A corpse's guide to the Universe

The Grave

Muse
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While preparing someone for his exams, I had a thought...Yes me...

Since the average distance between stars is 8 LY ~ 75 mill.mill km, what chance has the human race got of ever actually Star Trekking?

What's our best so far Apollo? About 60,000 kph [0.06 Mill kph] so that would take us to Proxima Centauri in, what, oh, ~ 76,ooo yrs.

I think we'll need advice from Noah, on things like waste disposal, shrinking animals & plants to femto feet...

And what of us now ...we're shooting for the...Moon; Mars...

Alpha Centauri is promising, yes, good temp/mass range...but there's 2 of the buggers...

Barnard's star next, and Wolf (too cold!)...Procyon looks good, if you've got ~210,ooo yrs spare...

Ok, ok the Sun's here for another 5 Billion [we hope]...

But shouldn't we get our skates on?

Griff...
 
Psychology of human behavior, that is the most important study of and for man.

I have also wondered, that there is so much life on earth and man is wasting it all the time, but man has to occupy his time and labor and intelligence trying to figure out whether there is life outside earth, and how to contact it.


Also we have now known so much about human psychology than ever before in man's history, and yet some people have to search Buddhism and to find the purpose of life in Buddhism, when psychology should have told him all about the purpose of life and how to achieve it.


And the answer is: because man is plagued by the itch for novelty or what he thinks passes for novelty, and also don't forget what is trendy.


What think ye, Buddhists here who insist that Buddhism and skepticism are compatible, because you neither know Buddhism nor skepticism, but you make up both just to be into a novelty or a trend -- and you won't give up one nor the other because both are new and trendy to you; oh the shallowness of man.


Yrreg
 
Sending humans to other star systems is not feasible with current technology. So to imagine it you have to assume some kinds of technical advances.

Assuming "warp drive" remains an impossibility (and I think there is no evidence suggesting it will ever be possible) we must consider other possibilities. For example, sending robots along with a large supply of human sperms and eggs, which would only be turned into humans if the robots could first successfully establish a colony base and all the facilities and resources to raise them. But there was a time when sending a man to the moon seemed impossible, so it wouldn't surprise me if the technology is eventually invented to get us to other stars somehow, even if it takes a long time.
 
Yrreg, you're an obsessed and thread-disrupting jerk.

Thank you for encouraging me to look at Buddhism again - as part of the foundation for a life-embracing philosophy, it shows great promise.

Beats the hell out of Christianity or one of the other religions.

Once you scrape the superstition off of Buddhism, there's still something left - something that I think is of great value.
 
polaristutoring@tisc said:
Proxima Centauri in, what, oh, ~ 76,ooo yrs.
..

Alpha Centauri is promising, yes, good temp/mass range...but there's 2 of the buggers...
Click to expand...

Not to be pedantic, but Proxima, Alpha, and Beta Centauri comprise a trinary system.
Well, upon rereading, you knew that.
(Emily Latilla voice) Never mind (/Emily Latilla voice)
 
A Bussard Ram engine could maybe get us to the nearer stars in a single human lifespan - assuming we could ever figure out how to build one, Solar Sails are another possibility (just barely).
 
One aspect of my original thought was - If we want to leave this star for another, because it's old, then by the time we get around to it, all the others will be older to...

I don't know if a feasibility study has ever been done...some of the nearest stars are too red, too big or triplicates (enhancing the dreaded radiation factor) and so not good places to visit. But then the idea I think most people aspire to is to become travellers in space...self sufficient?

I don't think 'sails' are an option, as anything so flimsy must get damaged.


Griff...
 
Personally, I think we'd have to perfect some form of a suspended animation system for any such plan to be feasible. Barring the possibility (very remote, in my opinion) of some sort of faster-than-light travel, this would seem to me to be just about the only viable option. If this were not the case, and you were actually seeking to colonize a new planet, you'd be looking at a craft capable of supporting hundreds/thousands of people over hundreds/thousands of years.

