Space Travel / Split From "THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE FOREVER! [etc.]"

[xSilverPhinx]

One main problem for generational starships is inbreeding. Eventually there can end up a crew incapable of operating ships components. Or, the inbreeding causes genetic changes that no longer allows for survival of the crew. 

Advanced genetic engineering could solve that.

[Old Seer]

One main problem for generational starships is inbreeding. Eventually there can end up a crew incapable of operating ships components. Or, the inbreeding causes genetic changes that no longer allows for survival of the crew. 

Advanced genetic engineering could solve that.

Not for a 100,000 year trip it would seem. There's to many problems for long distant travel. No space craft can last that long. It would corrode because of many reasons. How would water be kept on board. Water devolves everything over time, and your water tanks would begin to leak. Aluminum anything would corrode very easily. There's no material that could be used as effective shielding against even small small collisions. I don't present these thing to be combative, but all the problems of what can happen are fairly well known. At 50,000 MPH it's not a minor hit if the craft hits an object. The object plus the craft's bulkhead material instantly heats beyond melting entering the ship splattering molten material catching everything in the entrance path on fire.  A genetic flaw may multiply many times over the generations. If genetic engineering can over-come that would be a good thing. There's to many variables for high velocity long distance travel.

[No one]

My life hasn't been changed in the slightest! Who do I sue?

[Randy]

My life hasn't been changed in the slightest! Who do I sue?

Sue the OP! He started it!

[Sandra Craft]

My life hasn't been changed in the slightest! Who do I sue?

Sue the OP! He started it!

Probably the same person in charge of Raptures that never happen . . . whoever that is.

[Tank]

One main problem for generational starships is inbreeding. Eventually there can end up a crew incapable of operating ships components. Or, the inbreeding causes genetic changes that no longer allows for survival of the crew. 

Advanced genetic engineering could solve that.

You wouldn't even need that. The initial crew compliment would be chosen for maximum genetic diversity as one criteria and a reproduction plan instigated and regulated during the voyage. Note, reproduction not relationship plan. The nature of the voyage would be known to be generational before it left Earth so the people that go have to buy in to the process as part of accepting their place on the ship.

[billy rubin]

one aspect of this question that is not addressed clearly is th epossibility that far-away aliens haven't visited us because they don't see any need to.

we oftn assume that we havce something to offer that somehow makes us interesting or useful. that's the underlying theme of most fictional accounts of contact. but what would they come here for that could be worth the staggering cost in energy, materials, and time that it would take to get here?

fiction has them coming for minerals, slaves, food, or colonies. do any of thiose needs appear reasonable in light of th difficulties of obtaining them>

[xSilverPhinx]

One main problem for generational starships is inbreeding. Eventually there can end up a crew incapable of operating ships components. Or, the inbreeding causes genetic changes that no longer allows for survival of the crew. 

Advanced genetic engineering could solve that.

You wouldn't even need that. The initial crew compliment would be chosen for maximum genetic diversity as one criteria and a reproduction plan instigated and regulated during the voyage. Note, reproduction not relationship plan. The nature of the voyage would be known to be generational before it left Earth so the people that go have to buy in to the process as part of accepting their place on the ship.

I was thinking about this and turns out, humankind as a whole is not all that genetically diverse compared to other primates and animals. We went through a bottleneck in our evolution when just a few thousand people existed and Homo sapiens as a species was struggling to survive. With all that inbreeding we turned out ok.  Well, most of us.   

So yeah, I think your solution could possibly work.  It's worked before. 

[billy rubin]

fernanda, when was that bottleneck?

punctated eqilibria is really interesting to me

[Dark Lightning]

One main problem for generational starships is inbreeding. Eventually there can end up a crew incapable of operating ships components. Or, the inbreeding causes genetic changes that no longer allows for survival of the crew. 

Advanced genetic engineering could solve that.

You wouldn't even need that. The initial crew compliment would be chosen for maximum genetic diversity as one criteria and a reproduction plan instigated and regulated during the voyage. Note, reproduction not relationship plan. The nature of the voyage would be known to be generational before it left Earth so the people that go have to buy in to the process as part of accepting their place on the ship.

