In the beginning, there was nothing—an infinite void, silent and dark, until an unimaginable explosion shattered the stillness. Join us on an exhilarating quest through the realms of science, philosophy, and the unknown as we seek to uncover the enigmatic force behind the Big Bang. Who created the Big Bang?
What is the shape of the Universe?
Imagine standing beneath a starlit sky, gazing up at the twinkling cosmos, and pondering the greatest question that has captivated humanity for centuries: What is the shape of the Universe? Is it a boundless expanse stretching out infinitely in all directions, or does it curve back on itself like the surface of a balloon?
What created the Big Bang?
It was the Belgian priest and Vatican astronomer Lemaitre who coined the term “Big Bang”. He was trying to reconcile the Bible’s statement in Genesis (Gen. 1:3, God said, “And there was light”) with cosmology.
Outside of religious considerations, therefore, I believe that the question of the origin of the universe is misleading. I do not believe that anything or anyone created anything in the past. Scientifically speaking, researchers consider the concept of time —past, present, and future— to be outdated. Time is an illusion, said Einstein. An illusion of the human perspective, I say.
For most people, there is a beginning, for instance, when we think back to our childhood. A first memory, a first thought.
But that is also an illusion, born of human amnesia. The human amnesia of the past is our amnesty from sin.
Philosophically speaking, the universe has always existed. What is new is that today we have the consciousness to understand that there is “us” and the universe. We create the (human) universe in our thoughts at this moment. There is no separation between our inner and outer world.
By “us,” I mean you, me, and everything we understand and that “exists.”
We try to make sense of it and look for a “beginning,” a “big bang.” But the universe has always existed. It is infinite and has no beginning or end, like a Moebius strip.
Why? Why not?
Question by C.A.:
The term “infinity” is a contradiction. The universe, of which we perceive a small part, cannot and must not be “infinite”.
Because everything that exists as a whole is in itself an interaction (>2). Such a whole can only exist in a state of equilibrium because it can be determined and thus considered to exist. Otherwise, one side (as an equilibrium parameter) would very quickly “destroy” the whole. An equilibrium must consist of mutually balancing subunits.
The equilibrium in a whole (even if its boundaries cannot be clear to us!) cannot be “infinite” as such, because otherwise the interacting components (the counterforces) that keep each other in check should be simultaneously and reciprocally “infinite” depending on the change in the size of the opposing side, but this cannot be explained rationally in physical terms.
For example: Although the number 10 symbolizes a unique quantity, dividing this quantity by three results in a repeating “infinite” number. This is because 3 is not a divisor of 10, which means that such divisions do not lead to a finite result.
Comment by A.P.:
Very well written! I would just add with regard to the question that the alleged “Big Bang”, like ALL theories, has never been proven and is based only on assumptions and speculations… well, and perhaps EVERYTHING in the manifested worlds is ultimately an illusion and follows a detailed plan with rules and laws.
Question by C.R.:
Well, I’m not a physicist. But the “Big Bang,” i.e., the beginning of the universe as we think we know it, was neither a bang in the sense of an explosion (there would have been no one there who could have heard it, no one was there anyway), nor did it take place at a point. I imagined it as a pure calculation model, so not concrete at all. There are reliable measurements of an apparently expanding universe, and you can calculate that back to a point. Point? A candle that burns cannot have burned forever.
Is the entire energy and mass of the universe (which according to Einstein is the same thing) limited, or do both create themselves anew, or does it all just change? Does everything that moves go back to ever new causes up to the first “shove” that has no cause (Aristotle), God for theists? But God is not part of the methodology of the natural sciences, since he is neither provable nor measurable. As interesting as that would be, I can’t imagine anything.
Answer:
Yes, we have the expanding universe. But if it expands into infinity, it doesn’t need a beginning, does it?
All calculation models are based on the assumption that the redshift is caused by expansion. The expansion theory assumes a certain geometry for the universe: the Riemann sphere, a ball, to put it simply.
A simplified Riemann Sphere and human
I am a fan of the torus theory, however, even if the transmission of this information was done in an unconventional way. You could also say: telepathic.
Telepathy has been a staple of science fiction for a while. In recent years, it has been successfully demonstrated in laboratories on mice, using cable.
Humans have also been successfully wired up as telepathy test subjects. Internet protocols were used to transmit thoughts between humans on different continents. Naturally occurring telepathy in hypersensitive individuals without technical aids is considered extasensory perception, or ESP.
There’s a stigma surrounding ESP. Studies inverstigating ESP that confirm it’s existence are considered pseudoscience.
In telepathy, the meaning of a concept sometimes gets garbled in transmission. For instance, transmitting the concept of a horn torus can be mistaken by the receiver for a horn TAURUS, or the horns of a bull.
