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Don’t we have highly durable generational spaceships already? They’re called asteroids. If we find an asteroid that’s large enough to have internal geothermal a
by takinola 5y ago
Don’t we have highly durable generational spaceships already? They’re called asteroids. If we find an asteroid that’s large enough to have internal geothermal activity, you could put a bunch of people in an underground system and nudge it into a trajectory towards another star system.
As long as it can support crops, oxygen generation, etc the passengers just proceed to live a “normal” life for the next couple generations until they arrive in orbit around a brand new star.
The hardest part would be maintaining culture to still identify with the purpose of the mission after there’s no one of the original passengers left over
- tremon 5y agoI don't think most asteroids are large or dense enough to have adequate geothermal heat to sustain a human population? Anyone got a back-of-the-envelope calculation for what size asteroid we'd need for this?
- Qem 5y agohttps://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2014-4373 https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2014-4373
- justinator 5y agoDon’t we have highly durable generational spaceships already? They’re called asteroids. A planet. You're describing a planet. And we're doing a pretty terrible job keeping this planet we're traveling on sustainable for human habitation.
- takinola 5y agoWell the one we’re on has made it 4 billion years. Getting one to last 10,000 years should be a lot easier
- beaconstudios 5y agoIt has only been about 5000 years since humans became sedentary and formed civilisations and we're already seriously disrupting the ecosystem. That's the timeline you'd have to look at.
- smrtinsert 5y agoLess than a flash in the physical history of this world. Crazy!
- faeyanpiraat 5y agoIf we get to a point where we can acquire a planet and hurl it in a specific direction with meaningful speed, then we must’ve developed enough to also keep the planet livable long enough.
- quartesixte 5y agoWell if you’re gonna do that, you might as well have it accompany a star to give it energy for that journey. Add a gas giant or two (or 4) to protect it against incoming space debris and help stabilize orbits. Add some neighboring rocks to also help with that + give them extra material to use once they arrive. Implant ideas of leaving the rock and coming from a place of great power into the colony’s generational memory. Include some infrastructure to aid them.
- faeyanpiraat 5y agoThis scenario looks oddly familiar.
- whoisthemachine 5y agoAt least on a barren rock, we don't have to worry about disrupting existing natural systems and throwing them into chaos? Starting from scratch as it were, presuming we are responsible enough to maintain it...
- deegles 5y ago> sustainable for human habitation Even the worst outcomes predicted by climate change models leave some inhabitable regions right? Definitely not sustainable for current population levels though...
- awb 5y agoWhat about water?
- takinola 5y agoI do concede a certain amount of hand waving in this proposed solution
- brnt 5y agoHow structurally solid are asteroids, comets? I thought they were mostly balls of 'snow'.