Author Topic: Traveling to other solar systems - how?  (Read 11010 times)

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Offline Old Viking

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #15 on: February 19, 2012, 01:49:05 pm »
Send fundies.  They're already in a state of hibernation/cryo-sleep.
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Offline Dan

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #16 on: February 19, 2012, 02:07:56 pm »
But how would you wake them up at the end of the journey?

Offline Askold

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #17 on: February 19, 2012, 02:36:06 pm »
But how would you wake them up at the end of the journey?

You don't. You just gather them all in one ship and blast them out of this solar system.

Douglas Adams presented this solution in one of his books.
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Offline Canadian Mojo

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #18 on: February 19, 2012, 10:14:43 pm »
I would have thought that you only need a generational crew with most of the colonisers being carried in the form of frozen genetic material. That same genetic material could be used to prevent crew inbreeding.

However I have no idea what you would do to keep the crew from going completely insane
Use robots for the crew. Non-sentient, boring old machines that can do the same task a million times over. With artificial wombs they could raise the first generation of colonists, which, if you really want to get fancy could actually be clones of voulnteers who's personalities were downloaded and stored on the ship's computer in order to make the trip. The only biological resources you would need to expend during the trip would be the ones necessary to raise your first batch of people, which might not be much if you can accelerate development and bring them to adulthood quickly.

It would actually avoid a lot of problems because it would mean that only people who wanted to be there and should be there were establishing the colony.

Offline davedan

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #19 on: February 20, 2012, 03:49:28 am »
But the robots go crazy like in 2010? What about maintenance?

Actually fully automated ships sounds like a remarkably good idea and given how far we can send unmanned probes we probably aren't too far away from this being feasible.

Offline Canadian Mojo

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #20 on: February 20, 2012, 01:57:08 pm »
But the robots go crazy like in 2010? What about maintenance?
Or a hacker gets into the computer storing the crews personalities and changes them into serial killers,  supernazis,  the cast of Jersey Shore, or even worse, 2012 Republican presidential candidates.

Offline Shane for Wax

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #21 on: February 20, 2012, 06:32:54 pm »
I'm thinking of President Eden from Fallout now.

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Offline Tolpuddle Martyr

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #22 on: February 20, 2012, 11:00:21 pm »
Frank J. Tipler had a lot of nutty ideas but I still think his Physics of Immortality book had one of the most likely scenarios.

Basically you send out a bunch of robots and AI's moving at sublight speeds into the galaxy, they then resurrect human genetic material and colonize the universe that way. None of the inherent problems of generation starships with all of the pluses.

The only technology we don't have yet in that scenario is artificial wombs and AI's smart enough to do the job, as far as I know those two don't violate any fundamental laws of physics or require the sort of stupendously insane levels of energy that something like wormholes would.

Oops, Mojo beat me to it. Sorry.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2012, 11:07:26 pm by Tolpuddle Martyr »

Offline Lithp

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #23 on: February 21, 2012, 12:04:39 am »
It's not very time-efficient, though. You also have to give them a way to steer away from stars, uninhabitable worlds*, asteroids, black holes, & space daddy longlegs.

*=They will have to know this ahead of time. Once they touch down, it is unlikely they will have enough fuel to achieve escape velocity. Unless they're big fucking robots.

Offline Shane for Wax

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #24 on: February 21, 2012, 12:41:45 am »
...Space Daddy Long Legs?

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Offline Lithp

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #25 on: February 21, 2012, 07:52:30 am »
Space Daddy Long Legs.

Offline Shane for Wax

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #26 on: February 21, 2012, 10:39:43 am »
I'm... sure there are plenty of those lying around to be worried in case we ever want to take to the stars past our own solar system.

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Offline Lithp

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #27 on: February 21, 2012, 10:43:33 am »
They are frequently found crawling on nebula clouds, humping stars, climbing into your wormholes to gunk up the joint, & just generally being massive douchebags.

Offline Shane for Wax

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #28 on: February 22, 2012, 09:48:40 am »
I was derpin' around on twitter and this link popped up:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGE-WRqgPRE" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGE-WRqgPRE</a>

Thought it might be relevant to the discussion. If not, it's Carl Sagan.

The gist- while a group of people would take only a few decades, by the time they got back it would be way in the future.

&
"The human race. Greatest monsters of them all."
"Ke barjurir gar'ade, jagyc'ade kot'la a dalyc'ade kotla'shya."
Fucking Dalek twats I’m going to twat you over the head with my fucking TARDIS you fucking fucks!

Offline Podkayne

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Re: Traveling to other solar systems - how?
« Reply #29 on: February 22, 2012, 11:00:24 am »
A sub light ship that carries on board a traversable time wormhole, so when the ship arrives in a few thousand years, the crew simply step through the wormhole and are at their destinations moments after they left. Sort of assumes working suspended animation technology for the trip out. Then just reverse the process to go home. Or carry a second wormhole that takes you instantly home.
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