Sunlight Mimicking LEDs

caters

Ensign
I have posted on several forums about using LEDs to mimic sunlight on the generation ship. I basically got 2 responses depending on the forum. 1 response was to not focus on it unless necessary and this was from forums related to writing. Another response was "Come on, that is too simple for a civilization that has mastered artificial gravity. Quantum mechanics is better." and this was from forums about science.

But here is my reasoning on why I would use IR, Visible, and UV LEDs and not a quantum mechanical light source.

A wavelength in any part of the EM spectrum could come from a quantum mechanical light source. Radio waves and microwaves would just be a waste of energy that could be used for more infrared, visible, and ultraviolet.

UVC, X rays, and Gamma rays would be even more wasted energy but also dangerous.

Yes, 10-15 minutes of UVB exposure can produce up to 20,000 IU of vitamin D from cholesterol in your skin. And yes UVB and UVA both carry a risk of sunburn and skin cancer with UVB having a higher risk of sunburn and UVA having a higher risk of skin cancer.

UVC exposure has a maximum time of 8 hours before it is deemed unsafe due to skin and eye injuries. And this is for people who know how to use UVC as a disinfectant. For the average person, maximum safe UVC exposure is much less than that. UVC can cause rapid sunburn, skin cancer, and temporary or permanent blindness.

X rays as background radiation or as a plain X ray have a 1 in 1,000,000 lifetime cancer risk. But X rays produced from a quantum mechanical light source would have a lifetime cancer risk closer to that of a CT scan of 1 in 1,000.

Gamma rays are the worst of all. A bit ironically, high dose gamma ray exposure is easier for the human body to repair than low dose gamma ray exposure. But gamma rays, because they are so energetic, not only have a high risk of giving you cancer but they also have a risk of radiation poisoning.

Clearly radiation poisoning and cancer are 2 things you would want to try and avoid during space travel but radiation poisoning especially so. Even if you were to limit the amount of time that UV light is produced, it is inevitable that some fraction of the population is going to get cancer. But with sufficient technology and limitations on the wavelength of photons produced, radiation poisoning is avoidable.

But how could you limit the wavelength of photons produced to be in either infrared, visible light, UVA, or UVB? The easiest way to do this is to use LEDs. I don't see how using quantum mechanics in a way that limits the possible wavelengths to infrared, visible, UVA, and UVB is feasible
 
I guess it depends upon what you want the light to do in different parts of the ship?
I know that Mack Trucks used to use LED with fiber-optics for their dash lights. A single source with multiple cables transferring the light to different panel readouts. Any heat was isolated to the source lamp down in the dash.
I don't know much about photosynthesis of plants but if a certain part of the ship needs natural light for living entities science already knows how to make those. Think grow lamps or tanning booths. It all depends upon how advanced you want to make your ship.

You could invent a material that reacts to body heat or movement and glows during reaction. Walls, floors, ceilings and objects could be light sources similar to how we use paint to make things glow in the dark.

There is also chemical reactions that produce light - think glow sticks.

It is also worth noting that light and heat do not need to be from the same source. Also, controls can be made of light think gesture or touch screens. Imagine a ship with no controls except light interfaces. No knobs, switches or joysticks.
 
Kinda like ships gravity.
No need to invent a new way to make ships gravity.
All you need is a fragment of the right mass in the center.
Put a chunk of brown dwarf in a stable orbit and build the ship around it.
For story purposes you wouldn't need to go into detail, just say a 'bowling ball' size chunk or something.
The biggest ship in our fleet uses a chunck the size of a watermelon.

We stepped into the compartment and it started to glow with that old familiar soft light. Crazymanium 228 makes things glow when reacting. Its added to all construction projects.

The Earthroom provides wind, rain and sunlight similar to home planet. The autodoc prescribed 2 hours of Earthroom per day. Its so refreshing.

Decks 7 thru 18 are habitat decks where the gravity is most like home planet's gravity. Stay out of decks 1-5, those are for automotons only. Besure you wear your gravity boots above deck 18, for safety.
 
True, but there are lots of benefits to UV and infrared. Infrared light can kill cancer cells without damaging healthy cells. So people with cancer on the generation ship for whatever reason could go into chambers where they are exposed to infrared for long periods regularly to cure their cancer. And the worst side effects of this would be heat burns and dehydration. No further increased risk of cancer and no surgery required. Infrared light could potentially, when mathematically deconvoluted, give the precision of an X ray without using any ionizing radiation. Infrared exposure also causes the body to produce nitric oxide to lower blood pressure.

