00:00Water and Food Systems
00:05An interstellar mission would require tons of drinking water, food, the equipment, space, materials, and supplies
00:11to store, preserve, use, and recycle their waste.
00:15And the bulk and mass that these resources will require would be gargantuan.
00:19Not only because of the large size of the crew of an interstellar mission,
00:23but also because of the long, long flight ahead of them.
00:26Not only these, but the crew will likely have offspring, the next generation, who will also require nurture from water and food.
00:33And gathering water and food from destinations en route is hardly feasible
00:38and would only further complicate and lengthen the mission by unacceptable margins.
00:42Our technical ability at extracting water from space destinations is precisely null.
00:48And our skills at producing food away from Earth are at best in their primitive stages.
00:54So the problems presented by our need for water and food in space are tremendous, to put it mildly.
01:01It is estimated that the water required for a 40-year space voyage for a crew of 6 would be from 44 to 175 metric tons,
01:09depending on a 90% recycling efficiency and on water use restrictions from limited to moderate.
01:1540 years, of course, is likely not enough time to complete a voyage to Alpha Centauri with current propulsion.
01:22So the water mass required in reality would be many times this amount.
01:26But even considering this amount, up to 175 metric tons, brings swift doubts to any plans for interstellar travel.
01:34Recall that our best and largest rockets can't lift more than around 50 metric tons of total payload.
01:40So the figures bring hopelessness when we consider the true requirement for water alone for a small crew on a deep space mission.
01:49If we were able to mine water from the Moon or other solar system bodies, the task of lifting it from Earth would be alleviated,
01:55but the mission would become magnitudes more costly and complicated.
01:59And, time would be added to the voyage.
02:02A lot more time.
02:03Also, it must be considered that water requires bulky and heavy storage tanks and complex and bulky systems to harness it,
02:10treat it, recycle it, and dispense it.
02:13Water in space also needs to remain warm, so it can stay liquid.
02:17And, space is bone chilling cold.
02:19Heating water is energy intensive, and energy is an expensive resource away from our or any other sun.
02:26Although water may double as a radiation shield, it must be pumped and kept stored around the living areas of the crew,
02:32a complex and resource intensive task.
02:35For this, containers need to remain watertight and heated at all times, consuming resources and energy every hour of the mission.
02:43Sadly, we utterly lack the propulsion and payload capacity to get the amount of water needed to space.
02:49And, we lack the advanced storage systems to store the water, even if we got it to space.
02:54And, although we have some experience recycling water, our recycling efficiency is not enough to limit the water amount needed for long voyages.
03:02Lastly, we lack the technology and experience in harnessing water from space or other heavenly bodies.
03:08It is estimated that a round trip to Alpha Centauri, for a crew of 6, at 10% of the speed of light, the crew would require at least 330 metric tons of food.
03:23That is, without including the systems and equipment to maintain such food or safety margins.
03:28Obviously, lifting this amount of food to low Earth orbit is a daunting challenge, using current technology.
03:34Imagine the challenge of transporting this mass to another star system and preserving much of it throughout the voyage.
03:41Even if somehow we figured out how to farm and grow food en route, this would take a ridiculous amount of space, resources and additional special equipment.
03:49And, all Earth-based food requires solar energy, something that will be extremely limited during most of the trip.
03:56Also, food growing and farming requires gravity, a challenge yet to be solved.
04:01First, the time required to travel to Alpha Centauri makes it prohibitive to even plan on the food required for the trip.
04:08As of now, it can take from hundreds to thousands of years to complete the voyage.
04:13So, obviously, we simply cannot plan on taking all of the food needed.
04:17Instead, we would need the technology, environment and skill to grow, harvest and consume our food en route.
04:24Gravity should be a solved problem.
04:26Simply put, all that grows on Earth needs Earth gravity, and trying to go around this requirement is simply dangerous.
04:33Also, solar radiation is necessary.
04:35We need to provide this radiation from our sun or another star somehow, or closely duplicate it.
04:41For this, vast arrays of advanced radiating sources need to be in place, and a room with a few lights just won't do it.
04:48And, contrary to depictions in sci-fi media, a room with a few pots with plants and some cages with some farm animals just won't work.
04:56The ship or ark would require vast open areas for fields of food, much like those on Earth, and gigantic farms for all types of animals to grow.
05:05Sadly, eating crickets and rabbits for meat for over 100 years of travel will get very aggravating and demoralizing for the crew, and a limited variety of fruits and vegetables will do the same.
05:17The crew, even a small crew of six, needs a wide variety of Earth-like foods.
05:22I believe the difference between Earth and space-grown food cannot be detectable for such a long period of voyage to succeed.
05:30Food farming and growing are still in their infancy, and although some foods have been grown in space, their taste and consistency just isn't the same.
05:39And large-scale food growing has not occurred in space.
05:43Ultimately, we must admit our delayed state of advancement in the area of water harnessing, storage, and use in space,
05:50as we must recognize our infant state of food growing, storage, and use in long-duration space habitation.
05:57We must solve problems of gravity and radiation, and be able to lift more mass and build larger ships.
06:04Until then, any talk on interstellar travel is just hypothetical and wishful.
06:08Thank you for listening to this podcast or watching this video.
06:14Please subscribe, like, and share so you can support this work and so I can reach more people like you.
06:21If you'd like to support this content further, please click on the links provided here.
06:26Thank you again. Have a great day.
Comments