This was my vision: Back in 1986, before I went to sleep, I saw this majestic structure floating in the room, and all the stars and galaxies were moving towards the center.
At first, I wasn’t sure what I was seeing: a torus with an infinitesimal hole in the middle, and everything on its surface moves towards a POINT (or a tunnel) to then be reborn at the other end.
This bagel 🥯 model is now called HTUM in scientific nomenclature, the Hyper-Torus Universe Model. Each sesame seed on the (simplified) bagel corresponds to a galaxy cluster.
All fields have this shape. By that, I don’t mean flower fields, but electromagnetic fields.
The website “Hyper-Torus Universe Model” has an interactive simulation of the Hyper-Torus (link).
The whole thing looks really sexy:
This is a universe with a beginning and an end.
Next, we will be looking at evidence that this is the actual shape of the cosmos.
Strange Noises In Outer Space
Astronaut Butch Wilmore heard odd noises coming from Boeing’s Starliner spaceship that was attached to the International Space Station on Saturday, August 31, 2024. He commented, “I do not know what is making it.”
We know about this because space geek Rob Dale wrote some software that listens to the NASA communications from the International Space Station. It trims out the silent gaps and uploads that to a public server. Rob says that he is the only one in the world doing this; otherwise, we would never have heard about this story. It would still be behind NASA’s closed doors.
NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore reported hearing unusual sounds from the Starliner spacecraft on Saturday. He was docked at the International Space Station.
He inquired about the source of the noises to Mission Control. They confirmed to be able to listen in through a hardline connection.
There were clear, sonar-like pinging sounds when Wilmore held his microphone up to the speaker.
We are going to listen to those sounds.
Although the origin of these sounds remains unclear, they are likely harmless and reminiscent of similar occurrences reported by astronauts in the past.
Many people thought that the sounds were very similar to the sounds from the 1997 Carl Sagan movie “Contact.”.
It was not immediately clear what was causing the odd and somewhat eerie noise on Starliner.
Given the ongoing challenges with the Starliner mission, including helium leaks and thruster issues, it was recently announced that the spacecraft will return to Earth autonomously on September 6, 2024, without its original crew.
Wilmore and fellow astronaut Suni Williams will return to Earth in February aboard a Crew Dragon spacecraft.
Update: On Monday, September 2, NASA released the following statement regarding the strange noises: “A pulsing sound from a speaker in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore heard aboard the International Space Station has stopped.” The feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the space station and Starliner.
Now we can all go back to sleep.
The Starliner spacecraft has started to emit strange noises: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/starliners-speaker-began-emitting-strange-sonar-noises-on-saturday/
1962: Radio Blast from Earth to the Stars: 13.25 billion times more powerful than the Arecibo Transmission!
Did anyone hear us?
In 1974, the strongest intentional radio signal ever was sent into space by humans. It’s strength was an impressive 20 trillion watts. This is enough electricity to power 1.4 million homes for a year (Ref. 1). The Arecibo signal’s objective was to contact ET.
However, 12 years earlier, a considerably stronger radio signal was sent from Earth. The nuclear Russian Tsar Bomba burst in 1962 delivered 5.3 yotta watts of energy. (That bomb was not intended to contact ET, but rather to intimidate the United States).
We know that five percent of a nuclear explosion’s energy is discharged as radio waves – the Tsar Bomba therefore fired 13.25 billion times more energy into space than the Arecibo broadcast.
Any ET with a radio is much more likely to hear Earth’s nuclear detonations before the SETI signal—12 years before, to be exact.
What do nuclear explosions tell ET about Earth?
Nuclear explosions are fairly drastic events. The radio signatures of nuclear explosions are distinct. They speak of intelligence and stupidity at the same time.
Worldwide, more than 2,000 nuclear bombs have detonated since 1945. This madness ended in 1962, with the biggest explosion of them all, the Tsar Bomba.
TRIANGLE
Google maps
I am intrigued by the close proximity of these three sites to each other:
The first nuclear explosion at the Trinity test site occurred in 1945 approximately 62 miles from the reported 1947 Roswell UFO crash site in New Mexico.
Roswell was the home of the Walker Air Force base for the Enola Gay bomber, which delivered the first nuclear payload used in war to Hiroshima in 1945. The base was close to the alleged Roswell UFO crash site.
The Roswell UFO crash is not something I “believe” in on a regular basis.
Time moves backward
Let’s suppose there exist advanced extraterrestrials that have discovered a way to travel faster than light. Most physicists agree that this is impossible. Because according to Einstein’s theory of relativity, travelling faster than light means that time moves backward.
What if, at this very moment, extraterrestrials residing on a star 62 light-years away from Earth received the Tsar bomb’s electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and chose to determine its source?
They construct an FTL ship and direct it toward the area where Earth was 62 years ago in space.