I was thinking about this and turns out, humankind as a whole is not all that genetically diverse compared to other primates and animals. We went through a bottleneck in our evolution when just a few thousand people existed and Homo sapiens as a species was struggling to survive. With all that inbreeding we turned out ok.  Well, most of us.   

So yeah, I think your solution could possibly work.  It's worked before.

My understanding is that there needs to be some minimum to avoid inbreeding. In the link, it looks like 160 peops, but there is a proviso that the spacefarers return to the rest of the population at some point. I'm liking the 500 number, for a truly viable colony, but that's just based on what I'm seeing there, not as a biologist.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1936-magic-number-for-space-pioneers-calculated/

[Old Seer]

Genetics is one thing. But there's to many things that are stoppers that cannot be solved. On millennial year trips whatever can go wrong will go wrong at some time.  Living on a planet is quite stable and we get used to what it takes to live  on that planet. Chance is usually considered in percentages. IE- what's the chances of something happening is calculated by happenstance over time. OK, An airplane crashes. What was the chances of that plane crashing. We go by X divided by all the other crashes that took place in the past according to various factors that caused the plane to crash, IE - a bolt came loose.
What we do know for a fact without a doubt that the plane has crashed, so logic dictates that there was a 100% chance that the plane would crash---because it did. At some point the plane has reached the 100% crash time/mark. What is being done is--- trying to determine "when" the 100% crash mark will be reached and take the plane out of service before that mark/time arrives. But, there's to many variables in between time that cannot be known, in this case, a bolt came loose. When it comes to millennial space travel the 100% mark has been reached before you start. If the space station is to remain in orbit indefinitely there will come a time an orbiting object collision or other catastrophic failure will occur.

[Recusant]

Plenty of opinion, no data. There are people who have spent a fair amount of time and effort examining the possibilities, and I think they're more credible than a Smurf, even one who's smarter than Einstein.

[Randy]

Another thing to consider about millennial travel. As the kids grow up, will they want to follow in their parent's footsteps (mine didn't) and take over the controls, the repairs that have to be made as things wear out, and so-on? Will they have the aptitude? Will they need to be forced to do these things?

[Old Seer]

Plenty of opinion, no data. There are people who have spent a fair amount of time and effort examining the possibilities, and I think they're more credible than a Smurf, even one who's smarter than Einstein.

I looked at your article. That's high theory, not fact. I didn't claim to be smarter then Einstein, there's a difference  of IQ and smartness. Smartness is what you may be up to, not I. You are a competitor, I am not. Einstein had trouble tieing his shoes, I don't. When it comes to physics he is highly more knowledgeable then I. I do not compete against Einstein because I am with him not against him.
I brought up my IQ because there are floks that need to be advised of a disease people like me have that we must advise others of so they should know to make allowances for. In my circle it's called Einsteins disease/syndrome. It's caused by- we don't understand people, and people don't understand us. It always turns out that one must consider that one side or the other is stupid. If I had epilepsy causing a mental disparity I would have to inform you of that too-so you would know. I'm assuming that anyone caring to analyze my input has enough interest to look things up for themselves, and as you can see there are those here wise enough to do so, and strike out on conversions of their own making additions to the subject at hand.  If you are deliberately trying to cause decensions and troubles on the forum---well, you did it.
The article you posted cites Theory, and theory and then theory, because that's all that will work for the time being when it come to millennial space transport. Theory is Speculation and necessary for the beginnings of proving things later.                                                                                                                                                                                                Another Smurf is a physicist as I and a university professor of physics retired. We haven't had any quarrels on these subjects. He's the one that came up with the "great Cosmic Sanding Belt" analogy, not I. Would you please try to be a bit more respectful of others on the forum. I'm into conversations not verbal shootouts and condemnation of others.

[Old Seer]

Another thing to consider about millennial travel. As the kids grow up, will they want to follow in their parent's footsteps (mine didn't) and take over the controls, the repairs that have to be made as things wear out, and so-on? Will they have the aptitude? Will they need to be forced to do these things?

Excellent insight.