Author Topic: Rapid Interstellar spaceflight, exploration and,colonization  (Read 12310 times)

Offline Hop_David

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The asteroids look pretty good, but they for the most part have even lower light intensity than Mars

So? Just move stuff. The delta-v is less than for escaping from earth, and you are even able to use electric propulsion because of low gravity fields. The gravity well of a big planet is a big disadvantage.

Besides light can be concentrated. When you have this amount of technology and space based industry then it is not that big of a problem.

Indeed, big enough parabolic mirrors and the "edge of sunlight" gets pushed back.

Mike Combs took this idea and ran with it in this story:
Eyes, Shining Back from the Dark.

Offline Patchouli

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The asteroids look pretty good, but they for the most part have even lower light intensity than Mars

So? Just move stuff. The delta-v is less than for escaping from earth, and you are even able to use electric propulsion because of low gravity fields. The gravity well of a big planet is a big disadvantage.

Besides light can be concentrated. When you have this amount of technology and space based industry then it is not that big of a problem.

Indeed, big enough parabolic mirrors and the "edge of sunlight" gets pushed back.

Mike Combs took this idea and ran with it in this story:
Eyes, Shining Back from the Dark.

Once you have controlled fusion you don't even need the mirror to live out that far.

A civilization that's fully adopted to deep space could in theory live in the back yard of one that lives on planets.

Though I think they might seek out M class stars vs G class stars.

« Last Edit: 05/20/2011 04:10 am by Patchouli »

Offline khallow

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Heh, now I'm in error in a way that supports my original argument. Wish that would happen more often.

Even if someone beats you first to a star system, you still can find a niche. There's probably some advantage to being the first to a new star system, but I think it's overstated.
Karl Hallowell

Offline KelvinZero

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Heh, now I'm in error in a way that supports my original argument. Wish that would happen more often.

Even if someone beats you first to a star system, you still can find a niche. There's probably some advantage to being the first to a new star system, but I think it's overstated.

A point for and against,
With a thousand year difference, if you travelled incommunicado, you would be at best a boatload of vikings arriving in america 2010. A niche would certainly be provided I expect, but not found unclaimed. I actually expect that the next thousand years will change us much more significantly than the last, because AI and genetic engineering are very likely to be mastered IMO.

On the other hand perhaps a generational ship does not ever need to leave human civilisation. It could still be only a few years behind modern developments, and since it presumably has the engineering capability to manufacture/recycle its own parts it will probably be able to produce anythng it has the plans for.

Because it is still part of human civilisation the crew members could still be managing investments on and off the ship, and through speculation could own assets on the destination even if they arrive much later.

My personal feeling is that once we can master living on an icy low gravity rock they will quickly become more relevant than earthlike worlds with their high gravity wells and atmospheres that make magnetic launch impractical.
I like the idea that has been thrown around a few times that we should aim for a certain timespan eg a decade or a generation, and simply make missions to objects that we can reach in that timescale with current technology. Before we send missions to other stars we can first have missions to kupier belt objects, then to rogue planets and so on. It may even be one of these worlds that sends the first true interstellar colony.

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