into energy. If enough could ever be produced and stored it would supply 1010 times the energy of the same weight as gasoline. Travelling at a velocity slightly less than the speed of light, it would take about ten years for a round trip to the Centauri system which is just over four light years away. This would require a vehicle weighing about 1,000 tonnes to provide the power and living facilities for a crew of twelve. The problem with this proposal, and many similar, is that it requires many unforeseeable breakthroughs. At present there are no ideas on how to obtain and store antimatter. Speculation on the latter merits a very low plausibility rating. The same can be said of proposals to build ships which scoop up matter and process it into fuel on the journey. This raises problems regarding the design of the scoop and the availability of matter.
One solution to the energy problem would be to travel slower with large spaceships designed like small island worlds sending out small probes. It is possible that extraterrestrials could approach the Earth in this manner and that their large ships could exist relatively undetected quite near to us. After all, Pluto is a very small planet in our solar system which has only recently been observed. Artificial worlds might well exist undetected on the outer edge of the solar system. Many SETI scientists, however, reject this argument. Frank Drake, who maintains that an interstellar quarantine exists with regard to space travel, argues that such a project would require millions of sophisticated probes, and then a wait for thousands of years until they functioned perfectly and were monitored by the home planet. In contrast, argues Drake (Drake and Sobel, 1993: 132), ‘the Universe permits only limited kinds of direct encounters among its residents’. Thus he concludes:
It makes most sense to me to ply the radio course – to plumb the radio spectrum for magic frequencies and scan the stars for beacons sent by alien intelligence. Information-laden radio messages are the quarry we seek in the search for extraterrestrial life.
Thus SETI researchers reject ideas of direct contact with spacecraft but seek deliberate signals or leakage radio signals. Whereas space travel is expensive and slow, electromagnetic radiation carries information at the speed of light at little cost. Among SETI scientists there are no expectations of contact by means of visiting spacecraft: it is information, not things, that will be exchanged between intelligent extraterrestrials and human beings.
There are certainly major physiological problems with the idea of human-like beings travelling on interstellar journeys. Lengthy journeys in prolonged states of weightlessness raise the problems of potential damage to heart muscles, as all under-used muscles shrink. Effects of zero gravity on humans can be debilitating. The Russian cosmonaut, Valery Polyakov, spent 438 days on the Mir space station in 1994 and from his experiences researchers learnt that astronauts who stay in space lose 1 per cent of their bone structure each month, suffer from a major deletion of muscle mass and face disruption of nerve centres. Longer-term
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stays would involve loss of blood cells and anaemia. Shannon Lucid, a US astronaut who spent 188 days on board the Mir station, required six months physiotherapy on return. Research has also shown that the stress involved in spaceflight actually weakens the immune system of the astronauts. Thus a virus that would normally remain dormant could, due to a weakening of the astronaut’s immune system during a lengthy voyage, initiate a serious illness (Coghlan, 1999a: 15).
There would also be problems of previously undiagnosed malignant diseases, such as a brain tumour developing during a long trip and affecting a vital crew member. Accidents or illnesses requiring surgery would yield unique problems in conditions of weightlessness. For example, blood will not ooze or flow into the surrounding cavity to be mopped up, but will migrate from the wound, forming a red mist. Anaesthetic gases would put the surgeon to sleep, and an intravenous drip would not work. Psychological problems associated with long periods with the same individuals have been reported among Russian space crews, although better profiling techniques might avoid these kind of problems in the future. The problem of finding the right kind of crews is significant. The ‘right stuff’ sought in the early astronauts is clearly incompatible with lengthy space voyages. The early astronauts were test-pilots who required action and stimulation, but the long trips of interplanetary travel would require people who would not be prone to boredom. One solution to boredom might be the development of recreational drugs with no harmful side-effects for long-duration space flights. There are very serious psychological problems for humans who endure long periods of isolation. These could become critical when radio contact is cut off when the spaceship is the opposite side of the Sun from the Earth. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the human mind or body which could not be dealt with in order to make journeys of several years possible. Of course beings with a non-humanoid physiology and psychology might not be affected by these factors.
Even if colonies were established within the solar system, the energy require-ments for lengthy space flights would still be massive. In this respect the appeal to large numbers of sightings actually weakens the argument for visits from EBEs. For even if they have established a colony on the Moon – the nearest possible site – it would still require a massive energy output to maintain a rate of visits in proportion to even a small fraction of recorded sightings. This also raises the question, why are they manufacturing so many craft? Why are they coming here so frequently and behaving in such a pointless fashion? And why, after at least forty years of visits, having mastered levels of technology beyond us, have they not made their intentions comprehensible? The answers to these questions remain in the realm of speculation. Ufologists differ over the reasons for UFO visits. Some have argued that their purpose is benevolent and that they merely wish to observe us and collect information. It is sometimes suggested that they may be concerned over our warlike ways and are ready to intercept if we look likely to wipe out intelligent life. This can be regarded as the ‘Saviour hypothe-sis’, which has certain superficial resemblances to western religious beliefs.
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