261–270 of 391 posts
By the time our technology reaches the point that we could feasibly travel to and inhabit another distant planet, and with all the challenges with that (space travel, terraforming, radiation protection), couldn't we feasibly create or move a planet or gigantic space station built from materials of another planet into whatever orbit we want?
There was a paper recently that argued that the habitable zone is smaller than anticipated because either the concentration of carbon dioxide will be too high (and thus toxic at least to life on Earth) or - for small stars like this - there will be (toxic) carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. https://phys.org/news/2019-03-complex-life-require-narrow-ha... (good article with link to the paper)
And to think that there is likely an Easy Mode system out there. A habitable planet on the low end of the mass spectrum needed for a stable atmosphere with other habitable planets in-system. And all that close to another star with habitable planets, possibly in the sub-lightyear range. Basically everything ripe for a spacefaring civilization to grow without too much trouble and with plenty of motivation. The Earth is…
Is establishing a colony 12 light years away easier than transforming mars into a habitable planet?
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I read TBP and A Deepness in the Sky at the same time. Despite the "big ideas", TBP isn't even in the same league. Can't bring myself to read the second TBP book, just don't care. Did buy a Fire Upon a Deep recently, looking forward to it.
A Fire Upon the Deep is SUCH a good book. I loved it; the idea that something like the '90s net news had gone galaxy-wide was a great plot idea....
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> If we had the political will It takes more than that. We need political maturity and stability. There is no way we can send people today on a 200 years journey and be sure they will both make it and be able to create a somewhat stable society on the other side. Also, that would be a earth level effort, another thing that is seriously irrealistic right now. The very best we can achieve right now is the ISS and that'…
Would a vessel from 50 years from now beat the original crew there? If we assume we are advancing speed-wise by X% each year, the poor folks sent and likely put into cryo-stasis would get lapped by people who left 10 years or 25 years after them.
And to think that there is likely an Easy Mode system out there. A habitable planet on the low end of the mass spectrum needed for a stable atmosphere with other habitable planets in-system. And all that close to another star with habitable planets, possibly in the sub-lightyear range. Basically everything ripe for a spacefaring civilization to grow without too much trouble and with plenty of motivation. The Earth is…
Imagine an easy mode planet in a system with multiple habitable planets. Now that I've typed that I'm also considering how Mars would look from 12 light years away. Is establishing a colony 12 light years away easier than transforming mars into a habitable planet?
> The team calculates that one of the planets, called Teegarden’s star b, completed an orbit in a mere 4.9 Earth-days; the other world, Teegarden’s star c, has an orbit of just 11.4 days. I wonder how our understanding of orbital mechanics would have evolved differently had our planet orbited the Sun this fast? If the planets have long days, then they could potentially see in one night what it takes us a full year to…
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Would a vessel from 50 years from now beat the original crew there? If we assume we are advancing speed-wise by X% each year, the poor folks sent and likely put into cryo-stasis would get lapped by people who left 10 years or 25 years after them.
Imagine waking up out of your cryo-stasis and seeing humans already living on the planet you were sent to colonize? That would be weird, to say the least.
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Yes. How many people do you need in a room to be confident that one of them has the same birthday as you?
You need 253 people in the room to have > 50% probability that one will have the same birthday as you. 1 - ((365 - 1)/365)^253 = 0.5005
Not sure how that looks for the worlds population probably averages out pretty well regardless.
And to think that there is likely an Easy Mode system out there. A habitable planet on the low end of the mass spectrum needed for a stable atmosphere with other habitable planets in-system. And all that close to another star with habitable planets, possibly in the sub-lightyear range. Basically everything ripe for a spacefaring civilization to grow without too much trouble and with plenty of motivation. The Earth is…
If you’ve ever played civilization, it is a helluva lot harder to get started in Europe than in North America.