http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/toronto-student-s-space-colony-design-wins-nasa-contest-1.821777I was reminded of this by your mention of layered rings. As has been mentioned, this might be a useful interim step... To the left side of the news article is a link to a detailed pdf (11mb) of the student's project...Gramps
Quote from: colbourne on 02/13/2017 06:05 amMaybe the way to use World Ships is to look for an object already going in the required direction and then building a colony on that.There are many stars and objects which have been pushed into strange high speed paths, probably by collisions of galaxies.As these will need to maintain life for possibly thousands of years , looking for a star with planets that has been pushed on to a path maybe the way to go.Another interesting possibility is to move from rogue planet to rogue planet. The appear to be a number of these, with an average distance that might be as small as a light year apart.If the worldship can last, then colonies are perhaps not the best offspring for them. Perhaps worlships build other worlships.
Maybe the way to use World Ships is to look for an object already going in the required direction and then building a colony on that.There are many stars and objects which have been pushed into strange high speed paths, probably by collisions of galaxies.As these will need to maintain life for possibly thousands of years , looking for a star with planets that has been pushed on to a path maybe the way to go.
Just wanted to insert my pet idea of converting dwarf planets to ocean worlds under protective eggshells of ice.If you have mastered fusion power (even primitive fusion power such as building and detonating H-bombs) and you live under the ice and dump your waste heat there this would happen sort of naturally.That makes an entire world your self-repairing gas tank. You could make a world-ship from that, easy.It doesn't solve issues of gravity for health, but there are many different ways to solve that and also to just avoid the problem by adapting your inhabitants. This is a world. You could have all these solutions and experiments going on at once. Spinning habitats above and below the ice. Different variations of humans living side by side, or some on the surface and some living many kilometers down under crushing pressures.Moving even a dwarf planet obviously would require massive engineering, but you can start small with little colonies and just grow. You are not going to worry about moving the thing until it is entirely converted and does not itself contain new territory in its own right. It is basically a deathstar with huge fusion powerplants at that point.
Quote from: KelvinZero on 02/18/2017 06:38 amJust wanted to insert my pet idea of converting dwarf planets to ocean worlds under protective eggshells of ice.If you have mastered fusion power (even primitive fusion power such as building and detonating H-bombs) and you live under the ice and dump your waste heat there this would happen sort of naturally.That makes an entire world your self-repairing gas tank. You could make a world-ship from that, easy.It doesn't solve issues of gravity for health, but there are many different ways to solve that and also to just avoid the problem by adapting your inhabitants. This is a world. You could have all these solutions and experiments going on at once. Spinning habitats above and below the ice. Different variations of humans living side by side, or some on the surface and some living many kilometers down under crushing pressures.Moving even a dwarf planet obviously would require massive engineering, but you can start small with little colonies and just grow. You are not going to worry about moving the thing until it is entirely converted and does not itself contain new territory in its own right. It is basically a deathstar with huge fusion powerplants at that point.Love this idea. The ocean could be used as reaction mass to get the planet moving. Couple of kilometres off the top would be a vast volume and (having not done the maths) would give a small but useful velocity.
Well, this does not seem to work. Even with a huge Isp of 0.1c, I'm getting very pessimistic numbers. For example, if 1% of the worldship launch mass is used up as reaction mass, I get below 300 km/s velocity.
Eternal life! Human life time is increasing by X months every year now, and it is a long and accelerating trend.
Quote from: JasonAW3 on 02/13/2017 02:06 pmAs has already been stated, replenishment of consumables of all types, is a necessity for the Worldship concept to work.No, it is not a necessity. Earth does not need to replenish anything for 4.5 billion years already. All it needs is solar energy.
As has already been stated, replenishment of consumables of all types, is a necessity for the Worldship concept to work.
Just wanted to insert my pet idea of converting dwarf planets to ocean worlds under protective eggshells of ice.If you have mastered fusion power (even primitive fusion power such as building and detonating H-bombs) and you live under the ice and dump your waste heat there this would happen sort of naturally.That makes an entire world your self-repairing gas tank. You could make a world-ship from that, easy.
