A prolonged stay in micro gravity causes bone density loss. This needs to be addressed before any lengthy manned trips can happen. Future space jaunts will use spin to mimic one Earth gravity but much time will still be spent weightless until then. I don't know how anyone else feels about this but I like the idea of weightlessness and would want to spend a good part of my time this way if I ever made it to space so something would still need to be done to replace that bone loss.

I propose sleeping chambers with inaudible sonic bone density amplifiers contained in the outer shell.

While you sleep your skeleton receives a gentle all night pummeling.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 24 2010

purr. teach_20yourself_20to_20purr_2e
[po, Jul 24 2010]

//sonic bone density amplifiers// What?
-- mouseposture, Jul 24 2010


I like it, I think... but what effect would that have on cartilage? What effect would that have on people with Marfan or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? And what about the strange resemblance to the words Manifest Destiny? What the heck, slap a disclaimer on it and bun [+] for the very idea that we might be able to take long space jaunts without becoming boneless chickens before we arrive at our destination...
-- Grogster, Jul 24 2010


Why not just sleep in a personal centrifuge?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 24 2010


Will pummelling your bones help? I know stress helps to sculpt bones, but normally it has to be stress in the right direction - the bones adapt to support the loads they are made to carry.

So, pummelling at random might just make you develop spherical bones.

Any supporting evidence?
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 24 2010


bun for spherical bones
-- Voice, Jul 24 2010


Not sure if it will work. Bun for the name... is space our Manifest Destiny?
-- James Newton, Jul 24 2010


//much time will still be spent weightless until then//

You simply spin your hibernation pods too, as seen in 2001:A Space Odyssey.
-- Cedar Park, Jul 25 2010


I'm not at all prone to motion sickness but I think if I tried to sleep in a cetrifuge I would puke.

<heads off to look for supporting evidence of non-spherical bone pummeling>
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 25 2010


The only evidence I can find for sonic bone density increase are products that claim to do this but they all seem to rely on a persons weight on a machine.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 25 2010


I worry that press on vibration systems will have vibration damped by flesh before bone can reap beneficial effect. Sonic vibrators tuned to resonant frequency of bone must be kept clear of skull or concussion would result.
-- bungston, Jul 28 2010


//resonant frequency of bone//

I have a sneaking suspition that bone doesn't have a resonant frequency worth talking about. Evolution is a cunning little bugger, and will probably have bolted on all sorts of non-linearities and dampers to prevent your skeleton resonating.

If this weren't the case, you'd find that people who work with high-amplitude sounds, such as bass guitarists, drummers or the operators of pneumatic road drills, would start to develop bone growths such as forward-jutting lower jaws or brow-ridges.

Ah. Hang on a second...
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 28 2010


hmmmm, parabolic emitters could focus sound below the level of tissue and be 'tuned' to whatever frequency penetrates flesh best. Random localized impacts shouldn't cause resonace, so no concussion.

Brow ridges could be allowed to degenerate.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Jul 29 2010



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