space travel <20Gs & perfluorocarbon liquid breathing

[jefferiestubes8]

Event Horizon (1997) script:

Vertical tanks line the walls, each large enough to hold a human being: gravity couches.

DJ
"When the Ion drive fires, we'll be taking about 30 gees [30G force]. Without a tank, the force would liquefy your skeleton."

liquid breathing had been a scifi idea for a long time. The official name is perfluorocarbon,[Oxygenated flourocarbon emulsion]
http://www.dvdactive.com/images/reviews/screenshot/2009/2/eh2.jpg

liquid perfluorocarbon compound that contains oxygen.
In the 1960s, it was shown that rats could survive for up to 20 hours when immersed in such a mixture.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question640.htm

about The Abyss (1989)
From an interview with James Cameron in Movieline magazine, found on the web:

they started experimenting with flourocarbon, and they've done it very successfully with dogs and monkeys. The FDA won't let them use it in human experimentation, so the research has sort of hit a wall, but the proposition is that if there was ever a strong enough military application for it, it would proceed again. In the film, when the rat breathes it, it's the real stuff, it's really happening...

http://forums.sciflicks.com/showpost.php?p=313&postcount=5

liquid breathing is actually being used as a therapy for resperatory failure in adults and is particularly effective in neonatal care for premature babies.

The liquid used in the film is called perflourohydrocarbon, brand name Liquivent and it is sometimes used in respiratory therapy.

http://forums.sciflicks.com/showpost.php?p=198538&postcount=45



Space travel

Liquid immersion provides a way to reduce the physical stress of G forces. Forces applied to fluids are distributed as omnidirectional pressures. Because liquids cannot be practically compressed, they do not change density under high acceleration such as performed in aerial maneuvers or space travel. A person immersed in liquid of the same density as tissue has acceleration forces distributed around the body, rather than applied at a single point such as a seat or harness straps. This principle is used in a new type of G-suit called the Libelle G-suit, which allows aircraft pilots to remain conscious and functioning at more than 10 G acceleration by surrounding them with water in a rigid suit.

Acceleration protection by liquid immersion is limited by the differential density of body tissues and immersion fluid, limiting the utility of this method to about 15 to 20 G[36] Extending acceleration protection beyond 20 G requires filling the lungs with fluid of density similar to water. An astronaut totally immersed in liquid, with liquid inside all body cavities, will feel little effect from extreme G forces because the forces on a liquid are distributed equally, and in all directions simultaneously. However effects will be felt because of density differences between different body tissues, so an upper acceleration limit still exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing

Will this be tested on a monkey with an ion drive in the next 20 years in space?

 

[sojourner]

Cheaper to test it in a centrifuge here on earth.

Also, ion drives are high ISP, low thrust. Never gonna hit 1 G with one, nevermind 20 or 30 G. Maybe in 50 to 100 years when we develop a fusion drive. Right now we don't have an engine powerful enough to do this.

 

[Alpha_Geek]

...maybe.

My concern would be the solids in the human body, the bones.

While the meatbag itelf may be well cocooned in a liquid, inertia would still be at work on the solids held within.

The question becomes "Is a skull, rib, or pelvis structurally sound enough to withstand a 20 G force for any length of time?"

EDIT: The brain just kind of sloshes around in there also. Concussions can occur when inertia carries the brain in the direction of travel under sudden decelleration. You'd have to secure your thinking machine to better moorings.