleration couch, would slam against that couch with bone-shattering force. Secondly, the relative density of the ribs and chest muscles compared to the air pockets in the lungs would cause the ribs to crush the lungs.
Neutral density encapsulation could perhaps solve both problems. The overall density of the human body is nearly the same as that of Shaffer's liquid. By floating an astronaut in a capsule completely filled with the hydrofluorocarbon, and then accelerating the whole capsule, the first source of stress has been removed, since both the capsule and its occupant would now be accelerating at the same rate.
To better understand this point, remember the high-school science experiment with a raw egg. Placed loose inside a tin box which is then thrown against a wall, the egg shatters. If the box with the egg in it is filled with water, however, so that egg and box accelerate and decelerate at the same rate, the egg can survive the throw unbroken. The same principle was applied to living bodies during a rather cruel Italian experiment conducted in the 1960s. The researchers slammed a pregnant rat against a wall at 10,000 g. While the mother rat was killed instantly, the fetuses -- floating as they were in sacs totally filled with amniotic fluid -- survived.
The second source of stress -- the difference in density (and hence rate of acceleration) between chest and lungs -- can be neutralized by having the astronaut breath the liquid. The gag reflex can be overcome by adjusting the substance's temperature and pH. Ethical considerations have so far prevented Shaffer from filling both lungs of a human volunteer, but one lung has been filled, and the liquid has been breathed and later coughed out without harm. Whatever was left in the lung was safely absorbed.
Neutral density encapsulation could thus permit the entire "package" -- capsule, astronaut, chest, and lungs -- to be accelerated or decelerated as a single-density whole. When the idea was presented to Shaffer and Kolm, they worked out the physics and concluded that, yes, floating a liquid-breathing astronaut in a completely liquid-filled chamber would offer full protection against up to 1,000 g.
Of course, if the ultimate goal is colonization of the galaxy, rather than merely the solar system, drive systems considerably more "potent" than Kolm's may be required. A Swedish specialist in space medicine has speculated that, if the sinus cavities as well as the lungs are filled, it might be possible to survive even higher accelerations.
One of the tenets of modern physics is that, at the quantum or fundamental level, the universe is "uncertain." Time is also deemed uncertain, although this uncertainty is considered trivial because the equations we use cause the uncertainty to resolve into a single value.
I'd like to suggest that this uncertainty in time is not at all trivial, but is the manifestation of a quantum-level oscillation between the "micro past" and the "micro future." What's more, I suggest that this oscillation is not symmetrical. In other words, the "micro future" segment is always slightly greater than the "micro past" segment. It is this "imbalance" which keeps our "normal" time flow moving "forward" into the future.
In other words, what we call the present (or "now") is not a moving point in time, but a moving average time... the net result, if you like, of the quantum oscillation between a micro past and a (slightly more emphasized) micro future.
The precise amount by which the "future" oscillation exceeds the "past" is a function of our velocity... or, as I put it earlier, our "net" velocity.
What we may have here, then, is a way of determining, not only an exact figure for the degree of time expansion we normally experience but, by calculating the precise rate of the quantum oscillations in time, a way of using micro changes in our net velocity to create a kind of "resonance" with that oscillation. This resonance could be employed to expand the amplitude of oscillation until it becomes, first, observable and then, ultimately, useful.
For example, if the current net forward movement through time could be neutralized, we'd have a bubble of time stasis. Similarly, it should be possible to create bubbles in which time flows backward, and bubbles in which it moves forward more quickly than "normal."
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July 23, 2004.