Star Trek to New Earth

[ydoaPs]

Recently an Earth-like planet was discovered in the habitable zone of a star 120 trillion miles away in the constellation Libra.

 

Let's get there. What do we need?

 

Off the top of my head:

1)Ship capable of carrying animals/plants/cargo

1a)capable of ~1g constant acceleration for the whole trip(possible Destiny-esque refuel)

1b)modular design for use as domiciles in the colony

1c)equipped with a tether for using the ship as an elevator upon reaching New Earth

2)Reusable hazmat suits

3)animal stock

4)crop stock

[Mr Skeptic]

Or more realistically:

1) Ship capable of accelerating at about 0.001g for 300 years. Probably needs fusion power

2) enough space for a crew, including procreation, and a few animals too

3) Frozen biological samples, seeds and sperm

4) absurd amounts of equipment, for mining and manufacturing, repairing/replacing ship parts, and building of greenhouses

5) greenhouses & sun lamps to grow crops

6) drop pods for landing

7) shovels for digging your own grave with when you realize that there's no water or something.

[ydoaPs]

Or more realistically:

1) Ship capable of accelerating at about 0.001g for 300 years. Probably needs fusion power

Hyped up ion engines might get us 1g. I'm thinking a dedicated fission reactor to power the plates.

 

6) drop pods for landing

I was thinking the elevator idea for this. Lower down a module at a time. This way the initial team can easily return to the ship in case something is wrong.

7) shovels for digging your own grave with when you realize that there's no water or something.

The construction equipment would probably have something similar to a backhoe. If not, a shovel could be easily MacGuyvered.

[Mr Skeptic]

Hyped up ion engines might get us 1g. I'm thinking a dedicated fission reactor to power the plates.

 

I was thinking of venting hot plasma from the fusion reactor, which I think would be hotter than the ion propulsion and the fuel lighter. The fusion reactor can be powered by a fission reactor if it is too lossy. Whereas if it provides extra power the exhaust can be accelerated further.

 

I was thinking the elevator idea for this. Lower down a module at a time. This way the initial team can easily return to the ship in case something is wrong.

 

Too heavy, potentially unreliable. A steel space elevator would weigh more than Earth, for example. Dunno about a carbon nanotube one, but we don't have the tech to build one yet.

[divagreen]

8) Duct tape, for sure. Or maybe I am just dated.

[lemur]

Or more realistically:

1) Ship capable of accelerating at about 0.001g for 300 years. Probably needs fusion power

why not 1G?

 

 

3) Frozen biological samples, seeds and sperm

Don't forget ice-cream. . . I mean if you're going to bring a freezer and frozen stuff anyway.

 

 

4) absurd amounts of equipment, for mining and manufacturing, repairing/replacing ship parts, and building of greenhouses

5) greenhouses & sun lamps to grow crops

Or just plans for building a foundry using animal and human labor to initially harvest wood or other organic fuel.

 

6) drop pods for landing

7) shovels for digging your own grave with when you realize that there's no water or something.

Couldn't you just include enough fuel to turn around and go back if the planet turned out to be inhospitable? If the ship had a sustainable system for recycling water and nutrients, it could be a perpetual moving space-station provided you could tank up on hydrogen here and there. Of course, I don't know to what extent the ship itself could degrade through time.

 

 

 

[Sisyphus]

why not 1G?

 

Because 1G is a huge amount of acceleration to maintain for any extended amount of time.

[iNow]

1a)capable of ~1g constant acceleration for the whole trip

Don't forget to include the time needed to slow down. If you accelerate and nothing more, you will zoom right past. Slowing down will take some time, as well.

 

Oh yeah... and don't forget to ensure Inara Serra is on board, either.

[john5746]

7) shovels for digging your own grave with when you realize that there's no water or something.

 

Also include some red suits to go along with the shovels.

[Moontanman]

Why would we assume the planet is habitable to begin with ? Being the correct distance from it's star does not a habitable planet make....

[Leader Bee]

Why would we assume the planet is habitable to begin with ? Being the correct distance from it's star does not a habitable planet make....

