Heat engine power graphs indicate beneficial work in the form of power gain. are arranged in order ((a) during (e)) to increase exergy, reduce heat loss of the heat sink, reduce specific entropy and (global) network entropy generation. They present environmental thermodynamic parameters in terms of the heat reservoir (red rectangle, top, at Th), heat sink (blue rectangle, bottom, at Tc), heat transfer to material from the heat reservoir (red triangles, with heat input Qh), heat transfer from the materials to the heat sink (blue triangles, with heat output Qc) displacement of captured materials in heat engine cycles (brown circular counterclockwise arrows), and propagation (green circles). The larger bases of the triangles indicate greater heat transfer. Larger circles indicate an increase in energy. The golden force arrows within the material displacement circuit are conservative forces and do not generate additional heat; Fg is gravity, FB is buoyancy, FH are electrical/electrochemical, and Fcar is the adiabatic and isothermal expansion and contraction of an ideal gas of the theoretical Carnot cycle. The black force arrows outside the material displacement circle are non-conservative forces due to inelastic collisions and increased heat output; Ffather is the pumping force, Ftu is air friction/turbulence, Fthe previous is an exothermic/dehumidifying explosive force, and Far is the endothermic collision/bonding force. The relative directions of the force arrows correspond to the relative directions of the material displacement circuit, force arrows left of center corresponding to material displacement toward the heat-release part of the cycle and force arrows right from center corresponding to material displacement toward the heat-absorbing part of the cycle. Longer arrows indicate a larger force, being additive according to Newton’s second law with the sum of either supporting or resisting the momentum of the material’s displacement. credit: Frontiers in astronomy and space science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2023.1081340
Is human migration to space inevitable? Is it based on facts or is it based on a belief in human exceptionalism?
These are some of the questions Lee and Morgan Irons addressed in a recent article in Frontiers in astronomy and space scienceasking whether humans’ evolutionary connection to Earth required us to inhabit it space The same way we do it here.
Lee is a physicist, engineer, and executive director of the Norfolk Institute. Morgan is an astronomical ecologist and Ph.D. Candidate at Cornell University, Fellow of the Carl Sagan Institute, Graduate Research Fellow at the US National Science Foundation, and Fellow of the Norfolk Institute. In this recent guest editorial, they explain why—and why—space compromise might be possible.
How can this feat be achieved? Is it just a matter of leveraging a billionaire’s resources and the capitalist power of economically advanced Earth to ship materials to Mars to build a domed city, then pressurize the dome with an Earth-like atmosphere, spreading biosolids (i.e. sterile human excrement) and seeds? Does a sustainable Earth-like ecosystem “take hold” wherever we choose to “plant” ourselves? What would it take to create a sustainable city in space, with its own humans and civilization?
In 2019, we created the Norfolk Institute with the goal of empowering human life on Earth and in space. We began by mobilizing a team of government, university, nonprofit, and industry stakeholders to support the research efforts Morgan is leading on the effects of gravity and Rocket launch Powers back on Earth’s natural soil and biochar growth media.
Morgan, with the support of the team, conducts experiments on the International Space Station and a parabolic Blue Origin launch. Understanding how gravity affects soil will have applications on Earth and in space.
Earth-like ecosystems and infrastructure
Morgan’s soil study in space is toward the goal of establishing a sustainable human presence in space. We began investigating the question of human sustainability in space with our first Frontiers paper in Astronomy and Space Science, “Terraform Sustainability Evaluation Framework for Critical Life Support Systems.”
A quantitative measure of sustainability requires that human habitation beyond Earth be able to maintain constant levels of all resources used by humans, at least as constant as on Earth. Completion of developing this ability is known as terraforming.
Depends on the ground
In our new hypothesis and theory paper, “Pancosmorio (world limit) theory sustains human migration and Settlement in Space ‘We address many of the questions we posed in this editorial. To live in space, our theory states that a self-recovering primary (i.e. natural) ecosystem with the same capacity and organization as what humans have on Earth must first be established before a human-enhancing ecosystem (i.e. technology, infrastructure, society) can be sustainable.
The basis for this theory is the science of environmental thermodynamics developed over the past 100 years and a new concept we call the semi-reversible heat engine cycle. The main conclusion of the theoretical evolution is that humans and all life on Earth have evolved to be dependent on conditions that are only naturally available in one place within our solar system, which is Earth.
A human-enhanced ecosystem requires a self-restoring primary ecosystem that uses dispersive structures that act as semi-reversible heat engine cycles. Dispersed structures are the amalgamations of materials into forms that enable the capture of energy and its movement through the ecosphere in such a way as to create high levels of stored energy, also known as exergy.
Formation of a dissipative structure requires a conservative force, such as gravitational force It is involved in the cycles of water and air (eg, weather) or the electrochemical force involved in the geochemistry of water and soil and the biochemistry of life.
The Earth’s self-repairing primary ecosphere to which all life on Earth is associated is maintained by the self-recovery arrangement of Earth’s gravity well, the capacity of the Earth’s surface area and the continuous flow of energy from the Sun entirely. A distance of one astronomical unit, and the evolution of the organization of external energy accumulated in the network of the ecosystem of organisms from the material resources available on Earth.
This evolutionary link is the same that makes life on Earth so successful on Earth. Applying rapture thinking, the theory posits that this same success can be repeated in space anywhere where the same conditions can be created. Unfortunately, no other place in our solar system is similar to Earth with regard to these conditions.
Human life on Earth and in space
With the publication of Pancosmorio theory, Lee launched new initiatives and formed teams of stakeholders to research and develop designs for space settlement systems that solve the problem of self-recovery system redundancy, capacity, and Earth organization.
The goal of such designs is to create the gravitational dispersive structures needed to restore self-order, as described in the theory. There is a possibility that using a balanced sustainability approach to pave the site into a self-restoring system using artificial gravity and a large soil- and plant-based ecosystem could enable sustainable human settlement in space.
Such a feat would still require energy levels comparable to the solar insolation available on Earth, as well as a sustainable supply of material resources. And the requirements of the region are already great.
Pancosmorio theory can also be applied to creating a more sustainable human life on Earth. One of our current Earth Program projects involves the challenges of food insecurity in the harsh environment of southern Alaska. The problems associated with farming in extreme environments are similar to those in space.
We help local clans create a local, circular, agricultural economy. The Norfolk Institute operates as a not-for-profit organization, specializing in implementation from cradle to spread that involves assembling a team of stakeholders from scientists to charitable, governmental and non-governmental organizations to commercial companies and end users along the value stream of a local agricultural economy, just as we do with our space research. Assembling such teams better ensures the implementation of market solutions research.
All life on Earth is evolutionary linked to the Earth and space. The Pancosmorio theory posits that the sustainability of human life, whether on Earth or in space, depends on understanding how these connections enable life.
more information:
Irons, et al., Pancosmorio (world limit) theory of the sustainability of human migration and settlement in space, Frontiers in astronomy and space science (2023). DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2023.1081340
the quote: Why Understanding Human Evolution on Earth Will Be Absolutely Essential to Any Future Colonies in Deep Space (2023, March 13) Retrieved March 13, 2023 from https://phys.org/news/2023-03-human-evolution-earth-absolutely -essential. html
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