Go cyborg for long space trips?

While the future might have hollowed asteroids to wait out the orbital transfers, and plenty of food on Mars, the near term will be more Spartan. Human body parts can get cancer and consume calories. While, some ideas might be derived from radiation resilient cancers (antioxidant supplements?), human parts will be a liability for the early days of interplanetary space travel. Would replacing arms, legs, hearts, kidneys, etc, with artificial versions be an acceptable solution? Artificial organs use easily generated electricity, instead of scarce food. Artificial organs also do not form cancer, which can spread throughout the body. Artificial organs are less temperature sensitive, and neural interfaces may lend to easy remote operation.

?


No thank you.

The most advanced technology on Earth is the naturally evolved biological nanotechnology. Each cell in your body is more advanced than anything humans have devised.

The same technological advances that permits cybernetic limb and organ replacement are likely to occur in biochemistry, bioengineering, and even in radiation abatement. These will reduce the vulnerability of biological systems.
Of course this will kind of blur what is "biological" and what is "mechanical". So someone with a genenginered body that can withstand vacuum might very much look like the above pictured cyborg. But that is a long way off.

For the near term, we will have to remain fragile animals floating in our little aluminum bubbles of air.

The problem is that the artificial limbs and organs we currently have aren't anywhere near the performance of their natural counterparts. So we may be able to make an artificial arm radiation-proof, but you will be much more limited in the things you can do with it than if you just kept your biological one. Same thing for organs, the artificial ones we have don't least nearly as long as a biological counterpart. A biological heart lasts, say, 80 years on average if you take good care of it. A transplanted biological heart will keep you alive for a couple of decades at best (although some 30% die within five years after the transplant), but the best current mechanical hearts will last you a year if you're very lucky (they're used in the hope that a transplant will become available in that time).

So, right now we're probably better off with our biological parts. Who knows what the future will bring though. We might upload our brains into a small computer, put it into a tiny space ship and go to the stars...

I agree that biological organs are going to be superior to artificial ones for a long time, on a place like Earth. I would prefer cryogenic stasis for moving people through outer space, but that tech will take some time.

On Mars, it might be desirable to trade strength, sensory abilities, and regenerative abilities, for greatly superior resistance to temperature, vacuum, and radiation.

Instead of power from consumption of out of place Earth organisms, it can come from durable nuclear reactors, or radiation hardened solar panels. If the arm breaks, stick in a replacement.

The serious strength jobs will be done with construction vehicles.

Artificial appendages will be dual use for the injured soldiers from Iraq. Artificial appendages will be light weight, and can be shipped just like cargo, unlike fragile humans. Neural interfaces might allow for remote operation of 'robots' across Mars, or from orbit.

I guess a big justification for robotic appendages would depend in large part on how cancer inducing interplanetary radiation is in humans, and plants. I see how big many of these space ships are to carry a few people. I can't help but to think how much cheaper sending a delimbed human, with his organics sealed in a semi-transparent aerogel box, with robotic limbs on the outside. Said human would be drugged into a coma to minimize energy consumption for the trip. If getting rid some of a person's body parts reduces the chance of cancer in half, and shielding can be significantly thinner (and thus cheaper), bring on the Cyborgs.

I imagine that the early people sent to Mars would need to be coerced/bribed. I think the murdering programmer, Han Reiser, would be a candidate to be sent to Mars.

Got any Mi Go friends? I wouldn't go for Star Tresque Borg, that just make the mass you have to lift more, unless you're making prosthetics which are lighter. I was thinking if I was serious about emigrating to microgravity, I'd gladly amputate my legs to save dead weight.

In my post-cyberpunk storyline, I have semi-cyborgs who are meat from about the waist up. You see, the thing is we're really not designed all that good for life in space, unless you posit magic-in drag technologies like Inertial Dampers, Warp Drive, and Transporter beams that don't need a receiver on the other end to put the signal back together as solid matter.

On the other hand, I've also got Gelfi, who ARE designed to live in microgravity. They're tiny, hairless, have no legs, and four arms, because its handier to be able to hold on than stand up when there ain't no down.

In the real world, with real people, yur best bet would likely be to get a braindeectomy, and implant into a sattelite sized body with solar-electric/thermal thrusters. That way, you only need life support for a couple pounds of biomass, which is used to being encased in a fluid filled container. Such a space cyborg could actually get decent velocities to cut the trip times down. Anything more, and you'd probably have to pack the kitchen sink.

Why not keep the human body, add naked mole rat genetics for cell division growth managment then make the cells imortal via a type of induced cancer, maybe add some proteins for a toughened exterior and some photosynthetic cells so o2 might not be as necessary.

Because, immortal, or not, you have to carry all the life support to keep yourself alive. Sustaining yourself at cancerous growth rates would only increase the resources neccessary to prevent dying not of old-age, but energy loss. So, instead of just a brain, and case, with enough equipment to oxygen/nutriate the fluid, build a big enough ship to support the whole body, enough rooms to not go stir crazy on this theoretically indefinite trip, and support an accellerated metabolism?

This is why science fiction postulated cryogenic, or other suspension for interstellar travel, not only does the crew miss most of the long boring coat time (Decades, and up,) but also require less resources to maintain them then if they were up, out, and breathing all this time. When you have to carry the fuel, and fuel to carry the fuel at launch, every gram counts, so it's generally better to pack something the size of a 5 gallon bucket, instead of a mansion.

I have read about a chip the size of a fingernail that emulates a single brain cell. A large cluster of these could.act.like a brain. The problem with only having a brain is you can't repair yourself..... We are constantly rebuilt and torn down... And a closed O2 system like having chloroplasts and plant cells means you could breath light...... If every cell could be made tougher you could.make a vacume ready space mutant. Add regeneration and hibernation and your ready to go.