Science Sci-Fi Anti-G suit(20-50Gs+) design?

[palebluevoice]

So I was thinking of a design for a sci-fi g suit, to sustain intense acceleration for interstellar antimatter-propelled ships, or accelerating past the speed of light(that's an entirely separate discussion, though); mainly just for fun. I know the main problems from humans sustaining high gs are: what other problems could arise from high Gs that I'm not thinking of? Could the brain be compressed?

A. Not as much blood flow to the brain
B. Damage to the bones and organs
C. Harder to breathe due to increased lung weight

For A, I'm thinking an augmented heart; maybe electric hookups in the person's chest, and sending electricity to the heart to increase it's power? That sounds dangerous; perhaps it would be easier for a secondary electrical heart, or just an entire mechanical heart?

For B, I'm thinking a super-cushioned spacesuit; that perhaps inflates by converting a substance from liquid to gas(in it's tank), then back to gas for deflation. Something softer than a seat; I'm not sure of the best mechanism for this. At what level of G's would the organs be crushed under their own weight, and is there any way to circumvent this?

For C; I imagine current life support technologies would be sufficient, can't someone survive without lungs if they're hooked up to a machine? That's just a matter of a portable version.

So, anyone see problems in my basic conception, or have another design entirely?

 

[Coolhand]

Sounds a little bit like an 'accelleration shell' http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=870

 

[N_Molson]

B is by far the worst problem.

Try to imagine what 20G means.

It means that an healthy person of let's say, 80 kgs, suddenly weights 80*20 = 1600 kg !!

It's a little like if you put a big car on his back, except that the mass is better distributed.

Cosmonauts survived a 22G peak for a few seconds during the abort of Soyuz-10, with a few displaced bones. They were recovered in a shock state, like if they had a car accident I guess. That's a matter of time exposure. I see no way to protect durably the human body in the 20-50G range.

Well, maybe if you find a way to freeze the crew, and unfreeze them later without killing them... Ice is a strong material but has the bad habit of exploding living cells (that are mostly made of water)...

 

[Moach]

if you have antimatter, and going with the premiss that it DOES, in fact have negative mass, (still being studied at CERN) and therefore, negative gravity, you could -theoretically- apply that into a conceptual "anti-acceleration field"

for gravity is no more than acceleration, right? in that case, whatever material which bears negative mass could be also able to negate the effects of any acceleration applied to it...



is this really a thing? - or am i telling nonsense?

 

[Eli13]

You sound like you make sense to me, but then again, I'm really not the best person to ask. I'm definitely not a physicist.

 

[Jarvitä]

is this really a thing? - or am i telling nonsense?

Even in the most hypothetical of spacecraft concepts, antimatter is only used as a propellant, in quantities of kilograms at most, and even that is ridiculously far outside of our production capacity as a species (until we build that GEO-spanning solar-powered particle collider). Not enough to produce any significant gravity/anti-gravity, if such a thing exists.

 

[T.Neo]

You can always immerse the crew in an incompressable liquid, and perhaps incorperate [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_breathing"]liquid breathing[/ame].

Apparently The Forever War had spacecraft which used such immersion tanks, to allow crews to survive accelerations of up to 25 G.

If the tanks are highly pressurised and they fail, the results could be gory.

is this really a thing? - or am i telling nonsense?

Well, imagine trying to create a 20 G field on a spacecraft using normal matter; it isn't easy.

You either need a huge mass or a slightly less huge mass of extremely dense material.

I have no idea how negative matter reacts in terms of inertia and stuff though. It doesn't make sense to me.

Even in the most hypothetical of spacecraft concepts, antimatter is only used as a propellant, in quantities of kilograms at most, and even that is ridiculously far outside of our production capacity as a species (until we build that GEO-spanning solar-powered particle collider).

The most hypoethetical concepts I've seen use tons of antimatter. A few orders of magnitude beyond the kilogram-amounts that would still be ridiculously far outside our production capability.

But move the antimatter factory to Mercury orbit, please. Having large amounts of antimatter that close makes me nervous. :shifty:

 

[Eli13]

I'm not sure if i could make myself breathe a liquid...

 

[fsci123]

if you have antimatter, and going with the premiss that it DOES, in fact have negative mass, (still being studied at CERN) and therefore, negative gravity, you could -theoretically- apply that into a conceptual "anti-acceleration field"

for gravity is no more than acceleration, right? in that case, whatever material which bears negative mass could be also able to negate the effects of any acceleration applied to it...



is this really a thing? - or am i telling nonsense?

Well antimatter is like matter with oposite charges and oposite spins(?) and still like the rest of known matter has mass produces gravity and is effected by gravity...

 

[N_Molson]

I'm not sure if i could make myself breathe a liquid...

You did that before you were born

 

[Eli13]

True... but if you haven't noticed, i breathe the air now despite if it may be 'polluted' or not. Whether its by smog, CFC's or sound. :lol:

 

[T.Neo]

You did that before you were born

Apparently amniotic fluid is "breathed" in and out of the lungs during development, but I don't think it has anything to do with gaining oxygen, just helping the development of the lungs by 'excersising' them- oxygen is delivered through the umbilical cord.

 

[Eli13]

Man, as weird as it is, gestation is pretty amazing.

 

[N_Molson]

Actually I took that quote from Abyss, the movie. They use a breathing fluid inside what seems to be an EVA suit to send someone in an abyssal gap were fell a nuclear bombs (and that is the home from sea aliens too). I couldn't resist :lol:

 

[palebluevoice]

You can always immerse the crew in an incompressable liquid, and perhaps incorperate liquid breathing.

Apparently The Forever War had spacecraft which used such immersion tanks, to allow crews to survive accelerations of up to 25 G.

If the tanks are highly pressurised and they fail, the results could be gory.



Well, imagine trying to create a 20 G field on a spacecraft using normal matter; it isn't easy.

You either need a huge mass or a slightly less huge mass of extremely dense material.

I have no idea how negative matter reacts in terms of inertia and stuff though. It doesn't make sense to me.



The most hypoethetical concepts I've seen use tons of antimatter. A few orders of magnitude beyond the kilogram-amounts that would still be ridiculously far outside our production capability.

But move the antimatter factory to Mercury orbit, please. Having large amounts of antimatter that close makes me nervous. :shifty:

Alright, so a shell made of carbon nanotubes that would be the internal part of the cockpit, filled with an uncompressable liquid(does it exist?)...I don't totally understand pressure...what would that do to the body, and why? Would the other things like an artificial heart and oxygen be necessary?

 

[Turbinator]

You have to think about a lot more than just the blood-flow, breathing and the conciousness of the subjects.
Because there is no way the subjects could undertake the trip concious, or even clinically alive.

With the forces involved here you have to think about how much G-Load the cellular structure itself can sustain. And work around that.

 

[Eli13]

Then again it is sci-fi correct?
Then certain surgical procedures would be able to take place.

 

[T.Neo]

What surgical procedures would those be? Replacing the interstitial fluid with epoxy resin?

 

[Eli13]

I don't know, shoot some gamma rays at them and see what happens? Just kidding.
Honestly, its sci-fi, just about anything could happen.

 

[T.Neo]

Nooo... sci-fi is about limits. In fantasy almost anyrything can happen.

How much can happen in sci-fi is defined by reality + handwavium. Of course you get to a threshold where there's mostly handwavium and very little reality, and you get what is effectively fantasy.