Psychological Problems of Interplanetary Travel (1975)

I'm not saying it would be the most pleasant thing in the world, but a 6-month interplanetary trip on Starship (with iPads, unlimited entertainment, a variety of food, video games, and even almost real-time communication with Earth) doesn't seem anywhere near as unpleasant as a 3-month trip on the Mayflower. People seemed to handle that OK though.

This was depicted in &quot;Hi, Bob&quot; (FAM) [1]. And perhaps &quot;Bring it Down&quot; [2] too, somewhat.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nerdsthatgeek.com&#x2F;television&#x2F;for-all-mankind-recap-hi-bob" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nerdsthatgeek.com&#x2F;television&#x2F;for-all-mankind-recap-h...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nerdsthatgeek.com&#x2F;television&#x2F;for-all-mankind-recap-bring-it-down" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;nerdsthatgeek.com&#x2F;television&#x2F;for-all-mankind-recap-b...</a>

This is a deep topic that depends on how future spaceships are designed. That in turn depends on technology.<p>For example, if propulsion and fuel are cheap (eg fusion) you may accelerate constantly, flip around and then decelerate constantly. Do this at 1G and you will avoid problems of prolonged zero-G. If fuel is a significant part of your mass (as it is with all current rockets) then doing that will be prohibitively expensive if not impossible. That means either zero-G or spin gravity. Spin gravity necessitates a certain minimum diameter. The travel time will be much longer so you then have different psychology to deal with.<p>The size of the engine in each case may dictate a certain ship size. This entails different dynamics based on group size.

The pandemic provided a perfect filtering mechanism for those who thrive in isolation.

I love this and I want a physical copy.<p>This is no great revelation but if anyones into this sort of scenario and hasn&#x27;t come across it you gotta get elbow deep in the Remembrance of Earths Past trilogy.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Remembrance_of_Earth&#x27;s_Past" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.m.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Remembrance_of_Earth&#x27;s_Past</a><p>Once you get a few hundred pages in it explores the social &#x2F; cultural horrors of interplanetary &#x2F; interstellar&#x2F; multigenerational space travel time in the juiciest possible way. So juicy...