Nexus - 0109 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

MICROSCOPIC MACHINES mi Stellar Bodies AFTER YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN One solution to the problems caused by SPACE, WE NOW KNOW that the human weightlessness is to have acraftor section of body undergoes massive changes in a it rotating, so that centrifugal force will pro- weightless environment. vide artificial gravity for crew members - like Lesser ailments astronauts and cosmo- the Soviet spacecraft depicted in the film nauts experience in space are blocked noses, 2010. On long missions some form of artifi- M l CROSC OPI C indigestion, insomnia, headaches, motion cial gravity may be necessary for crew sur- sickness, nausea and fainting spells. These vival. . = are all caused by a lack of gravity, as are A more serious problem is radiation. symptoms of “space adaptation sickness” Normal cosmic radiation beyond the | which strikes 50% of all astronauts atsome Protection of the Earth gives shuttle crew MACHINES SO SMALL YOU NEED A members a dose of about 30 millirems of MICROSCOPE TO SEE THEMare emerg- time. “On Earth, the brain receives signals radiation per day - the equivalent.of about ing in a new technological revolution. from the body that. give information about two chest x-rays. The ‘international stan- Springs a fortieth the width of a human hair, position and movement. Some clues are vis- dard” safe radiation dose is about 60 mi- turbines as small as 60 microns (about the ual. Some come from nerve endings on the crorems per minute - 86.4 millirems per day, width of a hair) and other machine parts are feet or legs that tell the body, ‘I’m sitting’ or But Queensland's ‘safe maximum’ level is made of silicon using similar processes to ‘I’m standing’,” according to Berard Har- only 38.8 millirems/day. : those evolved for growing computer chips. tis, flight surgeon with the NASA Space But solar flares - likely on long inter- Early this year the University of Califor- Biomedical Research Institute (SBMI) near planetary missions or tours on space stations nia at Berkely built the world’s first working Houston. - and the Earth’s Van Allen belts produce micromotor - a tiny turbine driven by static “There are also little hairs attached to lethal doses of radiation and present the electricity. The turbine, with blades 110- nerves in the middle ear. These hairs dangle greatest danger of all. microns long, spins at 24,000 revolutions per down and tell the brain what’s going on... It's possible that a strong magnetic field second; faster than many jet-engine turbines. “Tn the weightlessness of space [there is] generated around spacecraft could shieldthe | The cost of such motors is minute - as a conflict of inputs,” and the brain learns to occupants from these lethal doses. little as a tenth of a cent - and will fall with ignore the conflict after a few days. - The Washington Post mass production. Micro power saws for intri- More serious problems emerge with cate eye surgery which could be fuelled by time. Blood pressure and heartbeat rate drop sound waves or electrostatic charges are slightly, the heart ‘deconditions’ and be- M EX | CAN S M 0G beingresearched as well, but applications are comes smaller and possibly less powerful. so varied that no-one can imagine all the The muscles waste and astronauts lose Mexico Cry IS A POTENTIAL ECO- directions in which this technology can go. strength as if they were bedridden. The bones LOGICAL CATASTROPHE, Built in a “Researchers for many years have sent demineralise and shed calcium at a rate be- basin 2,240 metres above sea level and probes to study the oceans and outer space. lieved by NASA to be about 1% per month. crammed with about 20 million people it is We hope to study the inner world,” says Iwao Soviet research suggests that the amount the world’s largest and most polluted me- Fujimasa of Tokyo University’s Research varies; after long missions one cosmonaut tropolis. Ecologists fear that a protracted Centre for Advanced Science and Technol- lost about 5% of his bone mass while another thermal inversion, where cold air is trapped ogy, whose goal is to produce a robot less lostalmost 20%, says Michael Bungo, direc- under a layer of warm air, would turn the city than a millimetre in size which can travel tor of the SBMI. into a gas chamber and cause many deaths. through veins and inside organs. Blood and’plasma shift from the legs to Most of the pollution (75%) is from cars Because these motors are made in nearly the chest and head, andthe kidneys attempt to because of the low quality of Mexican petrol identical ways to microchips, it’s possible remove the apparently excess fluid by urinat- | and the altitude, which makes combustion that entire systems complete with chips, ing. After a week in space the body loses | very inefficient. Unbumed hydrocarbons sensors and motors may be built in a single about 15% of its fluids. ‘mix with nitrogen oxides to form a toxic process, according to Dr Richard Mueller, “Tf they can’t stand up and get out of the photochemical smog under the intense sun- co-director of the Berkely sensor and actua- shuttle, that’s a problem,” said Berard light. The main component of this smog is tor centre. Harris. Many astronauts suffer from fainting ozone (biologically dangerous at ground ordizzy spells. About a third of all astronauts level) and ironically is the result of the state on early shuttle missions fainted or felt faint petrol‘company introduced a new petrol in after standing up on return to Earth. 1986 in response to public outcry about the Exercise is only a partial solution. level of Jead pollution. Without catalytic “Sweating in space is a big mess,” says converters on cars the new fuel caused ozone Harris. “Sweat in space looks like mercury levels to increase dramatically, shrouding outof a thermometer. trolls aroundlikeabig |° the city ina brown haze every day. blob. It covers your body like a sheet of Washington Post jello.” MACHINES ow