Abstract
Habitability is often equated with adaptation, but while habitability is the first requirement for adaptation, a fuller understanding of adaptation encompasses more than issues of physical and social well-being and comfort; it entails evolutional criteria that promote longevity—traits such as resilience, robustness, and durability. Whereas conditions for habitability are generally passive, criteria for adaptability cannot be assessed or cultivated without some kind of engagement with the environment. Well-being and comfort requirements for habitability can be achieved through avoidance of external conditions and without any active participation on the part of the subject, but evolutional traits required for adaptation call for confrontations and negotiations with environmental resistances. Genuine adaptation does not occur in circumstances void of stress or demands. It is through resistant encounters and the overcoming of obstacles that organisms grow hardier and more capable; thus they are more likely to endure.
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Notes
- 1.
Bacteria can assimilate entire sets of DNA within a 24-hour period (Margulis).
- 2.
Contrary to lay opinion, cosmic radiation is not an entirely undesirable environmental factor that should be eradicated. Exposure to infinitesimal amounts here on Earth is the cause for many advantageous genetic mutations, which in the long run contributes to diversity, and without which there would be no evolutionary change (Chaisson 2001, pp. 152–153).
- 3.
Almost all life that has evolved on Earth has developed circadian rhythms based on a 24-hour light/dark cycle. While organisms can adjust to slight changes in those cycles, the absence altogether of environmental cues that regulate those cycles can cause severe disruptions and physiological dysfunction. However, because those cues change seasonally on Earth, organisms can adapt to some degree of deviation from the 24-hour cycle.
- 4.
With the exception of a few, such as Angel Marie Seguin, Andreas Vogler and Jesper Jorgenson.
- 5.
Lecture by Kim Binsted at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture, on her experience as a crew member in the FMARS habitat simulation on Devon Island (2007). Studies show that food has been found to help alleviate boredom and monotony in the confinement of the habitat (Suedfeld and Steel 2000), and additional studies are currently underway on the Island of Hawaii to evaluate the impact that the menu has on a potential Mars-bound crew.
- 6.
Both water and regolith are thermal masses, and thus transmit heat easily. A thermal break between the shielding material and the shell of the enclosure is therefore recommended.
- 7.
The water in the shielding layer could be used for cleaning or other purposes, and recycled. Or if non-toxic antifreezes are developed, it could even be populated by aquatic species who demonstrate tolerance to cosmic radiation, turning it into a celestial ‘aquarium’.
- 8.
Lecture by Kim Binsted at the University of Hawaii School of Architecture, on her experience as a crew member in the FMARS habitat simulation on Devon Island (2007).
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Lockard, E.S. (2014). Shifting from Habitation to Adaptation in Space. In: Human Migration to Space. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05930-3_3
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