Quote:
Originally Posted by Jetlack
Not to be too awkward but i dont understand how you can make a million year plan that will not be wildly out of date within 500 years. I would suggest that any interstellar craft we are capable of making in the next few thousand years will be made redundant by newer technology a few thousands later.
We need to at least get to a technological level where developing a "comfortable" interstellar probe is not a serious challenge. Either the system for propulsion has to be able to reach 80% of c, or the highest threshold speed where mass does not become a major problem which i think is around the mass doubling at 87%? Or if we cannot develop such propulsion system then we need to be able to build a very habitable craft which can carry generations of humans on long jouneys with a very high degree of safety and self-dependence.
|
You should think of the million year "deadline" as a target for a more modern system to beat. The system described can reach above 0.9 c and give us access to resources far beyond the limited supply available here in the solar system. I believe that a system powered by power beams formed near a star is the only feasible way to go interstellar, and through continuous improvements to the basic concept will lead us (via our progeny) to a type VI civilization. I will be overjoyed to learn about a better system defined at an equivalent level.
If you're thinking in terms of wormhole and space folding exploitation, navigation and obstacle avoidance will be an overwhelming problem. Fission, fusion, and matter/anti-matter processes will likely require more mass than they produce energy to propel and still dodge the obstacles that clutter the paths between stars.
Try to evaluate the system, setting aside how much better future systems designed by smarter critters than I, will be as to whether it will support our evolution into a type VI civilization.