I’m in self-isolation, so I decided
to finish off some draft posts that have neglected. Over the years I have read stories
and articles and watched some videos about interstellar travel and
colonization. I have some of my own ideas about how this might happen. Maybe I
can use it as background for a story.
Most of the stories,
articles and videos I've seen that seem realistic imagine a big ship full of
colonist, either awake or in suspended animation. I think it would likely
happen in a different way.
I believe any real colonization
effort would be done in a series of stages.
Path Finder Probes
It seems that obvious to me
that before sending a colonization mission you would start with path finder
probes. The object of these probes would be to reconnoiter the space between
the sun and the destination star. There could be many dangers and opportunities
that lie in the space in between.
The nearest star, Proxima
Centari, is about 4 light years from Earth. The sun's Oort cloud is estimated
to extend for 2 light years. If the same is true of Proxima Centari, then the
whole distance between the two stars would be occupied by Oort cloud objects.
In addition, there may be rouge planets, brown dwarfs and maybe other exotic
objects passing through.
If you want to send a
colonization probe to Proxima Centari, you will want to know more the objects
along the route. These objects could be dangerous. A probe flying at 20% the
speed of light that hit one would be destroyed. On the other hand, larger
objects could be used for gravitational adjustments to the speed and direction
of the probes on their way to the other star.
Reconnaissance Probes
If the path finder probes
survive the trip, they could be used as reconnaissance probes at the other
star. Otherwise, specialized probes could be developed and sent after the
pathfinder probes.
The goal of these probes
would be to investigate the planets around the other star. Could these planets
be colonized? What would be needed to make them succeed? What other challenges
might they face?
Colonization Probe
I think that a colonization
probe is that it would be totally robotic. But, it would be able to use genetic
engineering to create new life - plants, animals, humans and whatever else is
needed for colonization.
I thought this was an original
idea, but as I was preparing this post, I saw a video by John Michael Godier
that proposes a very similar idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_51T8bbT-g
The colonization probe would
prepare the planet for the colony. This might include some modification to the planet
but may also involve modifying plants animals and humans to survive on the
planet. It might also be possible to "e-mail" individual genetic codes,
so individuals could be recreated on the colony.
It may be possible to
recreate the memories of individuals as well. Otherwise, I imagine the probe
could create robotic parents to raise the new colonists. This would provide the
new colonists with the emotional environment they will need before they the
time comes to take over from the robotic parents.
Story Ideas
So far, I haven’t come up
with much in the way of story ideas. I'd like to do a story about the path
finder probes, although I think it would be difficult for most readers to
identify with a robotic space probe.
One idea I came up with
would be about the first generation of colonists being raised by the robotic
parents. As they would want to seem to be normal people, the children would not
at first realize the reality of the situation. A story could be developed about
how they would learn the secret of their existence.
At the moment I haven’t
found much inspiration from this idea. Maybe something will pop into my head
some day that will get me going. Before I start any story, I feel the backstory
of how interstellar colonization would work needs to be developed far beyond
what I have so far.
This post is a mirror from my main blog http://www.dynamiclethargyfilms.ca/blog