They arrive in 1962 and learn about Earth’s history, and decide to go back even further in time, to 1945, to prevent the nuclear holocaust in Japan.
The Trinity test site, the site of the first nuclear explosion on Earth, and Walker Air Force Base, the airfield from where the Enola Gay bomber aircraft launched its first run, were both selected as their target locations.
But their mission failed, and they crash-landed in 1947, too late to change history. Temporal space calculations are inherently tricky, it seems. And maybe the past can’t be changed to make a substantial difference.
I’m not saying that we should set off nuclear bombs to attract the attention of ET. Earth has already done that.
Do you think ET sees these explosions as a threat? Or that they interpreted these as humanities appeals for help, like shipwrecked sailors setting off flares in the night?
I think the latter is the case.
WHO IS THERE?
Today, in 2024, 62 years have passed since the detonation of the Tsar Bomba. The EMP signal has travelled outward from Earth at the speed of light since then. Since then, it has reached and passed by over 1500 stars. In this 62 light-year radius, we find hundreds of systems that have Earthlike planets. Within 32.6 light-years alone, there are 104 exoplanets listed, as confirmed by the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
“We should find extraterrestrial life within 60 light-years,
if Earth is average, professor claims”
https://phys.org/news/2023-09-extraterrestrial-life-light-years-earth-average.html
We should not be astonished if someone comes to check us out; it is a possibility.
Calculations
N1 = 20 trillion watts = 20 terra watts = 20.000.000.000.000 watts
N2 = 5.3 yotta watts = 5.300.000.000.000 terra watts = 5.300.000.000.000.000.000.000.000 watts
N1/N2 =
265.000.000.000
265.000.000.000 can be written as Two hundred sixty-five billion.
Radio energy of Tsar
5% of 265 Billion = 13.25 Billion > 1 Arecibo.
References:
Ref. 1: Duke Energy, What can you do with one terrawatt hour?
https://news.duke-energy.com/releases/duke-energy-customers-surpass-1-terawatt-of-energy-savings-through-my-home-energy-report-program
Data Science Lab, Tsar Bomba Strength
https://dlab.epfl.ch/wikispeedia/wpcd/wp/t/Tsar_Bomba.htm
Effects of Nuclear Explosion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions
SETI ORG Arecibo Message
https://www.seti.org/seti-institute/project/details/arecibo-message
Yotta Watt converter
https://www.convertunits.com/from/yottawatt/to/terawatt
←Previous |
Not made by humans? | Part 1
At a quarter past ten in the evening on August 15, 1977
a once-in-a-lifetime event took place in Delaware:
a very strong signal arrived at the “Big Ear” radio telescope. It had all the characteristics of having come from an extraterrestrial intelligent source.
No-one was at the telescope at the time. The receiver and telescope computer were doing their jobs all by themselves. Therefore, the signal was actually first detected by a machine, a twelve year old computer.
BITS OF INFORMATION
The IBM 1130 had first been built in 1965. it looked and felt like an old battleship. It had only 1 megabyte of memory. For that reason the only record of the radio signal is a 6 digit printout on endless paper. There’s no audio recording of the signal. Today we would have a complete audio recording of it, measuring mega- if not gigabytes. But in those days, just six characters on paper had to suffice as a record.
After a few days the stack of computer printouts was bundled by Big Ear technician Gene Mikesell and brought to Jerry Ehman’s home.
THE ANALYSIS
Jerry Ehman was a SETI volunteer with the Ohio State University. Together with Bob Dixon he had written the software for the Big Ear computer in FORTRAN and assembler.
Around the 19th of August Jerry began analyzing the printouts from the radio telescope at his home, looking for unusual radio signatures.
A few pages into the pile of paper he saw a peculiar sequence of numbers and characters.
He was astonished. After highlighting in red pen the six characters “6EQUJ5” Jerry wrote the notation “Wow!” in the left margin of the computer printout opposite them.
The characters and numbers denoted a very strong narrow-band transmission. Apparently it had come from outer space. Narrow-band transmissions usually don’t occur naturally and are a sign of artificial origin.
Conventionally speaking, all artificial things are made by humans. That’s because human language and the Cambridge Dictionary defines “artificial” as “made by humans”. That definition may have to be revised.
OPTIMUM CHANNEL
The Wow! transmission had all the hallmarks of a radio signal from a non-human extraterrestrial civilization. In the 1959 article “Searching for Interstellar Communications” Giuseppe Cocconi and Philip Morrison explained that using the 21 cm hydrogen frequency was a logical choice for SETI.
And that was precisely the frequency of the Wow! signal. It had come from the direction in the sky were the constellation Sagittarius is found.
If we transfer the number codes from the Wow! printout to plotting paper we can see the waxing and waning strength of the 1420 mHz radio beam that reached the radio telescope. Each of the letters and numbers corresponds to a certain signal intensity, as the next graph illustrates.
