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* There is a good chance of finding one or two Earth-like
planets within 12 light-years of the solar system.
* Sagan: There may be one
million technological civilizations in the galaxy at any time, having an average
lifetime of 10 millions years. Separations between such civilizations would still be several hundred light-years on average.
* An increase of one million in propulsional energy could be expected from
, enough to put the nearer stars within reach... We can built a "suitable" spaceship
by assuming that Einstein was wrong : Faster-than-light H fusion technologytravel
is possible and the properties of space itself are not yet fully known.
* Before colonisation: One successful star flight, with a
manned "eyeballing" of the colony planet at least from close orbit. Provide a return capability, i.e. the crew signal Earth
to launch the colony starship, and put themselves into suspended animation, await its arrival (for Alpha Centauri, the minimun
time for the signal to reach Earth & the second ship to come out would be 8.4 years)... In the long term, the colonists
will become adapted to the conditions of gravity, sunlight and atmosphere on the planet... On the 5th or 6th generation the
colonists would be pure-bred, down to spontaneous mutation level, but at that time the group would be small. The minimum
starting group would be 100 people, 50 couples all under 30 years old...
* For landing, winged vehicles. The initial landing
area selected from orbit. A large island with sea farming (access to the sea). A coastal site is less subject to extremes
on climaate, to which the colony would be most vulnerable in the early days... A peninsula might make a better site: The region
has a mountain range inland (rich in minerals!)... Larger starships: Carrying 3 or 4 thousand people, later in the
colonisation programme; propulsion system still unknown... The colony group is bound to take losses (e.g. climate hazards
& dangerous surface conditions, local bacteria and viruses)... After landing, their storable plugh-nozzle ships will allow
the landing party to regain orbit and try again if things went badly wrong... Must identify and eliminate harmful genes, otherwise
in a century or so the colony would be wiped out or crippled by genetic breakdown...
* Take into account: Gravity, atmosphere, distance from the sun and ecology of the colony-to-be...
Evolution might follow a different path from ours, producing life-forms with little resemblance to those we know...
* By the end of the 21st Century there should be starships capable of taking 1000 people at one time, faster than light, to the planets
of other stars... Even with near-light speed travel, a ship cannot get to Alpha Centauri & back in less than 10
years... Approaching the planet the ship would enter polar orbit, allowing the planet’s gravitational field to do most
of the work of positioning it, so that it would pass over every spot on the planet during each day. At first, the orbit would
be elliptical; after mapping, the ship would descend into a more circular orbit and send unmanned probes down... The evaluation
tasks would involve metereology, geology, archaelogy & biology. Agronomists, technicians, engineers, survival experts,
military personnel, medical personnel, psychologists, communication experts and astronomers will all be needed... The team
should be on the planet for at least 2 seasonal years before the spaceship goes home to clear the launching of wave-one colony
planet... Check the ecological interaction of plants and animals.... Cargo to be landed would consist mainly of farming
gear and equipment; live stock would be carried entirely in embryo... Between year 7 and year 12 after the survey team, the
second wave will arrive. Mainly engineers and miners, with cargo to start the colony’s future industries from scratch...
* The colonisation programme: After five years, cultivated
land will be a premium, as will labour, there would be a tendency towards a feudal society... By the time the 3rd wave
is settled in, the colony objects may no longer be defined with respect to Earth’s needs. .. After the colonies are
established we can expect a steady flow of shipping to develop, exchanging food for people & materials for advanced industrial
techniques and products... After perhaps 300 years, there might be as many as 1000 colonised planets, and contact
with some other intelligence will seem inevitable...
* If contact with other intelligence:
No aggressive moves; just observation and allowed ourselves to be observed. After contact, hand in a recorded package of our
interstellar broadcast (mathematical symbols, chemical elements, description of the physical universe, etc.)... If peaceful
contact: Based on trust, exchange of info & transfer of cultural concepts & ambassadors... Future integration or federation
(?)
* The Atacama Desert: Driest place on Earth--->Scientists
are testing the technology (e.g. robotic rovers) they hope one day be used on a world like Mars... Several teams developing
schemes to detect life on other planets, with the backing of NASA (NASA Ames Research Centre/Seti Institute) & the Carnegie
Mellon Robotics Institute...
They are looking for 4 of the chemical building blocks of life: DNA, proteins, lipids (i.e.
molecules of cell walls), and carbohydrates. The robotic rovers use 4 fluorescent dyes, which attach to DNA, proteins... The
dyes that have found their targets fluorescence. Even in the inland desert, the rovers have picked up signals of life...
It’s believed that within 10 years this kind of technology will be used in an actual mission
to a planet. However, conditions on other planets are so extreme that any life may be extremely well hidden: On Mars,
little atmosphere, freezing temperatures, ultraviolet sun radiation; on Europa, Jupiter’s moon, ocean beneath
a kilometres-trick ice sheet, etc...
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