The Human Race 'Must Colonise Space Or Face Extinction'

[The Running Man]

ya id hate to sit through that flight onto to find that it had actually moved since we last saw where it was...

clones and drones im afriad, plus sleep crygenic chambers.

 

[Glaucus]

I think this puts it into perspective....

"The nearest known star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.23 light-years away. The fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1, has covered 1/600th of a light-year in 30 years and is currently moving at 1/18,000th the speed of light. At this rate, a journey to Proxima Centauri would take 72,000 years."

Or using other propulsion we have researched (but dropped due to treaties), we can reach it in 44 years

 

[Tefal]

clones and drones im afriad, plus sleep crygenic chambers.

why in gods name would you use clones?


More expensive, more complicated, and unless we get better at it much sicker.


it's easier to use real people.

 

[clv101]

Leaving the Earth as a species is science fiction. It will always be the best place we can get to to live on. No other planet in the solar system will ever be as good as the Earth (no matter what happens to it) and all other planets are simply out of reach.

Luckily the Earth is a nice environment for our species with a projected life far in excess of our species.

 

[The Running Man]

because clones dont have the same human rights as full on humans? as i say to understand, you really need to go watch that film i referenced.

as you say, a clone isnt a real person so why not just use many clones and unfreeze the real humans when you get there?

 

[The Mad Rapper]

I think this puts it into perspective....

"The nearest known star to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.23 light-years away. The fastest outward-bound spacecraft yet sent, Voyager 1, has covered 1/600th of a light-year in 30 years and is currently moving at 1/18,000th the speed of light. At this rate, a journey to Proxima Centauri would take 72,000 years."

That's actually not true. There are a number of Brown Dwarf stars which are closer than that. Besides, what's the point in going to Proxima Centuri? It doesn't have a life sustaining planet in orbit.

 

[Glaucus]

Leaving the Earth as a species is science fiction. It will always be the best place we can get to to live on.

That is the case, but no one is suggesting dumping earth. Just colonising others as well.

And actually when technology is good enough no reason why other planets can't be better than Earth at the moment.

and all other planets are simply out of reach.

Not at all, closes star in 44 years and many many other solar systems easily doable with generation ships.

 

[The Running Man]

well i think we have to be able to terraform...

you dont go on a 44 year ride without the tools to do the job on a chance that you will land somewhere perfect. i think its an expectation that we might have to manipulate the closest chemical match we can find.

therefore we cannot leave until we have propulsion and the ability to terraform.

 

[Andy90]

Or using other propulsion we have researched (but dropped due to treaties), we can reach it in 44 years

 

[Von Smallhausen]

Leaving the Earth as a species is science fiction. It will always be the best place we can get to to live on. No other planet in the solar system will ever be as good as the Earth (no matter what happens to it) and all other planets are simply out of reach.

Luckily the Earth is a nice environment for our species with a projected life far in excess of our species.

That ends in around 5 billion years when the Sun begins to run out of fuel.

 

[clv101]

That is the case, but no one is suggesting dumping earth. Just colonising others as well.

See the OP ?

And actually when technology is good enough no reason why other planets can't be better than Earth at the moment.

Apparently we don't understand this planet's climate enough to simply maintain it, let alone change another planet's from scratch. "When technology is good enough" simply isn't an argument.

Not at all, closes star in 44 years and many many other solar systems easily doable with generation ships.

As I said, science fiction.

 

[rypt]

Money and costs are irrelevant factors when we are talking about the hypothetical end of the human race.

Capitalism needs to run its course before we can advance any further. If that means a Nuclear Holocaust then i guess it has to happen.

lol i love all this star trek stuff

You live it because most of it is actually possible (teleportation not so much though)

 

[Glaucus]

See the OP ?

.

Yep, no time frame. why would we dump the planet.

Apparently we don't understand this planet's climate enough to simply maintain it, let alone change another planet's from scratch. "When technology is good enough" simply isn't an argument.

Again no time frame and you do not need it to be as good or better than earth to colonise. You can colonise from inside buildings.

As I said, science fiction.

It's not totally science fiction, somewhere between the two. it has been researched and the principles are well known and understood. We just not tested one yet, due to treaties.

It's not like suggesting creating a wormhole, which we have no idea how to do, or what technology.

Nuclear propulsion, we have the technology, we know the science.

 

[starfighter]

I agree that building some massive ship in space would be the best way. If every country built a bit and sent it up then it was assembled we could have a massive nuclear/solar self sufficient beast capable of travelling to other planets. awesome.

 

[mrk]

(Quantum) Teleportation via entanglement actually is possible and has even been lab tested recently - only a matter of time (maybe our late lifetime?) before it is something much bigger!

 

[Gilly]

Or using other propulsion we have researched (but dropped due to treaties), we can reach it in 44 years

You've piqued my interest. Can you embellish please?

because clones dont have the same human rights as full on humans?

Tell that to the clone.

 

[Naff8000]

I'm not sure how we can think about getting to other planets any time soon, or maybe in the next billion years? Unless we learn how to bend space or send ships who live out many multiple generations before getting there. If we managed to reach 1/100th of the speed of light then even a spec of hard matter hitting the ship at 6.7 million mph would do some slight damage no?

 

[DAnDan]

(Quantum) Teleportation via entanglement actually is possible and has even been lab tested recently - only a matter of time (maybe our late lifetime?) before it is something much bigger!

Got any links/papers, will make an interesting read!

 

[antijoke]

When will the Sun wipe out Earth? When will it start expanding?

I would like to know more on this.

 

[Andy90]

That's actually not true. There are a number of Brown Dwarf stars which are closer than that. Besides, what's the point in going to Proxima Centuri? It doesn't have a life sustaining planet in orbit.

According to "New Scientist" - 24th June 2010, the nearest Brown Dwarf yet found is UGPS 0722-05, which was estimated to be 9.6 light years away from the Sun, but has now been re-estimated at 13.6 light years.

When I went to School, 9.6 and 13.6 were larger numbers than 4.2

The point I was making wasn't the fact that we should colonise the area around Proxima Centuri, but was in fact to show how long it would in fact take to travel to the nearest star.

By the way Brown Dwarfs are 'failed stars' - they don't have enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion.

Oh and one last thing, UGPS 0722-05 according to that article is the coldest brown dwarf ever seen, with a temperature of just 130 to 230 °C. And it's the dimmest: it emits only 0.000026 per cent as much energy as our sun, and this energy emerges at infrared rather than visible wavelengths. It would take 3.8 million of these brown dwarfs to equal the sun's power. It is about the size of Jupiter, but its mass is 5 to 30 times greater.