The signal may have been transmitting for centuries and was never detected because no one looked for it before. The signal source did not move in the sky. The only thing that moved over for 72 seconds was the Earth, rotating majestically from East to West as the radio receiver moved in and out of the signal beam.
And then the signal vanished. Gone. The signal would have been picked up again by the second horn antenna of Big Ear. But it was no longer there.
The rise and fall of the signal we see in the graph above was due to the antenna pattern, the signal itself remained at constant strength.
The graph below shows a similar signal pattern in “OV-221”, the radio source to the right of the Wow! signal. (OV-221 is also known as MSH 19–203 (Mills Slee Hill Radio Sources)).
Today I’m waiting to hear if OV-221 corresponds to the center of the Milky Way galaxy , Sagittarius A*, but no-one seems to know the old radio source designations anymore.
After Jerry Ehman showed the computer printout of the Wow! signal to John Kraus and Bob Dixon, they immediately talked about it, speculating and making hypotheses. Quickly, John and Bob began to investigate the various possibilities.
Dr. John Kraus was a physicist and the designer of the Big Ear radio telescope. He actually invented several types of radio antennas.
Bob Dixon was the director of SETI at Ohio State University radio telescope.
Together they excluded the possibility of the signal having been a plane, planet, asteroid, comet, satellite, space craft, ground based transmitter, or any other known natural source.
Now, since the Wow! signal appeared to be unnatural and no known human cause for it could be found, it was suspected that it could have come from a technological alien civilisation.
It was decided to go back to the region in space were the signal had come to see if it could be found again. The scientific method calls for reproducibility of any experiment or result.
Weeks turned to months, and years into decades as astronomers from all over the world searched the region in space were the Wow! signal had been detected.
The Wow! signal was never found again.
Calculations on the space region of the Wow! signal
The Wow! signal was observed for 72 seconds. In this time a region of space equivalent to 18 arcminutes was scanned, according to the following calculations:
24h x 60 min = 1440 mins/day = 86400 sec
360° / 86400 = 0.0041° per second
72 seconds = 0.3°
An arcminute (denoted by the symbol ‘), is an angular measurement equal to 1/60 of a degree or 60 arcseconds. To convert a degree measurement to a minute of arc measurement, we multiply the angle by the conversion ratio.
The angle in minutes of arc is equal to the degrees multiplied by 60:
0.3 x 60 = 18 arcminutes.
As seen from the Earth, the Sun and Moon both have angular diameters of about 30 arcminutes. The full moon’s average apparent size is about 31 arcminutes (or 0.52°).
In other words, the Wow! signal spanned an area of about half the size of the Sun or the Moon, as seen from Earth in the sky. That is a rather large area in astronomy.
On the basis of this simple calculation I cannot readily agree that the Wow! signal came from a pointlike source. That may or may not be a problem. It can be resolved by agreeing that the resolution of the Big Ear radio telescope was not any better!
The frequency and speed of the Wow! signal source
It’s assumed that aliens that use the hydrogen frequency do so in a manner to compensate for the motion of their planet with respect to the motion of Earth. Otherwise the precise frequency of the hydrogen becomes higher or lower.
That’s why it’s important to look at the precise frequency of the signal.
John Kraus, the director of the observatory, gave a frequency value of 1420.3556 MHz in his 1994 summary written for Carl Sagan.
Jerry Ehman in 1998 gave a value of 1420.4556±0.005 MHz.
This is (50±5 kHz) above the hydrogen line value of 1420.4058 MHz.
Only one of those frequencies could be the correct one. The explanation of the difference between Ehman’s and Kraus’s values was that a new oscillator had been ordered for the frequency of 1450.4056 MHz.
The university’s purchasing department then made a typographical error in the order and wrote 1450.5056 MHz instead of 1450.4056 MHz. The software used in the experiment was then written to adjust for this error. When Ehman computed the frequency of the Wow! signal, he took this error into account.
After all errors are accounted for, the Doppler shift of 1420.4556 MHz indicates that the Wow! signal source moved at a speed of 37 893 km/h towards Earth. The following calculations show how I arrived at that speed:
Calculations on the Doppler shift of the Wow! signal
The Wow! signal was detected at 1420.4556 MHz. First we need to convert the frequency to the wavelength. The wavelength is given by the frequency and the speed of light, how far one wave crest travels in a given time span.
Frequency to wavelength calculator:
https://www.everythingrf.com/rf-calculators/frequency-to-wavelength
The frequency of the Wow! signal 1420.4556 MHz is equal to a wavelength of (Δλ) 21.105373 cm. That’s the distance between each wave crest.
