There was a documentary on National Geographic recently describing the what-if scenario of a global catastrophe approaching Earth that we couldn't get rid of (in this case a Neutron Star) and the possible scenarios that could be done to keep Humanity alive.
They used an old technology developed during WW2 where you launched bombs behind the spacecraft that hit a giant shock absorber and pushed the ship forward. The ship would hold 250,000 people and it would take them I believe 80-90 years to reach the next system. The documentary is on youtube and it was an interesting watch.
Not even close!
The ship they build for 250,000 people would turn out to be a big tomb.
A very good article on a problem I had not heard about.
We are almost out of Plutonium-238 and no one is making any.
The problem? It is needed for RTGs for space exploration missions.
Mars Rover Curiosity uses 10 lbs of Pu-238 in its RTG for power. NASA only has 36 lbs left and no more is being produced anywhere in the world. A proposed Jupiter-Europa mission needs 47 lbs and Curiosity's twin which is expected to launch at the end of the decade will use 10 lbs of the remaining 36.
Anyway, everyone should read the article. It is very good.
What do they have to lose though? Stay and die for sure or go and have tiny chance.
What tiny chance though? there is zero chance for yourself to reach another star system,and even if you somehow you managed to feed generations on a star ship till you did reach another system chances are it wouldn't have an earth like planet anyway.
Nope..if a large earth killing astroid was aimed at the earth, I want to stand at ground zero for it.
It would probably be just as easy to save humanity by sending human DNA into intersteller space and hope for the best in a few million years.
The ship they build for 250,000 people would turn out to be a big tomb.
You should probably watch it. Those who launched with the ship wouldn't probably live to see the destination, but their children will. They go into pretty good detail about how it would work and how the ship can sustain itself.
You should probably watch it. Those who launched with the ship wouldn't probably live to see the destination, but their children will. They go into pretty good detail about how it would work and how the ship can sustain itself.
I watched it months ago, zero chance bombs could propel a craft even close to the speeds needed to go 4.3 light years in 90 years,were talking going at speeds over 15 millionMPH...ZERO chance. think thousands of years.
The Starlost is a Canadian-produced science fiction television series devised by writer Harlan Ellison and broadcast in 1973 on CTV in Canada and syndicated to local stations in the United States. The show's setting is a huge generational colony spacecraft called The Ark, which has gone off-course. Many of the descendants of the original crew and colonists are unaware, however, that they are aboard a ship.
It's okay, I have a friend who saw one of those "what would happen if we made contact with aliens" shows that were in mockumentry format and he thought it was real too. it happens.
There is no way we could get to another star system in 90 or 100 or even 1000 years using any technology we have today.
I'm thinking you should really re-watch it.
Several years ago I read a Planetary Society report describing a solar sail spacecraft powered by an orbital laser that they calculated could reach another system within a human lifetime - but with technology and resources far beyond what we can do right now or in the foreseeable future.
Let's say we can reach another star in one or two generations.
What are the chances we will find a planet in that star system that can host humans without life support?
We are finely evolved to live on Earth - other planets with different atmospheres, gravity, temperatures, radiation, will probably be lethal for humans.
Let's say we can reach another star in one or two generations.
What are the chances we will find a planet in that star system that can host humans without life support?
We are finely evolved to live on Earth - other planets with different atmospheres, gravity, temperatures, radiation, will probably be lethal for humans.
Yeah, try to ruin all our fantasies of interstellar civilizations. I don't think the answer to your question is known, but I suspect it's low, at least for thriving outside. We'd need a planet in the "Goldilocks" zone about the right size with a similar atmosphere and probably a similar star.
A very good article on a problem I had not heard about.
We are almost out of Plutonium-238 and no one is making any.
The problem? It is needed for RTGs for space exploration missions.
Mars Rover Curiosity uses 10 lbs of Pu-238 in its RTG for power. NASA only has 36 lbs left and no more is being produced anywhere in the world. A proposed Jupiter-Europa mission needs 47 lbs and Curiosity's twin which is expected to launch at the end of the decade will use 10 lbs of the remaining 36.
Anyway, everyone should read the article. It is very good.
I brought this up a while back when I was trying to get you all to check out LFTR (liquid fluoride thorium reactors). One of the many valuable byproducts is Pu-238.
Oh, and LFTR could solve our energy needs if/when perfected.
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Let's say we can reach another star in one or two generations.
What are the chances we will find a planet in that star system that can host humans without life support?
That might depend somewhat on your definition of life support.
It's not like we take a lot of stuff straight from the nature these days anyway.
As long as there's a good energy source, most other things can be recycled, and especially with the development of 3d printing, as long as you can use the material from old machines to make new machines, humans can survive for a very long time. Theoretically speaking.
And the rest is very much up to speculation.
Perhaps we should open our minds to genetically modified humans, better adapted for new environments?
The technology certainly starts to be there.
In a completely unrelated note, I actually came to post this.
Not long ago, researchers had thought it was rare for the cells in a single healthy person to differ genetically in a significant way. But scientists are finding that it’s quite common for an individual to have multiple genomes. Some people, for example, have groups of cells with mutations that are not found in the rest of the body. Some have genomes that came from other people.
What do they have to lose though? Stay and die for sure or go and have tiny chance.
But that's not a real dilemma, it's a science fiction plot. "Oh, our planet is doomed, so the only option is creating a massive spaceship to travel to a new system." It's far more realistic that if the earth was doomed, one easier solution would be to build massive floating colonies in orbit around the sun (or around the remains of the earth).
You avoid the nearly impossible problems of powering a ship with high energy needs (and thus far only super-unlikely theoretical propulsion systems) across vast distances with no power source, not to mention the ridiculous risks associated with the trip.
On the other hand, there's nothing involving massive space colonies that's really that far-fetched. You mine asteroids for minerals, develop self-replicating manufacturing robots for most of the construction and assembly, all solar powered, and work out the logistics of biodomes, radiation, gravity, enough propulsion to maintain orbit, etc. Obviously it's technology we're nowhere close to having today, but given an ultimatum, we could probably develop that technology in a couple generations.
We are finely evolved to live on Earth - other planets with different atmospheres, gravity, temperatures, radiation, will probably be lethal for humans.
This.
Human Beings are a product of planet earth, as much as we probably hate to admit it we are very fragile,just imagine finding a big beautiful blue planet full of life but because it's 3x the size of earth we wouldn't be able to walk on it because the gravity would make a 200lb man feel like he's 600lbs. the odds would be off the charts in finding and getting to another planet like our own.
Best bet...try and save our own home for future generations.
