Generation Ship Vs Better Tech?

[Taylirious]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship

I always wondered if it was worth trying vs waiting for better tech?

Technological progress

If a generation ship is sent to a star system 20 light years away and is expected to reach its destination in 200 years, a better ship may be later developed that can reach it in 50 years. Thus, the first generation ship may find a century-old human colony after its arrival at its destination.

I don't think we are close to either at this point but someone smarter might be able to put a timetable on it.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I think it's pretty impossible to make a timetable since it's impossible to predict the technological progress. No matter how long we wait we might just make the major technological breakthrough the year after launch.

 

[Taylirious]

Is it?

ETA: Scientists & any professional know where they are and where they are going.

 

[Mary Ann]

Even if the tech was in place I can't see this kind of thing being pulled off without a mutiny happening at some point, probably sooner than later. Forced medication to keep everyone submissive and artificially happy wouldn't work in the long run, either. IMO a generation ship would only be a good idea if the earth really was coming to an end and there was absolutely no other alternative for the survivors.

 

[{ Emilia }]

Is it?

ETA: Scientists & any professional know where they are and where they are going.

Scientists have been telling us "We're about 20 years away from working fusion power" for about 60 years.
Predictions don't work. So there's that.

I don't really share macloudt's mutiny concern, though. I think humans can be bizarrely disciplined at times. It's possible, though.

 

[Mary Ann]

Regarding the dangers of mutiny I think it depends on the situation behind the generation ship. Again, if there's an end-of-the-world scenario and it's hit-or-miss as to who gets a place on the ship there would be more of a danger. However if the entire process is fully planned and the ship's crew and passengers are hand-picked and fully vetted the risks would be reduced. There's still the danger that some people would snap, though, and just because the original crew and passengers have the right mindsets and temperament does not mean that the next and other subsequent generations would. That, I think, is where the main danger regarding mutiny would lie.

 

[{ Emilia }]

I was assuming we were talking about a planned journey and not some doomsday scenario. You raise an interesting point regarding the second generation. I can't even speculate what their mindset would be. Being born on the spaceship, not even knowing Earth which would cause kind of a disconnect between them and the mission.

 

[JES]

I think that traveling at relativist speeds, depending on how close or distant the destination is, might mean the the original crew and colonists might possibly live long enough to make it to their new home, and groom the children that they have on board for life as the colonists.

Though there is always the possibility that by the time that they reach their destination, that Earth will have already invented FTL travel, especially as time passes faster outside the ship, and that their destination already has a colony.

There is the possibility as well that the second generation will be unwilling colonists, creating friction between their parents, as well as antipathy towards the rest of the original crew.

Even if we did have nuclear fusion, the ability to grow food, recycle water, and generate artificial gravity to prevent bones from weakening, there is still the concern of background radiation.
They'd need some form of navigational deflector, otherwise an unexpected solar flare or freak meteor storm could cause the mission to end horribly.
Out in deep space with that sort of technology, if something goes wrong and damages the ship or kills the command crew, there is no one to help you.

We might one day have to consider this, even if they are only colonies to Mars, as our population becomes denser.

 

[sojourner]

They'd need some form of navigational deflector, otherwise an unexpected solar flare or freak meteor storm could cause the mission to end horribly.
Out in deep space with that sort of technology, if something goes wrong and damages the ship or kills the command crew, there is no one to help you.

We might one day have to consider this, even if they are only colonies to Mars, as our population becomes denser.

These are not issues to worry about outside of a solar system. Space is BIG.

 

[JES]

Well, glad to stand corrected.

I'd imagine that a stray gamma ray burst might be of concern, but then again, I'm not even sure that 23rd century Starfleet vessels could handle that sort of hazard anyways, and as I'm sure you would say: the chances of getting fried by a gamma ray burst is infinitesimal.

I'd be more worried about staying away from the radiation belts of gas giants, and leaving the Sol System would probably be the dangerous part (that and arriving at a new star system).

 

[publiusr]

Well, the faster one goes, the more threat from dust strikes.

One of my favorite websites is nextbigfuture.com, and one of the better posters there a debunker by the name of Goat Guy. He once explained the hazards of dust strikes here: http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/08/icarus-interstellar-has-x-physics.html

Now the good thing about a generation ship is that it can simply become a moving base for faster ships that catch up with it over time.

They can have their own problems
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/10/laser-ion-propelled-interstellar.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/10/solar-powered-lasers-for-magnesium.html
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/10/brute-force-terraforming-of-mars-moons.html

Oxygen got a bit easier to store
http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/10/crystal-grains-can-absorb-oxygen-from.html

Generation ships work best by being very large and slow. Lots of resources--lots of room, better psychology etc.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't think mutiny would be a concern in a situation where everybody depends on each other for the basics of survival.

At least, not unless there was a disruption in the food supply.

 

[E-DUB]

Develop cryonic suspension. Less need for a closed life support system. Still the risk of being passed by later, faster ships. Recently reread Allen Steele's "Coyote". He has a ship launched that makes the trip in 240ish years. A later ship, moving much faster, arrives 4 years after the first but is from over a hundred years in their future.

 

[Metryq]

Then there's A. E. van Vogt's "Far Centaurus" about a sleeper ship that is passed by superluminal ships. The crew of the sleeper ship arrive centuries after their destination is already fully settled.

 

[JES]

Oh, so a book about a generational ship spending many years to reach her destination, only to find their destination has already been colonized, has already been done.

Yeah, slower-than-light travel sucks.

 

[TeknoNurd]

I think tech for a generational ship would have to improve greatly. We haven't even had anywhere near success creating a close system here on earth for even as long as a year.

 

[Ithekro]

Star Trek lore use to have something like that. A few sublight ships make their way to the nearest star systems to Earth (Alpha Centauri and Barnard's Star). One of them (Enterprise) makes it to Alpha Centauri before the invention of the warp drive. The ship heading to Barnard's Star gets there slightly after the first warp ship arrives. All others make it to their destinations years after warp probes arrive.

This was of course in the (fandom) days before Earth has a major war just prior to the invention of warp drive and first contact with the Vulcans. This was from the era were the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s were basically the last major wars and Earth then has a major space program going on in the 21st century leading to an Earth ship arriving at Alpha Centauri (where Cochrane lived) before warp drive was invented (Cochane has the theory, but Earth has the resources to make it work), and then after the warp drive was invented by a combined Earth-Centaurian effort, they encounter the Vulcans, Andorian Empire, and Tellarites.

 

[sojourner]

^That's from The Spaceflight Chronology.

 

[HIjol]

Wow! Do you all realize that you are writing the Treatment and Outline for the next Star Trek show with your posts? I have read over the months in Thread after Thread how people are interested in something different. Here it is!

Trying to think of a name for it.

"The Generation after Next"

"Two Generations, One Mission"

"Next"

 

[T'Girl]

Can't recall the title, but once read a novel with a sleeper ship leaving and a FTL engine being created short after. The was a agreement that the planet the sleeper ship was heading toward would be placed off limits, reserved for their exclusive use.

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