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Old August 16th 03, 02:47 AM
william mook
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Default Malthusian Theory and Travel Beyond Earth Orbit

"Kent Betts" wrote in message ...
"william mook"

(7) Interstellar travel

As momenta increases, and the network of laser light driven highways
extend from star to star


Looking at it from a more generalized viewpoint, it is apparent that not all
civizations face the same challenge when it comes to inter-stellar travel.
Unfortunately, the solar system we inhabit is not part of a globular cluster.
If we were in a globular cluster, there would be several stars within a few
light weeks. A star within light weeks would be reachable using known
technology within a human lifetime. In our neighborhood, a trip to the nearest
star would take a few thousand years. (If the laser highway works better than
this, that's great. I'm just saying that not all galactic neighborhoods start
out equal.)


http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/astro/ww...cCm_intro.html

According the the URL above, the average separation in a galactic
cluster is on the order of one light year. The nearest star to Sol is
4.3 light years away, and the average separation of stars in our neck
of the woods is around 5 light years. So, this is a factor of five -
not a factor of 50,000 as you suggest above. If stars are much closer
to one another on average than 1 light year, then their passing one
another affects planetary system development, and a stable planetary
system is unlikely. And without planets, evolution as we know it is
unlikely.

Okay, so know we know the true scale of globular clusters and our own
galactic arm, we can compute transit times, knowing the speed at which
laser lightsails operate.

The speed at which an interstellar light-highway would operate is on
the order of 1/4c to 1/3c. This puts journey lengths in the range of
12 years to 20 years - within the lifespan of human beings. Two-stage
lightsails would operate at 1/8c to 1/6c. Giving the speed limit of
the expanding front of unknown worlds with the average journey taking
24 to 40 years for the outbound trip.

In a globular cluster this would be 2.5 years to 4 years for two way
light-highways and 5 years to 8 years for one way expansion between
stars.

By contrast, a constant gee spaceship, one that accelerates constantly
at 1 gee can cross the solar system from mercury to pluto in about a
month - and won't exceed 1/30th c in the process. It takes three to
four months of constant 1 gee boost to get up to 1/4 to 1/3 the speed
of light.

At constant 1 gee, inner solar system travel Mercury, Venus, Earth,
Mars - will occur on the order of days. Lunar travel will occur on
the order of hours. Ballistic transport around the surface of Earth
(or Mars surface, or Venus surface, or Lunar surface, or Mercury
surface, etc.) will occur on the order of minutes.

So, we get an idea of the timescales around which human culture in the
future might be oriented.

Planetary (or space colony) surfaces would be global villages which
would be located within hours of one another around a common planetary
system. The inner planets of our solar system would be within days of
one another. The outer planets would be within weeks of one another.
The entire solar system could be crossed in a month or so.

If we can develop the means to put people in stasis- with reliable,
and utterly honest artificial intelligence representatives to look out
for their concerns while in stasis -then, we have an added interesting
wrinkle.

Another important wrinkle is, the ability to train people at a very
deep level while in stasis.

With this matrix of developments; (a) star travel, (b) stasis of some
sort, (c) deep training while in stasis - we might find that rites of
passage that were the habit of early cultures to send their young on
journeys of adventure as a means to mature them and have children
leave return as adults with deep seated training knowledge and
experience.

http://www.endicott-studio.com/forrites.html


One might expect after a long and productive middle life, folks might
journey outward as a rite of passage for elders to be reborn. If
biological and psychological aging processes can be brought under
technical control, its application may await the decision of renewed
oldsters to commit themselves not only to a biological and
psychological renewal - but also a spiritual renewal, recalling their
earlier rites - and travelling outward, never to return, but to
establish a new homestead among the ever growing number of stars being
discovered and catalogued by an expanding sphere of automated probes.

http://home.nc.rr.com/rwgarrison/rip_reap.htm
http://www.americanatheist.org/win98-99/T2/zindler.html

Changing the time scale from 15 years as in the Perseus arm of the
Milky way galaxy (us) to 3 years as in a globular cluster - won't
change the dynamics that much. While a 3 year (total 6 year for
two-way) travel cycle to nearby stars might be achieved without some
sort of physical stasis - it would involve a psychological stasis.
That is, the people travelling would be immobilized within a small
vessel and would require some sort of virtual reality input to
synthesize the experience of a larger psychological space during the
journey.

Physical stasis would also have the advantage even on three year
journeys, of reducing the chances for mishap, along with reduction in
inputs of food and oxygen and so forth

http://www.kubrick-web.co.uk/2001-stills.htm

I couldn't find any stills showing the Discovery astronauts in stasis
- but for anyone who's seen the film, you may recall them looking at
the stills I could find above.

Cheers.

-William Mook