The presumed origin signal of hydrogen has a precise frequency of 1420405751.768 Hz, equivalent to the wavelength of (λ) 21.106114054160 cm. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_line
The doppler shift speed from delta lambda and lambda = 299 781 932.02409 m/sec. https://www.vcalc.com/wiki/sspickle/speed+from+delta+lambda+and+lambda
Now we subtract
299 781 932.02409 m/sec
[Doppler shifted Wow! signal speed from v = (Δλ/λ) * c]
-299 792 458 m/sec [ speed of light (c)]
______________________
10 526 m/sec = 37 893 km/h or 10.526 km/sec.
Ref. 1: The source of the Wow! signal approached Earth at a speed of 37 893 km/h or 23 545 mph, if the transmission frequency was from hydrogen.
The average speed of asteroids is 18 – 20 km/s vs the 10.52 km/s from the Wow! signal. Comets that impact Earth usually are also faster, at 30 km/s.
End of part 1.
Follow this story and more on
https://contactproject.org
A proposal to make radio contact with UAPs/UFOs
Can We Have Artificial Gravity In Spacecraft?
Why has nobody built rotating spacecraft to simulate gravity?
A whole spacecraft is expensive to rotate, but small spaces on space stations or ships could easily be rotated.
Can those small spaces be big enough to provide meaningful and healthy artificial gravity?
From my physics knowledge I recall that gravity and acceleration are the same.
If I remember correctly, 1 g is equal to an acceleration of 9.81m/sec per second. In other words, a wheel with a circumference of 10 meters would have to be spun about once per second to simulate 1 g in Zero gravity? Not quite.
Alas, it’s a bit more complicated than that, and thankfully we don’t have to spin the wheel quite so fast. That’s a bonus!
Here are a few handy calculators to work out wheel sizes and rotation rates to simulate Earth gravity:
SpinCalc, solves for gravity, radius and rotation rate,
Circle Calculator, solves for diameter, radius and circumference.
A wheel with a circumference of 10 meters would have a diameter of 3.18 meters. This would be a handy size for artificial gravity experiments, even on Earth.
Would it be comfortable to spend any time in this? The wheel should rotate at about 24 RPM to simulate 1 g. It could be compartmentalized in to 1 x 2 meter beds, holding ten crew.
So at least during their rest period spacefarers would have the benefit of normal gravity. The astronauts are lying on the inside of the wheel, a bit like in the fairground ride illustration but with more privacy.
Is it feasible to built such small Drum Gravity units?
How would the human body react? (Artificial Gravity by Centrifuge).
We know that the negative effects of zero gravity are really serious and numerous. Even 2.5 hours of daily treadmill exercise are insufficient to prevent these effects:
- fluid redistribution: Bodily fluids shift from the lower extremities toward the head. This precipitates many of the problems described below .
- fluid loss: The brain interprets the increase of fluid in the cephalic area as an increase in total fluid volume. In response, it activates excretory mechanisms.
- electrolyte imbalances: Changes in fluid distribution lead to imbalances in potassium and sodium and disturb the autonomic regulatory system .
- cardiovascular changes: An increase of fluid in the thoracic area leads initially to increases in left ventricular volume and cardiac output. As the body seeks a new equilibrium, fluid is excreted, the left ventricle shrinks and cardiac output decreases.
- red blood cell loss: Blood samples taken before and after American and Soviet flights have indicated a loss of as much as 0.5 liters of red blood cells.
- muscle damage: Muscles atrophy from lack of use. Contractile proteins are lost and tissue shrinks. Muscle loss may be accompanied by a change in muscle type.
- bone damage: Because the mechanical demands on bones are greatly reduced in micro gravity, bones essentially dissolve.
- hypercalcemia: Fluid loss and bone demineralization conspire to increase the concentration of calcium in the blood.
- immune system changes: Loss of T-cell function may hamper the body’s resistance to cancer — a danger exacerbated by the high-radiation environment of space .
- interference with medical procedures: Bacterial cell membranes become thicker and less permeable, reducing the effectiveness of antibiotics.
- vertigo and spatial disorientation: Without a stable gravitational reference, crew members experience arbitrary and unexpected changes in their sense of verticality.
- space adaptation syndrome: About half of all astronauts and cosmonauts are afflicted. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, anorexia, headache, malaise, drowsiness, lethargy, pallor and sweating.
- loss of exercise capacity: This may be due to decreased motivation as well as physiological changes.
- degraded sense of smell and taste: The increase of fluids in the head causes stuffiness similar to a head cold.
- weight loss: Fluid loss, lack of exercise and diminished appetite result in weight loss. Space travelers tend not to eat enough.
- flatulence: Digestive gas cannot “rise” toward the mouth and is more likely to pass through the other end of the digestive tract “very effectively with great volume and frequency” .
- facial distortion: The face becomes puffy and expressions become difficult to read, especially when viewed sideways or upside down.
