"A voyage of 100,000 years"

[Lancer]

The history channel has a space show on. It would take Voyager 100,000 years to get to another star.

Is it possible to build a space ship to make such a journey, with people?

The human race has been around on the spaceship Earth for longer than that. Could we build a ship that permits many generations to come and go?

[Az]

cryochambers are the real deal.

[Eli]

Could we build a ship that permits many generations to come and go?

I wonder how long it will take for them to divide to groups and start fighting.

[Lancer]

cryochambers...I kind of doubt it. The best we could do is freeze sperm and eggs, and make people a few decades before they get there, raising them by robots.

Eli, so they fight? They'll get over it.

[Az]

why not, lancer? it has been proven to exist in other species, esp. that frog.

Now all we have to do is to find out how exactly he does that, copy the needed genes into humans, and shove ourselves into a fridge.

[Lancer]

If you can make frog people, why not just build people to live a million years?

[Az]

We will build them to last. I plan to get the ever-young retroviral treatment as soon as it hits the market.

We wouldn't keep them awake though. they might screw things up.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

Well...considering civilization has only been around for 4,000 years, I don't think any hope would last for 100,000.

[General Ludd]

They wouldn't survive anymore then 3 generations before something goes fataly wrong with the ship or everyone kills each other.

[General Ludd]

And it would suck geting to the star and finding out that there is nothing there for us.

[Sava]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Well...considering civilization has only been around for 4,000 years, I don't think any hope would last for 100,000.

uhmmm noooooo.... The Egyptians built the Pyramids in between 3000-2900 BC... that's over 5,000 years. And there were human civilizations even before that. And humans as we know it have roamed the Earth for around 2 million years. Just because they didn't have technology doesn't mean they weren't intelligent. In fact, I think ancient humans were just as smart as we are today. They managed to survive and invent so much starting from nothing. The world was a very wild and untamed place before humans took over. Barring an extinction level event, human will be around for a long time. 100,000 years is a drop in the bucket.

As for on topic... I think eventually, humans will discover ways to generate more power and control magnetic fields. Doing so would allow the creation of so called "interial dampers" which would allow spacecraft to accelerate at rates like 30G's +. IMO, the only thing limiting human endeavors to other stars is the amount of power we can generate. If we ever figure out how to use fusion, such journeys may become possible. Although I think its highly unlikely that manned missions to such an extent will occur unless the planet is dying. Humans, especially capitalists, are notoriously cheap, and don't want to spend the time, money, or resources unless it's necessary. Don't rule out probes though.

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Sava
I think eventually, humans will discover ways to generate more power and control magnetic fields. Doing so would allow the creation of so called "interial dampers" which would allow spacecraft to accelerate at rates like 30G's +.

WTF? Are you getting that out of a bad sci-fi story or crackpot theorist?

"Magnets, the answer is always magnets".

[Az]

civilization exists for around 12k years, If I take the time of the first walled settlement as the beginning of civilization.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Sava


As for on topic... I think eventually, humans will discover ways to generate more power and control magnetic fields. Doing so would allow the creation of so called "interial dampers" which would allow spacecraft to accelerate at rates like 30G's +.

The real problem isn't acceleration but fuel. Years ago, I did the calculations of how long it would take to travel to Alpha Centauri assuming a constant acceleration of 1 G to the halfway point and then a constant deceleration of 1 G the rest of the way. It took six years. But a six-year accelatation assumes virtually unlimited fuel.

Oh yeah, that nasty little Tau factor comes into play once you start getting into relativistic speeds. But the main problem is fuel, fuel, fuel.

[Menlas]

Well, fuel wouldn't be a problem with a nuclear ship, don't you think ? But fusion would be better of course.