There was the suggestion of using robots, and frozen sperm/eggs...but even if possible, I cannot see children born to and raised by robots on an entirely new planet as being terribly viable. There would be a million variables, unpredictable problems (such as new diseases, natural disasters, etc.) which I doubt a robot mind would be able to deal with; and even if we could create robots with the capacity for that, what about the emotions necessary for childraising?

And then, of course, you've got everything else you have to bring...all the animals, plants, and everything else you'll have to take along, since it would be rather stupid to assume after a journey of multiple lifetimes that the destination would have viable food ready for you.

Here's my plan (well, one that's been championed by a number of people, actually, but I think it sounds most viable):

First, send a ship with robots, and everything needed for basic terraforming. The robots arrive, then prepare the soil, sow the plants, create animals from frozen embryos, etc. Give them a couple hundred years to do this. Second stage, send a ship with hundreds/thousands of people in suspended animation; when they arrive, they are unfrozen, and ready to jump into the challenges of their new world.

Or, there's always option two...wait for the Great Zenob from [insert planet's name here] to offer us a free ride on his spaceship.
 
Whatever method used must be able to deal with extreme time spans, and multiple unknowns. I mean, you go out there (even if only on a robot mission) and find that the planet you headed for has no potential for colonization, so what now? For such an expedition, you need plans B, C, and D.

Another method, but a more desparate one, would be using small groups of people (a few dozen, possibly backed up by frozen embryos for genetic diversity) in suspended animation, on automatic ships just going into the blue yonder in great numbers hoping that some will strike luck. Technology for that may not be too far away (suspended animation of sufficient effectivity may be the biggest hurdle). On an Earth about to die, for whatever reason, such a scenario might be attractive, and recruits might be readily available (I see SF novel potential here, heheh).

Hans
 
MRC_Hans said:
Whatever method used must be able to deal with extreme time spans, and multiple unknowns. I mean, you go out there (even if only on a robot mission) and find that the planet you headed for has no potential for colonization, so what now? For such an expedition, you need plans B, C, and D.
Click to expand...
We could always get Sylvia Browne to predict all our problems in advance, so that we know what to do before it happens.
 
Jeff Corey said:
Not to be pedantic, but Proxima, Alpha, and Beta Centauri comprise a trinary system.
Well, upon rereading, you knew that.
(Emily Latilla voice) Never mind (/Emily Latilla voice)
Click to expand...

Not to be pedantic, but Beta Centauri is not associated with Alpha Centauri. Alpha CentauriWP is a trinary system consisting of Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and possibly Proxima Centauri. Beta CentauriWP is another star system (possibly a binary) in the same constellation as Alpha Centauri (Centaurus). I believe they are named Alpha and Beta because they are the first and second brightest stars in Centaurus respectively.
 
Taffer said:
Not to be pedantic, but Beta Centauri is not associated with Alpha Centauri. Alpha CentauriWP is a trinary system consisting of Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and possibly Proxima Centauri. Beta CentauriWP is another star system (possibly a binary) in the same constellation as Alpha Centauri (Centaurus). I believe they are named Alpha and Beta because they are the first and second brightest stars in Centaurus respectively.
Click to expand...
Right you are!

Isaac Asimov would be proud of you. He wrote a whole book to explain that ;).

Hans
 
Wolfman said:
We could always get Sylvia Browne to predict all our problems in advance, so that we know what to do before it happens.
Click to expand...
I know what you mean: SB says "go that way", so we go somewhere else.

Hans
 
Complexity said:
Yrreg, you're an obsessed and thread-disrupting jerk.

Thank you for encouraging me to look at Buddhism again - as part of the foundation for a life-embracing philosophy, it shows great promise.

Beats the hell out of Christianity or one of the other religions.

Once you scrape the superstition off of Buddhism, there's still something left - something that I think is of great value.
Click to expand...

Agreed Complexity. Buddhism without any of the superstition is worthy as a philosophy I think as well.

Anyway good idea polar, lets ask noah about space travel! Better yet lets just drop science and pray about it. ;)
 
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