Considerations For Generation Ship Proposals
Such a ship would have to be large, and the only adequate technology likely to be available (even assuming the most favorable economic and political factors) soon enough to make plans is the Orion concept of propulsion by nuclear pulses. The largest spacecraft design analyzed in the Orion project had a 400 m diameter and weighed approximately 8 million tons. It could be large enough to host a city of 100,000 or more people.
The purely engineering issues concern building, in space, a physically self-sufficient craft. Another concern is selection of power sources and mechanisms which would remain viable for the long time spans involved in interstellar travel through the desert of space. The longest lived space probes are the Voyager program probes, which use radioisotope thermoelectric generators having a lifespan of a mere 50 years.
In light of the multiple generations that it could take to reach even our nearest neighboring star systems such as Proxima Centauri, further issues of the viability of such interstellar arks include:
- the possibility of humans dramatically evolving in directions unacceptable to the sponsors
- the minimum population required to maintain in isolation a culture acceptable to the sponsors; this could include such aspects as
- ability to maintain and operate the ship
- ability to accomplish the purpose (planetary colonization, research, building new interstellar arks) contemplated
- sharing the values of the sponsors (which are not likely to be empirically demonstrated to be viable beyond the home planet).
Read more about this topic: Interstellar Ark
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