Human Gestation And Development In Space

[Sturgeon]

VSauce produces videos that are a little too YouTubey for my tastes, but unlike the videos of some other YTers, his info seems basically good. He broaches the topic of human development in space, and the challenges associated with it:
 

 

He also mention's Chris Hadfield's YT channel as being another resource for this topic.

Discuss.

[Belesarius]

Bone density would be a major issue IIRC.  Bones that grew under zero g would break a lot under 1g of gravity in odd places.  Lots of stress fractures and other painful slow healing stuff.

 

But I'm drunk and I read that paper 10 years ago.  So YMMV.

[Toxn]

We're not even sure if it would be possible to conceive in space, let along worry about things like bone density.

 

And no, I haven't bothered to watch the video yet 

[Priory_of_Sion]

It is possible to do it in space right? Right? 

 

Jellyfish have been bred in space, and have had issues converting from a microgravity environment to one with gravity. The basics behind the sense of gravity is similar in both jellies and us meat-bags so human babies might very well never adapt to an environment with gravity without special equipment and techniques much like how we need to adapt to a microgravity environment. 

 

A space baby mother would also probably have serious issues after a pregnancy with her bone structure and all. 

[Xlucine]

Doing it in space would take co-ordination. Maybe straps also. It'd be a neat "first" for the couple

[xthetenth]

Mile high? Pish.

[Donward]

I have a hunch it has already been done...

[Toxn]

That's the consensus view, yeah.

[Zinegata]

We could always just simulate 1G in space by creating a spinning spacecraft or station...

[Toxn]

We could always just simulate 1G in space by creating a spinning spacecraft or station...

 

This is one of those much-talked about options that nobody actually ends up doing. My suspicion is that you need a ring over a certain size to prevent everyone getting sick from perceived gravity changes and coriolis effect. When lying down and standing up presents a different sensation of gravity and everything falls in weird arcs, then your solution might be worse than the problem.

[Collimatrix]

We could always just simulate 1G in space by creating a spinning spacecraft or station...

 

Centrifugal gravity is pretty problematic.  Nothing insoluble, but lots of headaches.

 

1)  Where do your space station's docking ports go?  They clearly can't be at the spinning periphery, and even a rotating port, say, at the center of a hub is still problematic.  Could you have a spinning section and a non-spinning section?  Pressure-tight rotary joints would be a real headache.  I can't think of anything comparable that actually exists.

 

2)  A spun ship ideally is large, or Coriolis effects will be significant, and disorienting.

 

3)  A large spun ship will need to be radially balanced, somehow.

[LostCosmonaut]

 

 and even a rotating port, say, at the center of a hub is still problematic. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhlU3ikw8sA&feature=player_detailpage

[Zinegata]

Centrifugal gravity is pretty problematic.  Nothing insoluble, but lots of headaches.

 

1)  Where do your space station's docking ports go?  They clearly can't be at the spinning periphery, and even a rotating port, say, at the center of a hub is still problematic.  Could you have a spinning section and a non-spinning section?  Pressure-tight rotary joints would be a real headache.  I can't think of anything comparable that actually exists.

 

2)  A spun ship ideally is large, or Coriolis effects will be significant, and disorienting.

 

3)  A large spun ship will need to be radially balanced, somehow.

 

By the time you want to have babies in space it's implied that we're looking at much longer-term space missions requiring larger space ships in the first place.

[Toxn]

We're talking at least a 100m diameter ring here. This would put it in the same size category as the ISS. Only, you know, spinning.

[Zinegata]

We're talking at least a 100m diameter ring here. This would put it in the same size category as the ISS. Only, you know, spinning.

 

When I say "longer-term space missions requiring larger space ships in the first place" I'm actually already thinking on the scale of O'Neill Cylinders.

 

At ISS levels of habitation or space ships there is no point to having babies in space in the first place.