Quote from: KelvinZero on 02/18/2017 06:38 am...The ocean could be used as reaction mass to get the planet moving. [...]In some ways it seems to be the opposite of the 'make life interplanetary' mantra since you effectively isolate yourself. Unless you pointed yourself at a destination star, just wandering aimlessly seems an odd way to start a journey.
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Quote from: KelvinZero on 02/18/2017 06:38 amJust wanted to insert my pet idea of converting dwarf planets to ocean worlds under protective eggshells of ice.If you have mastered fusion power (even primitive fusion power such as building and detonating H-bombs) and you live under the ice and dump your waste heat there this would happen sort of naturally.That makes an entire world your self-repairing gas tank. You could make a world-ship from that, easy.In that scenario, I don't think you'd be trying to make World-ships, they'd just be Worlds. Settlements. Smaller "torch-ships" (assuming fusion) would move between them for trade, migration, etc, but I doubt they'd move the Worlds themselves (other than a minor tweak, perhaps, to match orbits with important trade or cultural partners.)
Quote from: Paul451 on 02/28/2017 12:45 amQuote from: KelvinZero on 02/18/2017 06:38 amJust wanted to insert my pet idea of converting dwarf planets to ocean worlds under protective eggshells of ice.If you have mastered fusion power (even primitive fusion power such as building and detonating H-bombs) and you live under the ice and dump your waste heat there this would happen sort of naturally.That makes an entire world your self-repairing gas tank. You could make a world-ship from that, easy.In that scenario, I don't think you'd be trying to make World-ships, they'd just be Worlds. Settlements. Smaller "torch-ships" (assuming fusion) would move between them for trade, migration, etc, but I doubt they'd move the Worlds themselves (other than a minor tweak, perhaps, to match orbits with important trade or cultural partners.)Yeah I think we will keep finding ways to avoid moving large masses: eg uploaded personalities, nanoscale replicating probes..It is something I don't worry about much because so many possibilities arise after we have some self sufficient colonies. Get to that point and some future humanity will sort this all out. No need to worry about those sorts of details now.I think in the far future there might be reasons to get large masses moving at large velocites but it would be a permanent thing. You would never stop at your destination. You might drop nano probes as you fly by but there is so much effort getting to that velocity, such wasted effort stopping, so much advantage from keeping that velocity.
Quote from: KelvinZero on 03/03/2017 11:27 amQuote from: Paul451 on 02/28/2017 12:45 amQuote from: KelvinZero on 02/18/2017 06:38 amJust wanted to insert my pet idea of converting dwarf planets to ocean worlds under protective eggshells of ice.If you have mastered fusion power (even primitive fusion power such as building and detonating H-bombs) and you live under the ice and dump your waste heat there this would happen sort of naturally.That makes an entire world your self-repairing gas tank. You could make a world-ship from that, easy.In that scenario, I don't think you'd be trying to make World-ships, they'd just be Worlds. Settlements. Smaller "torch-ships" (assuming fusion) would move between them for trade, migration, etc, but I doubt they'd move the Worlds themselves (other than a minor tweak, perhaps, to match orbits with important trade or cultural partners.)Yeah I think we will keep finding ways to avoid moving large masses: eg uploaded personalities, nanoscale replicating probes..It is something I don't worry about much because so many possibilities arise after we have some self sufficient colonies. Get to that point and some future humanity will sort this all out. No need to worry about those sorts of details now.I think in the far future there might be reasons to get large masses moving at large velocites but it would be a permanent thing. You would never stop at your destination. You might drop nano probes as you fly by but there is so much effort getting to that velocity, such wasted effort stopping, so much advantage from keeping that velocity.It's pretty hard to resupply at high velocity. The interstellar medium is ressource poor, to say the least.An intriguing notion is the possibility of hopping from rogue planet to rogue planet. This would allow a worldship to move much more slowly, but still find ressources to resupply itself and would be a rather natural extension of Oort cloud comet hopping. I would expect a worldship to tend to reproduce each time it came into contact with a planet or solar system, just a outlet for growth and to keep the possibility of leaving the vehicle open. It seems like a natural extension of how life already operates.In a sense the worldship is an organism, carrying happy little symbiotes in the shape of humans :-)
Dandridge Cole called them 'Macrolife'. Seems fitting.