Should humanity start building Space Arks?

Question

http://www.starshiptechnology.net

Perhaps its time we started building space arks. A few big fat Orions should be enough to get us off this rock before it dies.

You don't actually trust politicians and the private sector to reverse the effects of global warming do you? This planet is dying. It will take a few years to build these super launchers.

Lets get the hell out of here before the Yanks and China kill off this planet completely.

Answer 1

And go where? What planet accessible to us could we possibly settle that would be more hospitible than even a dead Earth? You could say Mars...but its small. Where are you gonna put 6 billion people there? LOL Good theory though...maybe we should just build enviroment saving machines instead?

Answer 2

It would be infinitely more feasible to reverse the effects of climate change here on Earth, than to get in spaceships and look for another Earth. We don't even know whether such a planet exists in our galaxy. Earth might be unique in the universe, for all we know. That's why it's imperative that we look after it.



Having said that, if we plan for our species to survive indefinitely, we will eventually be forced to leave the planet by our brightening Sun. That is in the very distant future, however.

Answer 3

something tells me humans will be long gone before the sun swells up, and that's about the only 'natural disaster' that we could effectively predict... anything else could be here tomorrow, 10 years from now or may not even ever happen (as unlikely as that is) before the sun consumes the earth...



i think first we'd need to work out real peace before focusing on moving anywhere... having a bunch of warring sides in space is just asking for problems... any one living person would be 10x more vulnerable.... not only would defense be stretched extremely thin, but a single bomb could rip a hole in a ship and then you get mass casualties... (i highly doubt space fights would be anything near what you're used to seeing... it would just be chaos with most likely, the largest human death toll in any given period, on the record.)

Answer 4

mixing numerous universal practitioner Who, celebrity Gate SG1, Farscape and Iron Sky are not you? IMHO Had Hitler been an agent of an evil all useful human or alien power? He could have gained. The more suitable weapons could have been his from the commencing up. Ming the cruel of Mongo does not play around. while he subjugates? He does it for keeps. Stuka's with H=Bombs and ionic cannons all and sundry? besides, going even incredibly decrease back? Kaiser bill could have gained. incredibly, the finished scheme is SO mixed up and cribbed from previous thoughts? in no way unique. i'm shocked you probably did no longer enhance The Mysterions and Cat women on the Moon.

Answer 5

Well you have fun doing that. Seeing as we can't trust the government to do anything, I'm not sure where you'll receive your multi-billion dollar budget needed to build a piece of technology in which we haven't the faintest idea how to build.



Now, I'm pretty good with legos and even wiring little cities with batteries and mini-lights, but I'm not going to help you build a space arc.

Answer 6

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I say start with a permanent colony on the moon. Then Mercury and Mars. Once we're all over the solar system, then we can start thinking about arks. By then, we'll have an idea what directions we want to send them.

Answer 7

The real strategic defense for a spaceship in space is hiding. Paint the outer surface black, and make it non-reflective to radar, refrigerate the hull, and divert the heat to a sink that can't be seen by watchers: either hidden or very low S/N ratio. That takes care of visible, radio, and infrared. The tactical defense is, of course, mobility.



China has a big inferiority complex, in my opinion. Despite a large population, many of whom have above-average intelligence, China was slow to develop MODERN rocketry (despite its ancient invention of gunpowder propelled small arms), and when it did so it needed the example of Western achievement to emulate as well as a substantial amount of technology transfer from the United States. China acquired some of the necessary technology clandestinely, via Israeli espionage against the United States.



So, although it is to China's credit that it can now put people in space, let's not go too far with that credit. The USA and Russia both did it much sooner, with an earlier phase of technology than China now has available, and without the assurance of previous success that such a thing as spaceflight was possible.



However, China is letting its feelings of inferiority lead it into the bad policy of modernization. It is much too late in the fossil fuel day for such extensive industrialization as China is undertaking to be worthwhile. In 20 or 30 years, all their factories and technology will be unusable because there won't be energy to turn them on. (Contrary to superstition, technology does not "create" energy. The very idea is contrary to the laws of nature. Technology FEEDS ON energy. Without energy, technology simply does not work.) It would have been wiser for China to concentrate on quicker population reduction measures and on using what energy is left to arrange for an easy return to pre-industrial lifestyles for the remaining Chinese people. Ah, what errors are made when feelings of inferiority rise!



You can't transfer any significant part of the Earth's population to other planets. There are no off-planet habitats other than the ISS, for one thing. And even if there were, Earth's population grows by 200,000 people each day. You can't carry them away as fast as they're being born.



Now, of course, the highest purpose to which humanity can aspire is to bring the seed of the Life of Earth to other planets, thereby giving our planet's biosphere and evolutionary legacy to new homes and greater security from extinction. But I think we've squandered too much of Earth's fossil fuel energy for comforts, for wars that achieved nothing of lasting value, for sentimental humanitarian projects, and for needlessly boosting the human population while retaining even the lowest grade of its members to the natural extent of their lives. Doing those things has probably cost the Life of Earth its only chance for outlasting the sun.

Answer 8

I suppose with in the next say 4 billion years or so...Actually, most of us already have free tickets that have been given to us by the aliens...Right now we're just waiting for gas prices to drop...

Answer 9

and go where?



hey, don't blame the USA... most of US is owned by THEM now.