Interstellar Colonization Ideas

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