- changes in posture and stature: The neutral body posture approaches the fetal position. The spine tends to lengthen.
- changes in coordination: Earth-normal coordination unconsciously compensates for self-weight. In weightlessness there is a tendency to reach too “high” .
Compared to these adverse effects of zero gravity, here are some studies by a psychologist named Graybiel from 1977 on the effects of rotating a human on his own axis here on Earth, like on a spit (from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1980-22567-001).
GRAYBIEL ROTATION COMFORT ZONES
Graybiel concluded that
1.0 RPM: even highly susceptible subjects were symptom-free, or nearly so
3.0 RPM: subjects experienced symptoms
5.4 RPM, only subjects with low susceptibility performed well
10 RPM, adaptation presented a challenging but interesting problem. Even pilots without a history of air sickness did not fully adapt in a period of twelve days.
The “adaption” that Graybiel is talking about is the getting used to the absence of the rotation, after the body had been spun.
What that feels like we all remember from childhood.:
I must say that spit rotating a human on his own axis in the horizontal under the influence of Earth gravity is most likely to be very far removed from what a human may experience in an artificial gravity drum in weightless space.
I’d go as far as to say that Graybiel’s rotation comfort zones have absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with artificial gravity by centripetal force. All he proved in his paper “Somatosensory motion after-effect following earth-horizontal rotation about the Z-axis” is that the after effect of spinning someone rapidly is disorientation of the vestibular system of the ear, leading to dizziness, aka vertigo.
But let’s see if these Graybiel’s comfort zone figures can be applied.
The SpaceX Mars rocket is going to have a diameter of 9 meters. Would it be possible to create a comfortable habitat for sleeping or resting spacefarers within the confines of this rocket?
A 9 meter drum would need to rotate at 14 RPM to simulate 1 g, or at 8 RPM to achieve 1/3 of Earth gravity. Graybiel’s findings would indicate that the space available on the SpaceX Mars rocket would be too small.
However, I believe that the gravity (centripetal force) acting on the body as it lies down, not spinning about itself and on one level , will be more comfortable than twirling rapidly around one’s own axis.
In Drum Gravity Bed Units there would be no head-to-foot acceleration gradient.
DRUM GRAVITY BED UNITS
The drum gravity bed units are conceived of as an add-on module to a spacecraft or space station, be it in transit, orbit or on the Moon, Mars or asteroids to provide more natural gravity.
Have prototypes of this concept been built?
In a certain way: Yes! The first picture in this post is a fairground attraction from the 1950’s.
Did humanity really forget from the ’50s how easy and fun it is to enjoy artificial gravity? Apparently the fairground visitors subjected themselves to the experience voluntarily and enjoyed it.
Simple gravity devices like this could help spacefarers to maintain their health, after the device is tweaked.
A BIGGER MODEL
Rotating wheel space station — Wikipedia
Here are the calculations on the von Braun wheel from 1952 used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey:
They envisioned a rotating wheel with a diameter of 76 meters (250 feet). The 3-deck wheel would revolve at 3 RPM to provide artificial one-third gravity. It was envisaged as having a crew of 80.
Fast forward 70 years (not much has happened since the 1950’s):
SAHC HUMAN CENTRIFUGE
The SAHC human centrifuge began testing and operations in about 2020. It’s to investigate the tolerability and use of artificial gravity on astronauts and their health, to counter the effects of weightlessness. What’s taken so long?
The machine measures 5.6 meters in diameter.
It would be small enough to put in the SpaceX Mars rocket. But it needs a few more seats.
https://www.dlr.de/me/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-1961/2779_read-14523/
Centrifuge with lying test person
With the Short-Arm Human Centrifuge (SAHC) in Cologne — provided by the ESA — artificial gravity will be created to afford fundamental research in medicine and human physiology. The main focus is on the possibility to extend e.g. bed-rest studies to test methods of artificial gravity based counter-measures for medical risks due to weightlessness.
Technical data:
Max. radius at outer perimeter: 2,8 m
Max. overall payload: 550 kg
Max. centrifugal acceleration
(foot level, test subject height 185 cm): 4.5 g
Max. revolution of centrifuge rotor
(software limit): 39 rpm
Scientific applications
- Development of effective countermeasures for neuromuscular and skeletal degeneration of astronauts using Artificial Gravity, etc…
This is an article by Erich Habich-Traut for the Contact Project,
https://contactproject.org
You’re warped onto the home world of friendly aliens in some unknown part of the Galaxy. How would you describe Earth’s location in the universe to them?
I would show them my pulsar map. Astronomer and astrophysicist Frank Drake designed the map, working with fellow astronomer Carl Sagan and artist and writer Linda Salzman Sagan. The pulsar map shows the location of our sun relative to known pulsars. This map was placed on the interstellar space probes Voyager 1 & 2 in 1977.