And the benefits of UV are enough to fill several books, everything from increased bone density to curing of TB when vitamin D is at 10,000 IU to obesity prevention when vitamin D is higher than 400 IU in young children. And Vitamin D deficiency and sleep apnea have a very strong positive correlation. The worse the deficiency, the worse the sleep apnea. And here is 1 difference between the vitamin D produced by UV light and oral intake of vitamin D. The vitamin D produced by UV light raises nitric oxide levels whereas the oral intake of vitamin D doesn't.

Nitric oxide helps prevent or cure erectile dysfunction in males. And while nitric oxide can be directly breathed in by newborns with very little problems as long as there isn't a dosage error, for adults, breathing in 100 ppm or more of nitric oxide is immediately dangerous. Highest safe dose via breathing for adults is 25 ppm over 8 hours. Now, I don't know if infrared exposure for long periods(like several hours at a time, making sure to treat widespread burns emergently) due to cancer treatment or UV exposure for relatively long periods(like 10-15 minutes of constant exposure compared to the few minutes most people get of intermittent exposure) to help treat bacterial infections, sleep apnea, and other problems related to vitamin D deficiency would raise the nitric oxide levels in the blood to such high levels that the person would go into shock due to low blood pressure, but prevention and cure of hypertension is important and this infrared and UV exposure could very well be part of a protocol for those who have high blood pressure.
 
LED is a light emitting diode. For science fiction story purposes an LED might be programmed to emit any wavelength of light. Lining a corridor or illuminating a space could be done with a range of programmed LEDs.
Each LED could also be controlled as to when and how long. Thus, exposure to wavelengths can be precisely controlled. You could have a whole range of different LEDs and use them to "tune" the lighting environment.
You could even use them to tint a space to take advantage of color psychology.
wiki said:
Color psychology is the study of hues as a determinant of human behavior. Color influences perceptions that are not obvious, such as the taste of food. Colors can also enhance the effectiveness of placebos.
In a battle, red alert triggers a red hue to the bridge or the entire ship.
Subtle changes in tint triggers the brain, often without notice.
wiki also said:
The general model of color psychology relies on six basic principles:

1. Color can carry a specific meaning.
2. Color meaning is either based in learned meaning or biologically innate meaning.
3. The perception of a color causes evaluation automatically by the person perceiving.
4. The evaluation process forces color-motivated behavior.
5. Color usually exerts its influence automatically.
6. Color meaning and effect has to do with context as well.
The story could include plot details based on color psychology that inspired an action.
The story may not require the detailed mechanism of the LED.
It could just mention the programmable LEDs and their effect on the people/aliens.
Allow the reader to speculate on how it might work. It will keep the focus on the story.

LEDs are stuck on full intensity all over the ship, people are in danger! Get a crew to the computer core and fix it before everyone fries. Captain, the core is fine, the problem is in the emitter diodes. Each compartment requires a magnetic pulse. It can be done by opening the LED interface panels and pulsing the 1465 relay manually. We need to open a com with the entire ship and explain how to do it, there's no way maintenance crews can do all compartments before personal physical damage can occur.

True, but there are lots of benefits to UV and infrared.
I wasn't arguing I was merely making suggestions (Food for Thought).
Programmable LEDs could also be used for medical applications, used to enhance sexual function or any other function you can come up with.

I basically got 2 responses depending on the forum. 1 response was to not focus on it unless necessary and this was from forums related to writing. Another response was "Come on, that is too simple for a civilization that has mastered artificial gravity. Quantum mechanics is better." and this was from forums about science.
I see nothing wrong with using LEDs.
I agree with the writing forum's response.
Too much detail can ruin a good story.
However, its your book and you should write it as you wish.
The fiction part of science fiction is important too.
If you want to include specific details you can probably work them into your story-line.
Like merging details into action sequences

It's my belief that considering other's suggestions may open new ideas previously not considered.
Almost like a word association.
 
One factor he is forgetting, is the mental factor, a "normal" human is acclimated to terra firma, blue skies, green fields, beautiful oceans, crispy fall, frosty winters. Going on a deep space probe would disrupt a "real" person's soul, and it could quite possably lead to deep depression and other mental issues, like it as you may, I don't think it would really work out. I honestly think that the probin' should be left to non-human robots. The moon and mars is pushing human limits anyways....;)
 
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