Plan an Interstellar Mission!

[andrewas]

I can see the pros of the O'Neil type solar system colonization, but it (seems) nearly impossible with currently technology, not to mention the current state of government run space programs. How could it be done?

In small steps. We colonize the solar system, and in the process of moving millions of tons of material around, and putting an atmosphere on Mars, and cooling Venus, and whatever else we get up to, we incidentally develop the infrastructure and technology that makes interstellar travel feasible enough to start working on. Maybe we learn to build something like an Alcubierre drive, more likely we perfect fusion or antimatter rockets, or we learn to build self-sustaining habitats that can endure long enough to allow us to reach nearby stars without getting to relativistic speeds. Maybe we just expand into the Oort Cloud until one day we build a colony in the Oort Cloud of Alpha Centauri instead of Sol. Maybe we get really ambitious and build a shkadov thruster and seed other systems as we pass close to them.

Who knows? We are nowhere near the tech level needed to seriously consider interstellar travel, but we could start moving into space as soon as someone with the resources decides that its worth doing despite the return on investment being generations away.

[Rune]

In small steps. We colonize the solar system, and in the process of moving millions of tons of material around, and putting an atmosphere on Mars, and cooling Venus, and whatever else we get up to, we incidentally develop the infrastructure and technology that makes interstellar travel feasible enough to start working on. Maybe we learn to build something like an Alcubierre drive, more likely we perfect fusion or antimatter rockets, or we learn to build self-sustaining habitats that can endure long enough to allow us to reach nearby stars without getting to relativistic speeds. Maybe we just expand into the Oort Cloud until one day we build a colony in the Oort Cloud of Alpha Centauri instead of Sol. Maybe we get really ambitious and build a shkadov thruster and seed other systems as we pass close to them.

Who knows? We are nowhere near the tech level needed to seriously consider interstellar travel, but we could start moving into space as soon as someone with the resources decides that its worth doing despite the return on investment being generations away.

Again, I don't think the required tech level is that high, or that we should invest teh thousands of years terraforming even Mars would take (never mind Venus, a much taller problem), but yeah, I concurr with the general spirit: what you need is the humongous economy that expanding around the solar system would create. It might be something absurd like 50% of the world's current GDP to build a starship now, but if the solar system's GDP is a thousand times that, the project becomes pocket change.

I think it could only done with a motivator like an end-of-the-world scenario, and even then with difficulty. You'd need some sort of incentive to get people invested in it even though most of them will never actually fly interstellar. Perhaps the craft would carry millions of frozen embryos donated by the public, so everyone would be involved because it would literally be their childrens' futures.

Thanks for all the great replies in this guys. Been great reading them all!

While an end-of-the-world type scenario would surely speed things along, I'd much rather contemplate how to do it without slaughtering the human population on Earth. Besides, despite the crazy leaders now and then, and our collective efforts to destroy our ecosystem inorder to have a fancier car, the probability that we manange to completely wipe ourselves out (or be wiped out by external influences) is pretty unlikely in my opinion. The human race could probably even suffer a serious nuclear war between all major superpowers, and something would survive.

I can now see why you are opposed to interstellar travel only for the purpose of colonizing planets. I can see the pros of the O'Neil type solar system colonization, but it (seems) nearly impossible with currently technology, not to mention the current state of government run space programs. How could it be done?

Well, that's a good question. Probably in small increments. Like, we start by doing some science on captured asteroids. Then someone figures out how to do some volatile processing on them and starts refueling sats from space-based resources govermet agencies left close by. Then that business takes off, and someone uses the rocky remnants to build solar panels, and that gets introduced in the satellite servicing system. Maybe the space solar power thing is more viable after doing all of that technology development, and can start replacing terrestrial sources of energy. Before you know it, there's a business up there that supports itself and that could use some human labour based nearby. That's when the first small habitats for humans to work and live in start to get built, probably copying space hotel designs at first where rich guys go to burn small fortunes.

Won't happen tomorrow, or in a single lifetime probably, but the road there will be paved by small, seemingly insignificant steps. And then one day you will look back and say things like: "wow, there is a lot of people flying up and down all the time". And "we are processing a significant amount of asteroidal mass every year". Short of like now you can say "wow, there are a lot of satellites flying around up there". When did we start seriously filling our skies with satellites? Because we have thousands of the suckers right now, and the business is something like 70 billion annually.

As to the technology, again, it's 60's to 70's stuff, with some 21st century electronics thrown in for control. Semiconductor technology, nuclear technology, some hydraulics and plumbing as usual and a lot of thermodynamic analysis. Those are the main technologies involved. A lot of specific processes to be adapted to microgravity conditions, sure, but me, I see vaccuum and microgravity as valuable industrial resources once the difficulties are mastered. More than technology, what we need is experience in applying our existing technology to the space environment. That takes time, and engineers working outside the public's view in how to earn more money for their bosses.

Rune. Economics is a powerful force for change, but quite easy to miss the pace of said change if you focus on a narrow time increment and lack sufficient perspective.

[Beowolf]

...there aren't really any doomsday scenarios that can be solved by an interstellar mission and not by making space colonies...

Wanna bet?

Variable Star, by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson

[Spaceception]

I'm reviving this thread!

Project Nimrod:

How would you design such a (Interstellar) mission?

Getting together several hundred Physicists, Astronomers, Biologists, Chemists, Mathematicians, Computer scientists, Nuclear engineers/Physicists, Aerospace engineers, Aeronautical engineers, Mechanical engineers, and Electrical engineers, to figure out how long/hard it'd be, them implementing it.

Where would you go?

Wolf 1061 c, a potentially habitable exoplanet 13.8 ly away

How big would the crew be?

1,000 people between the ages of 25-29

How do you solve the problem of ridiculous journey times (without using Interstellar's wormhole macguffin)?

MEDUSA: 13% speed of light, ~90 year trip

Would it even be possible?

Yes

Would the world get behind such a mission or ignore it?

It's that or die.

Edited January 19, 2016 by Spaceception