The map is slightly inaccurate because of a rounding error on one pulsar, but its better than nothing.
Whether or not to have a tattoo of it is debatable. A dog tag may be easier to carry.
The Magic About Pulsars
Discovered in 1967 by Northern Irish astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell, pulsars were described by Antony Hewish to be the remains of collapsed suns.
For reasons not entirely understood they emit pulses of radio waves (and like lighthouses sometimes visible light) with the accuracy of atomic clocks, staying active for billions of years. It has something to do with magnetic fields.
Frank Drake drew the pulsar map using 14 pulsars that were known in the early 1970’s. Today we know of many more pulsars but they are not as powerful and bright. Frank Drake’s original pencil-drawn pulsar map today lives in an old tomato box at home.
Each pulsar is connected to the sun by a solid line. The length of the line represents the pulsar’s approximate relative distance from the sun.
Etched along each of the pulsar lines are vertical and horizontal dashes that represent a binary number that can be converted into a decimal.
When multiplied by a known measure of time, that number reveals the frequency of the pulsar—how fast it spins and flashes.
Successfully decoding the map would unambiguously pinpoint the sun’s position and the time frame of the spacecraft’s launch.
This is an article by the “Contact Project”.
We can be found on https://contactproject.org.
The Contact Project is also on reddit: https://reddit.com/r/contactproject
Reference:
How to Read a Pulsar Map
https://www.pbs.org/the-farthest/science/pulsar-map/
Statement of the Contact Project regarding METI
Text revised and updated: 11. January 2022
Dr. Vakoch is President of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI).
“As astronomers launch ambitious projects for Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence, alarmists worry that transmitting intentional radio and laser signals into space may provoke an alien invasion. These critics overlook one fundamental fact: it’s too late to hide.”
Dr. Vakoch, Feb 3, 2020
Dr. Vakoch is currently not associated with the ‘Contact Project & Initiative’. His statement was directed at the fact that humanity has been announcing it’s presence via radio signals to our cosmic neighborhood for the last 100 years. He did not mean to imply that Alien presences are already here.
This is what the Contact Project & Initiative is about:
The Mission of ‘The Contact Project & Initiative’ is to investigate UAPs/UFOs on every frequency, using real-time tracking, radio receivers and transmitters, HD video, HD images, optical and radio telescopes and passive & active radar, so that the question of the nature and origin of UAP can be answered without doubts.
The engine of this initiative will be an app custom designed to coordinate real-time reporting, alerting, documenting and contacting efforts.
Anyone can take part, there’ll be a public as well as a science data channel. The goal of the ‘Contact Initiative’ is to gather high quality evidence.
To do this every frequency will be scanned, including the 1420 Mhz hydrogen waterhole, which is legal as long as it’s done passively. If transmissions are found, the next step is to discover if UAPs react to radio transmissions. Broadcasting at a frequency of 1420 MHz is illegal under international law, however.
Should the UAP respond to transmissions on HAM or CB radio amateur frequencies, great! But what if it doesn’t?
To have any chance to stay legal under current law and to be able to broadcast at 1420 Mhz the UAP position data must be forwarded in real time to SETI for further investigation.
Actually, a memorandum should be drafted to provide for an exception to broadcast on 1420 Mhz for METI purposes. The relevant article of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is recommendation RA.769 : Protection criteria used for radio astronomical measurements
What does the Contact Project want to do?
We want to do METI (messaging ETi) with a target that’s already here, UAPs. We don’t have to worry about attracting the attention of “hostile” aliens by messaging them as they already know of us, if that’s what UAPs/UFOs are.
As things go, this possibility wasn’t seriously considered by the METI organization in 2015, because the subject of UAPs was still considered too crackpot then.
So, the statement issued by the METI organization regarding messaging extraterrestrial intelligence only covers targets outside of Earth’s atmosphere (statement here).
Since then, in 2021, this outlook has changed somewhat by the release of a preliminary assessment of the American Director of National Intelligence on UAPs (assessment here).
The METI statement called for a worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion about the implications of messaging ET, before anything should be initiated. Arguably, since UAPs first made headlines in 1947 there’s been a worldwide discussion about “them” for over 75 years.
A lot of that time much of humanity reacted like an ostrich, sticking it’s head in the sand when hearing UFO reports. Or like three monkeys. Which comparison do we prefer?
Did it never occur to anyone that these phenomena may be more than swamp gas or the result of delusions? Sadly, as a result of the swamp gas hypothesis, the METI statement covers only METI targets outside of Earth.
METI might wish to reconsider their statement. Because currently there seems to be no position on contacting UAPs, to the best of my knowledge.
METI says:
ETI’s reaction to a message from Earth cannot presently be known.
