Comments by "Winston Smith" (@kryts27) on "Destiny" channel.

  1. Uranus and Neptune are also gas giants and are quite smaller than Juipter and Saturn, so "Super Earths" cannot be the mass of either of these two small outer gas giants in our Solar System. About 14-17 times the mass of the Earth. That would make them small gas giants. When does a rocky world with medium density atmosphere transition to a gas giant is unknown. Venus after all, has similar mass to the Earth, but a much denser atmosphere, primarily consisting of carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide. Venus is not a gas giant, but the greater density of it's atmosphere (about 90 times that of Earth at the surface) might suggest that Venus was starting to transition to a small hot gas giant, if it were any more massive.
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  2. A scale of "civilization technological advances" (sounds like a computer game) should be made, except we have no way of measuring that against the unknown. So it's only theoretically possible, not probable. Like the Drake Equation. Humans have currently Lemarckian Technology, but as a species (like our forebears, Homo erectus) we got on fine for a hundreds ov thousands of years using very simple technology, such as fire and flint and wood, and as simple hunter gatherers. It's a low population, low energy solution, but it had minimal environmental impact, and as human numbers worldwide remained low as well. Humans, like other vertibrates, were subject to global disasters like a supervolcano eruptions, but H. erectus managed to exist for 2 million years through these climate tribulations. Technology, like agriculture, provided a population boost, but it also created a host of new problems. Industrialization magnified these problems by another order of magnitude. Technological change also does not necessarily benefit all humans at all times either. With a technogical solution also comes new environmental and social problems. Advanced human technology now is not suited to the Earth's ecosphere. The real problem about the universe is that we are not finding any exoplanets that could be habitat for ourselves, and if we did manage to find one, it would be hundreds or even thousands of light years away. To reach it using a spaceship ark in deep hibernation would take hundreds of thousands of years of crossing in an extremely hostile environment to reach it (deep space) where a multitude of dead end failure accidents scanarios could occur over that time period. Currently, and into the foreseeable future, there is only one world Earth that we could live on.
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  3. Not possible to live long-term on the Martian surface, even with a breathable air and water supply. Why? Mars' atmosphere is very thin (equivalent for being 4 times higher in our atmosphere than the highest flying passenger jet, and no, even at that height you can't breathe the air). Air breathability is the least of your worries on Mars. What is slowly killing you is radiation from space, called cosmic rays. No spacesuit or spacecraft or "glass bubble" skin can protect you from the highly ionizing, thus mutagenetically dangerous cosmic ray radiation. We get very little dose of this cosmic radiation at sea level on Earth, because of the thickness of our atmosphere and the Earth's magnetic field, which Mars also does not have. You will still get that dose of cosmic ray radiation for the 6 months you travel to Mars, and another 6 months to return. You would need at least 2 metres thickness of concrete or a lead shield to protect you on Mars from cosmic ray radiation. You can't set concrete on the Martian surface (it's ambient temperature is mostly below freezing, the water would freeze before you even got to mix it), and the atmosphere is reducing, so it may not be chemically possible to set concrete. Lead is very heavy, so would be prohibitive to carry to Mars (as would be dry cement for that matter). The only way to survive on thw Martian surface, long term, would not be to live on the surface but instead dwell in a cave or under the ground.
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