What's so special about Earth?

Ken Fabian said:
Actually I think that any future humanity that is technologically capable of reaching other stars (something I think extremely unlikely) will have no real need to colonize planets and will prefer space habitats, where conditions can be made just right; wanting land to own and remake into colonial farmsteads will look like very primitive urges. To me it already sounds self indulgent and irresponsible; I expect preventing terrestrial biology getting loose and ruining what may be the most valuable thing about another world - the alien biology and biochemistry - seems more likely than commitment to terrarizing the place. Although arguably finding a world with only very simple and limited life could revive those ancient urges to migrate and conquer (terraform) and colonize.
Click to expand...
Now that I think about it, you make very good points.

Planets are messy.
Planets with pre-existing life doubly so.
Planets are also way down at the bottom of a gravity well.
By the time we're seriously space-faring, making habitats will be routine.
In fact, space-farers - who may have spent most of their lives in spaceships to get anywhere, will surely prefer indoor habs. I've read stories where spacefarers have agoraphobia - the fear of that huge open sky, with nothing holding the air in.
 
DaveC426913 said:
You can't afford to waste anything on a long journey like this.
Click to expand...
That's assuming there are no opportunities to exploit resources along the way. But in any case, I don't think humans are ready for soylent green. That's why it's important to leave the humans in stasis or freeze-dried, for most of the journey, while machines run the ship.
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
This all assumes that FTL will not be thing.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. One relevant question is: "How much faster than light?" There may be other limiting factors beyond light and also regarding structural issues, the viability of human cargo, etc. Another, and equally important question is "How far is the closest habitable planet? There are some possible candidates not too far away, as well as many scattered about the galaxy but we don't know enough about them to choose one and aim for it.
 
FTL ain't a thing
suspended animation ain't a thing
If you would set off on an interstellar journey to a new home world
this ain't a decision you are making for you
it's a decision you are making for your children's children's children
who
when the spaceship arrives will not be earthlings
 
sculptor said:
FTL ain't a thing
suspended animation ain't a thing
If you would set off on an interstellar journey to a new home world
this ain't a decision you are making for you
it's a decision you are making for your children's children's children
who
when the spaceship arrives will not be earthlings
Click to expand...
Speaking from experience?
 
Gawdzilla Sama said:
"I told Orville, I told Wilbur, and now I'm tellin' YOU, that thing will never fly."
Click to expand...

Last time I encountered you using that line I suggested it is an example of survivorship bias. It's glib, expressing your great optimism and is kinda amusing but compared to achieving powered flight at a time when modest improvements of existing technologies was enough to get it to fly getting FTL, suspended animation, generation ships to fly is a orders of magnitude harder.

As a not-thing, they won't fly. They are so far short of being a thing that it is effectively pure fantasy. When space habitats are doing fine with enclosed life support systems and compact and versatile fusion energy are things then pushing them towards another star then maybe generation ships could be a thing. I doubt any deep, determined commitment to building ocean crossing jet aircraft by the Wrights would've changed anything - a step at a time, without getting too far ahead of ourselves.
 
DaveC426913 said:
New evidence is suggesting a large amount of water is to be found around 20km depth on Mars.
Click to expand...
And the furthest we've drilled on Earth is 12km... so that augurs well! ;)
Maybe drilling will be easier on Mars.

DaveC426913 said:
The chances of finding a planet that has a breathable atmosphere are slim (we would likely find a domed-habitable planet long before finding an open-air habitable planet). Especially since, for it to have a breathable atmo, it would probably have to be populated by alien vegetation - which means we're still stuck in spacesuits to protect us from alien pathogens.
Click to expand...
Who are we to decide how future colonisers are prepared to live!
Given that we're talking a fair distance into the future here, we're getting better at discerning the atmosphere of exoplanets. All one needs is a 20% oxygen and the rest inert gases and you're good to go! ;) Sure, there's the whole pressure thing, and that pesky chance of microscopic lifeform (that keeps doing in those serial Martian invaders on Earth! Thankfully they never learn!). Not to mention the chance of any number of things that they'd only discover en route.

And we do have a domed-habitable planet on our doorstep: Mars. It's not great, but it'd be a great place to test and refine such colonisation techniques.


As for what's so special about earth... the colours. A new planet might have a different class of sun throwing out different wavelenths, giving everything a different hue etc. The atmosphere may scatter light differently, giving the sky a non-blue colour. Life may also develop differently such that plants don't use chlorophyll but a different process, and green becomes absent and replaced by red, for example. So, yeah. Colours.
 
Sarkus said:
All one needs is a 20% oxygen and the rest inert gases and you're good to go!
Click to expand...
The problem there is that oxygen planets don't grow on trees. Oxygen is highly reactive and is normally locked up in oxides.

As far as we know, the only way to get an oxygen atmosphere is to have life using sunlight to liberate oxygen. Earth did not have an oxygen atmosphere until the blue green algae "poisoned" the planet by liberating so much oxygen that they practically wiped themselves out.

So our choices are: a planet with no oxygen or a planet with alien life. Either way you end up in a suit.

So
 
DaveC426913 said:
The problem there is that oxygen planets don't grow on trees. Oxygen is highly reactive and is normally locked up in oxides.

As far as we know, the only way to get an oxygen atmosphere is to have life using sunlight to liberate oxygen. Earth did not have an oxygen atmosphere until the blue green algae "poisoned" the planet by liberating so much oxygen that they practically wiped themselves out.

So our choices are: a planet with no oxygen or a planet with alien life. Either way you end up in a suit.

So
Click to expand...
There are other alternatives, such as vaccines, antibiotics, or other medical means of mitigation. Noone says it'll be a cakewalk, and heck, we're talking about a generation ship so a hard life is surely to be expected. Absent FTL I see a generation ship as a given, eventually. There will be those willing, and they'll do so with an understanding of the hardships that await their ancestors.

And then you have engine tech improving that will get ships up to a worthwhile fraction of 'c', so as to take account of time dilation. Trips that might have taken thousands of years crawling along might only take a hundred of on-board time.

There are countless reasons not to try, of course, but fortunately it only takes one group to both want to and have the means to. And good luck to them. :)
 
DaveC426913 said:
As long as were saying future technology ain't a thing, then interstellar journies ain't a thing.
Click to expand...
Future technology ain't a thing---------now

It seems most likely that "we" have the technology and engineering skills to build a nuclear powered interstellar space ship
but it ain't gonna be cheap

assessing "what it's worth" will most likely leave us to fall back on faith??
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top