 

Because it could be infested with those snake head Goa'ulds?

[ydoaPs]

Because it could be infested with those snake head Goa'ulds?

If we get Thor to drop us off, couldn't he get rid of the Goa'uld on the planet? We'd just have to make sure his ship wasn't carrying any replicators.

[Leader Bee]

I find the replicators quite agreeable when you look at their motivation. "assimilation of the best technology for the betterment of their race and to propogate their kind throughout the galaxy" whats so bad about that? Quite admirable in my opinion.

[Mr Skeptic]

Due to the configuration of this particular planet, with a constant day and night and a thicker atmosphere, wind power would be the ideal choice for it. You'll have on the ground prevailing winds towards the day side, which will be denser due to the dense atmosphere (also denser because they will be cold). Anyhow, I think if a wind farm is set up there then the colony won't need any other power source and would have plentiful electricity.

[CaptainPanic]

1) Big (bigger = better) ship

1a) Energy is the key to velocity, but also to life on board of the ship. While somewhere in between the stars, there is no solar power, and plants only grow with artificial light. So, acceleration doesn't matter as long as you can keep the crew alive.

1b) Modular design = excellent idea. Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy. Every individual module can actually land itself somewhere. Also much easier for construction, maintenance and unavoidable and essential political unrest on board of the ship. (*)

1c) Why use a tether if the whole ship will land itself (because every module can land)?

2) Find a few die hard plant species and microorganisms to do a little terraforming. Send those ahead to the planet, so that the local flora and fauna is already dying and being replaced by earth-life when the colonists arrive.

2a) Multiple Noah's Arc modules on the ship (not just 2 of each animal and plant, but several on each module, and multiple modules. In other words: Redundancy, redundancy, redundancy)

3) Pre-built main heavy industry (smelters, metal works), including necessary back up systems and redundancy.

4) Very, very, very large database with all the earth's information. A single request for information may take multiple generations before you get an answer back from earth. With a back up

5) Always bring a towel. And another one.

 

(*) In good earth custom, it's nice to have several political factions on board the ship, with the option to completely split the ship in two or more ships... then there is something to fight a war for on arrival. And the best motivation to make progress for mankind is war... so war is vital for the start of a new colony. [/sarcasm]

Edited October 4, 2010 by CaptainPanic

[Leader Bee]

 

2) Find a few die hard plant species and microorganisms to do a little terraforming. Send those ahead to the planet, so that the local flora and fauna is already dying and being replaced by earth-life when the colonists arrive.

 

Captain, while I realise this question may be better suited to the Ethics sub forum i'm not sure it's worth creating a whole new thread about one point; But if there is already an established ecosystem on the planet do we really have a right to go uprooting it and supplanting our own? I would wholly be for seeding our own ecosystem if this was a planet currently devoid of life, but destroying something that is already there for our own purpose seems a little irresponsible to me.

Edited October 4, 2010 by Leader Bee

[CaptainPanic]

Captain, while I realise this question may be better suited to the Ethics sub forum i'm not sure it's worth creating a whole new thread about one point; But if there is already an established ecosystem on the planet do we really have a right to go uprooting it and supplanting our own? I would wholly be for seeding our own ecosystem if this was a planet currently devoid of life, but destroying something that is already there for our own purpose seems a little irresponsible to me.

I am just anticipating standard procedures... with a little added sarcasm from my side.

 

Of course, local ecosystems should be preserved, and studied (imagine how much we could learn!). But humanity has shown a remarkable ability to - pardon my language - fuck it up. In addition, life as found here on earth is incredibly contageous, and will infect the new planet anyway. Humans themselves carry hundreds of other life forms. We also intend to grow and eat another multitude of life forms, which each depend on again other life forms (ranging from gut bacteria to bees and fungus).

If we would want to completely isolate ourselves from the new ecosystem in order to make sure we don't infect it, we don't need to travel that far. Mars would be far enough.

 

All I suggested was that, if we are going to make a mess of it anyway, we might as well do it while we haven't even arrived yet. Perhaps not very ethical, but certainly pragmatic.