If extraterrestrial civilizations have a presence on Earth in the form of UAPs/UFOs or drone-like von Neumann probes they will certainly be able to monitor our news and events. We already know that there was no reaction from UAPs/UFOs to the Voyager space probes and the Golden Records.
METI says:
We know nothing of ETI’s intentions and capabilities, and it is impossible to predict whether ETI will be benign or hostile.
Experience shows that when UAP are pursued by military jet fighters they don’t react hostile. Civilian planes are not attacked either. It’s reasonable to assume that the intelligence behind UAPs is mostly benign.
“The threat to humanity from each other is magnitudes greater than from ETi. That hasn’t and shouldn’t stop us from talking to each other and that includes ETi.”
The Contact Project
GALACTIC FEDERATION?
All sorts of explanations about UFOs and their prospective occupants have been given, from the no-contact rule of a Galactic Federation to higher dimensional frequencies that mortals can join only after exhaustive preparation.
I didn’t make up the Galactic Federation link to UAPs, this claim comes from highly decorated former Israeli Space Security Chief Haim Eshed.
Healthy skepticism is of course in order as most sightings have a prosaic explanation, ranging from misidentifications to pranks and hoaxes. But they don’t account for every sighting.
To admit in 2021 that some UAP cannot be explained was a major step forward by the US government.
The Contact Initiative wants to find out if there is just one UAP that will respond to radio transmissions. And that is easy.
And to prepare for the possibility of a positive response from an UAP?
Not so easy.
The Contact Project can be found on https://contactproject.org.
Contact Project on reddit: https://reddit.com/r/contactproject
“The Implications of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life for religion.” Royal Society presentation and article
Ted F. Peters 2011, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A | Summary by Erich Habich-Traut for the Contact Project, 2021
The implications of the discovery of extra-terrestrial life for religion. Theologian Ted Peters wrote about the future of religion. He asked the following questions:
(i) Will confirmation of extra-terrestrial intelligence (ETI) cause terrestrial religion to collapse?
A few years ago, Ted Peters decided to put conventional wisdom to a test. Along with his Berkeley research assistant, Julie Louise Froehlig, he devised a survey: the Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey:
Would the discovery of an extraterrestrial civilization cause a crisis in religious beliefs? Peters surveyed evangelical, protestant, catholic and orthodox Christians, and also Mormons, Jews, Buddhists and Atheists:
‘No’ is the answer based upon a summary of the ‘Peters ETI Religious Crisis Survey’. The discovery of an extraterrestrial civilization would not cause a crisis in religious beliefs.
When we turn away from one’s own personal beliefs and ask respondents to forecast what will happen to the world’s religions, including beliefs other than one’s own, something startling was revealed:
What the survey question above shows is the conventional wisdom of non-religious persons. They make a prediction about what will happen to religious persons: Atheists believe that religions will face a crisis.
Contrary, the Peters survey shows evidence that religious believers themselves do not fear that contact with ETI will undercut their beliefs or precipitate a religious crisis.
Then the paper examines four specific challenges to traditional doctrinal belief likely to be raised at the detection of ETI:
(ii) What is the scope of God’s creation?
This entire universe can be viewed as the product of God’s creative power and loving grace.
(iii) What will be the moral character of the alien intelligences we meet?
Will our extra-terrestrial neighbours be subject to sin? Will they have fallen, so to speak? Or, might the aliens have escaped the scourges that plague us here on Earth?
(iv) Is one earthly incarnation in Jesus Christ enough for the entire cosmos, or should we expect multiple incarnations on multiple planets?
What theologians agree on is that the incarnation we have witnessed within our own planetary history is that of the divine Logos, the divine mind through which everything in physical reality has come into being. They presume continuity between this incarnation and whatever exists despite its distance from us.
(v) Will contact with more advanced ETI diminish human dignity?
Suppose we Earthlings begin to recognize that we are outclassed by our superior space neighbours. Might we lose our dignity?
The existence of a more advanced extrasolar civilization does not preclude our being an object of divine concern. Contact with alien intelligence will not disenfranchise us from being created in God’s image.
The belief that God has revealed himself in a supreme way, frees one to look for that which is of God outside that particular revelation. Christians should expect to learn new things about God from an encounter with aliens.
Conclusion
Despite the conventional wisdom, it is not reasonable to forecast that any of Earth’s major religious traditions will confront a crisis let alone a collapse should we confirm an encounter with extra-terrestrial intelligence.
Ted Peters believes that contact with extra-terrestrial intelligence will expand the existing religious vision that all of creation—including the 13.7 billion year history of the universe replete with all of God’s creatures—is the gift of a loving and gracious God.
Reference:
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: https://www.academia.edu/14721074/_The_Implications_of_the_discovery_of_extra_terrestrial_life_for_religion_Royal_Society_presentation_and_article
Ted Peters biography:
http://mttaborslc.org/ted-peters