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> Clarke's First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something

> Clarke's First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. Transporting people with current human lifetimes might not be practical. But brain scans on a computer? Or people in some form of cryogenic state or with life extension tech? I'd say that's a fair bit easier. Still not trivial, but manageable with a lightsail.

pnutjam 7y ago
None of the things you listed are possible or realistic in the next 50 years.
- DuskStar 7y ago
  Even if I accept that life extension tech and destructive brain scanning is more than 50 years out, why would that mean humanity will never reach the stars? 50 years or 5000, as a species it just needs to happen eventually.
  - pnutjam 7y ago
    too late for major climate disruption.
AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago
Occurrences of the word "Impossible" in the article: 0.
tzs 7y ago
> Transporting people with current human lifetimes might not be practical. But brain scans on a computer? Or people in some form of cryogenic state or with life extension tech? Or a generation ship. The most common approach proposed is a self-contained ecosystem that can grow the food and recycle the waste necessary to keep the ecosystem going and to support a breeding population of people, plants, and animals for the hundreds of years the trip takes. That approach seems pretty far in the future. I don't think anyone has ever built a self-contained ecosystem that comes anywhere near close to being able to be self-sustaining for any great length of time. Another approach might be possible that doesn't require a self-sustaining ecosystem, and seems much more in reach. The idea is to send most of the people as frozen eggs and sperm. Same for the animals that will be needed to establish a colony at the destination. Send the colony plants as frozen seeds. The only already born people you would send is a small crew to operate the ship. They operate the ship for one generation, then make the next generation crew from some of the frozen eggs and sperm, train them, and hand off the ship to them. Repeat until the ship reaches the destination, and the final crew then uses the remaining frozen eggs and sperm to make and raise the colonists. Same for the animals and plants. Because this approach only has a small crew on the ship at any time, it should be feasible to include their food upfront when the ship leaves. If you use food that has a large calorie/volume ratio, a lifetime supply of food for a person fits in a space that is probably smaller than you would guess. For example, a typical protein bar is about 200 calories. If you need 3000 calories a day (space crewing is hard work!) for 100 years that works out to about 547500 bars. If each bar has a volume of 10 cm^3, you could store all that in a cube 176 cm on a side. Enough for a crew averaging 10 people at a time for 400 years would fit in the volume of a small single family house.
- DuskStar 7y ago
  Why would volume matter at all when it comes to storing food? Space in space is the next best thing to free, after all. The real thing to be concerned about is mass.
deleted 7y ago
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pnutjam 7y ago

None of the things you listed are possible or realistic in the next 50 years.

DuskStar 7y ago
Even if I accept that life extension tech and destructive brain scanning is more than 50 years out, why would that mean humanity will never reach the stars? 50 years or 5000, as a species it just needs to happen eventually.
- pnutjam 7y ago
  too late for major climate disruption.

AnIdiotOnTheNet 7y ago

Occurrences of the word "Impossible" in the article: 0.

tzs 7y ago

> Transporting people with current human lifetimes might not be practical. But brain scans on a computer? Or people in some form of cryogenic state or with life extension tech? Or a generation ship. The most common approach proposed is a self-contained ecosystem that can grow the food and recycle the waste necessary to keep the ecosystem going and to support a breeding population of people, plants, and animals for the hundreds of years the trip takes. That approach seems pretty far in the future. I don't think anyone has ever built a self-contained ecosystem that comes anywhere near close to being able to be self-sustaining for any great length of time. Another approach might be possible that doesn't require a self-sustaining ecosystem, and seems much more in reach. The idea is to send most of the people as frozen eggs and sperm. Same for the animals that will be needed to establish a colony at the destination. Send the colony plants as frozen seeds. The only already born people you would send is a small crew to operate the ship. They operate the ship for one generation, then make the next generation crew from some of the frozen eggs and sperm, train them, and hand off the ship to them. Repeat until the ship reaches the destination, and the final crew then uses the remaining frozen eggs and sperm to make and raise the colonists. Same for the animals and plants. Because this approach only has a small crew on the ship at any time, it should be feasible to include their food upfront when the ship leaves. If you use food that has a large calorie/volume ratio, a lifetime supply of food for a person fits in a space that is probably smaller than you would guess. For example, a typical protein bar is about 200 calories. If you need 3000 calories a day (space crewing is hard work!) for 100 years that works out to about 547500 bars. If each bar has a volume of 10 cm^3, you could store all that in a cube 176 cm on a side. Enough for a crew averaging 10 people at a time for 400 years would fit in the volume of a small single family house.

DuskStar 7y ago
Why would volume matter at all when it comes to storing food? Space in space is the next best thing to free, after all. The real thing to be concerned about is mass.

deleted 7y ago

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