What about this story? Did these 'scientists' looked too much Star Trek or did they just drink one glass too many...?:bugeye: American Association for the Advancement of Science, Boston, February 2002 Star trek criteria Interstellar travellers should be "motivated, tolerant and nice". 18 February 2002 HELEN PEARSON Star trekking: space voyagers should be one big family. © Startrek.com One hundred and sixty fertile, motivated, English speakers could make it to distant stars, researchers have worked out. But generations down the line, returning voyagers may speak an alien tongue. Travel to planets orbiting other stars will soon be technically possible, the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences in Boston heard last week. But the 200-year odyssey will require a certain kind of crew. Sci-fi teams of frozen humans and cyborgs "didn't seem likely to make it", anthropologist John Moore of the University of Florida in Gainsville told the meeting. Families, he reckons, are a better basis for long-term travel. Moore has worked out the smallest group that could maintain a crew over 8-10 generations. Each person must have a choice of ten possible partners, his population simulation calculates. If women had children late in life, the crew could drop to 80. Language of intergalactic love Prospective couples should woo in English, said linguist Sarah Thomason of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Global politics would probably dictate a multinational mix, but the current international language is the most obvious choice for conversation. But if the journey takes 500 years, home and ship "won't be able to talk to each other", Thomason predicts. Down-to-Earth words like 'horse' and 'truck' would have no meaning on board, and the slang of interstellar adolescents would diverge from Earth-speak. The crew would have to be beamed language lessons, Thomason said. Temperament is also critical. "You want motivated, tolerant, nice people," said Moore. This should ensure future generations don't lose interest in the mission and head for the nearest hospitable asteroid belt. Whether the band would actually get on would be more a matter of luck, the researchers conceded. The exercise is not science fiction, explained space scientist Geoffrey Landis of the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland. Several ways to reach other solar systems have been proposed in recent years. These include using a laser beam projected from Earth to push a vast space sail. Such a ship might travel at 30,000 kilometres per second - around a tenth of light speed. "There's actually been some testing done," revealed Landis: "Ultimately, this is going to happen." No one is taking crew applications yet, however. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002 A nice story...not realisable in my opinion though...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
They are allowed to dream....right??? May be we can get a few problems solved like genetic manipulation to code data to DNA for instant learning...growing food in a confined space like a molecular replicator...waste management...Prozac plant...etc...
I will buy a few Viagra plants....Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! That reminds me, if a competitor wants to destroy the sale of Viagra pills, they could genetically alter Cilantro, Dill or some simple seed based plant that we normally eat....think of the possibilities....
Non-sequitur. There is little requirement for a multi-generational interstellar craft. In the time it would take for such a craft to reach its very distant destination, technology back home would predictably have advanced to such a degree that a much faster craft would have been constructed, sent, and already arrived at the same destination long before the multi-generation craft. Boy, would all those MG craft folks be really p'ssed at having been denied a comfortable life on the HomeWorld just so a bunch of folks long ago could feel like they were actually accelerating Homo Sapien Sapien's manifest destiny. Then again, the faster craft could rendevous with the slower one enroute. Either way, multi-generational interstellar craft are not a terribly logical idea for science & technology-based civilizations.
I think we should nix that idea so that people do not waste the money and time....trying to build a generational ship. For a short time duration craft like 1 to 2 years - it may be acceptable, but not a whole generation.
Of course, generalities are never really true. Fleets of multi-generation spaceships are a very, very good idea in matters where the sun is evolving to Red Giant or a dangerously high-velocity or massive object is on a collison course with Earth. I think the appropriate phrase is "proper motivation". Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
So, should all such spacecraft escaping complete global catastrophy together set off toward the same destination?
You mean like Battlestar Galactica (they keep threatening to remake it)....settling like those tribes spread out the universe...Good Idea.
