X-Message-Number: 15154
From: "Pat Clancy" <>
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 14:06:33 -0800
Subject: Re: Storing cryonic patients in space

Michael LaTorra wrote:


> 
> 1. Launch costs would have to fall below 10% of the present price to make
> getting to space even remotely cost-effective.

Yes I agree cost is the biggest impediment. However the cost to get into 

space will fall - it's a matter of how fast. For those alive now this might be 
out 

of our reach in our lifetimes, but I believe there will be a time when it is not
wildly expensive to leave the earth. And, perhaps bodies that start out in 
storage on earth could eventually be shipped off the earth.

> 
> 2. Shielding would need to be massive in order to protect against
> high-energy cosmic rays over the long term. Currently, our astronauts
> benefit from being in relatively low orbits where the Van Allen belt above
> them deflects many charged particles. Interplanetary craft would receive
> much higher dosages. And even if the shielding material were obtained from
> asteroids or comets, it will still be expensive to get.

Well, if some future technology can repair freeze- and age-damaged bodies 

and bring them back to life, I doubt a little extra cosmic ray damage will be a
problem :-)

> 
> 3. Heat shielding requires either great mass (see above) or controlled
> rotation or dissipative structures. In any case, the patient modules would
> need to be maintained within a narrow range of acceptably cold temperatures

> (particularly with the new vitrification technique)which means active control.

> Surely there will not be a human crew do perform such control activities. So 
the
> patients would be watched over by machine of loving grace ;)

I suggested in my previous message that a reflective shield would be 

needed. I haven't studied this at all, but I'm guessing that such a shield could
be very light, and would not need to dissipate much energy because it 
wouldn't absorb much.

> 
> 4. It seems likely to me that if we had the technical level to accomplish
> the above in space, we would also probably have attained similarly high
> levels of biological control which would mean the ability to resuscitate
> cryonic patients. Therefore, space storage would be moot for most people.
> However, there might be some unusual cases where it would be desirable (as
> it was for Khan and his followers in that STAR TREK story).
> 

Well, IMHO the technical level needed to to resuscitate cryonicly preserved 
bodies would be light years ahead of the level needed to simply put them into 
orbit. I'm also assuming that it will take thousands of years (if ever) to 
achieve this feat (resuscitation), not hundreds like others here seem to 
assume. I think millions of years wouldn't be surprising. OTOH cheap space 
transport could be available within a hundred years.

Pat Clancy

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=15154