Posts tagged space-colonization
Would the discovery of alien bacteria found on even an Earth analog planet preclude the possibility of colonization due to the potentially deadly nature of bacterial/viral infections? Put different...
A rocky planet, similar to Earth in mass and composition, is set to pass through the solar system in one year's time. It has frozen oceans of water ice and a thin atmosphere of unknown composition....
In this Answer I came up a scenareo under which Eriek's concept makes sense. I rather like this idea: an expedition or colony on another world has to, for some reason, pull up stakes and move. Th...
I was told that building a tunnel into the centre of Enceladus is not possible, since it has subsurface ocean and molten, rocky core. But its brother, Mimas is a bit smaller, and shows no sign of ...
If life were discovered in the supposed ocean on Europa, it would be a popular destination for scientists and researchers. I am curious as to what life on Europa would be like, in terms of engineer...
The extreme pressure and temperature greatly reduces our ability to drill holes deeper than some kilometers into Earth's mantle. However, on a body smaller, colder and less dense, this would be a ...
Is it easier to build colonies within the solar system than to send colonies to other stars? Logically, wouldn't we have cities on Pluto sooner than we will have travelled to an exoplanet?
Assuming that the planet is 20 light years away (so back and forth trips would be impractical) we have no clue whether there is any edible life forms on the new planet hibernation (freezing/thaw...
Because of an error in the interpretation of the Mayan calendar I just discovered, I know now that Earth will be destroyed on March 13, 2021 at 11 o'clock in the morning, time zone of Palenque. I ...
I'm working on a universe which implies that humanity settled on the Moon. Knowing that we want to keep contact with the Earth (means we don't want to settle on the hidden face) and we want to avo...
There is a really obvious problem with going to a planet we have deemed "habitable". Even if the temperature is perfect, the air composition is perfect and the terrain is perfect we still have the ...
Mars and Earth's moon already feature in a lot of fiction about space colonization. After these two planets, and assuming that other solar systems are too far away, what is the best place within th...
Our planet is dying. Cliche, I know, but unfortunately true and we do not have superpowers or the technology to build generation ships to escape. We have maybe a hundred years left, and we have d...
I've had a look around the internet and the only real classification system for planets seems to be the one from Star Trek, which I don't want to use. The real groups that planets fall under seem t...
One of the big problems by manned space exploration and colonization, that it's insanely expensive. Building a colony on other celestial bodies - since it's impractical to bring back the acquired r...
Was wondering if anyone with physics knowledge could tell me something about desert worlds. If the surface of a planet was mostly a fine sandy material (e.g. Sand) then could tidal forces cause th...
Background: Interest in the red planet is re-surging. For example, Elon Musk has said he will lay out a detailed plan for Mars colonization this September. Question: Assuming the next step in spa...
The first man on the moon was there on July 20th, 1969. After December of 1972, there has not been a person on the moon since. But, what if the missions to the moon had kept on going? By what time ...
Earth is setting up mining colonies on Tau Ceti e. But how can they justify the enormous cost of sending people there? ...Because during the initial exploratory missions, it was discovered that in ...
Supposing you are trying to colonise planet that has no life what-so-ever but is otherwise an earth analogue. First thing that I realised is that there would be no oil. So they would need to make ...
For this question, let's say we have a space faring civilization. They are at least 100 years more advanced than us, and are drawing up plans to send colonists to a neighboring star. The catch is,...
Jupiter is a terrible place to be, but for a number of artistic reasons, I'd like to have my story take place there and only there. "Mining", or resource extraction by any other name, is the usual ...
The year is 2267 A.D. Humanity has colonized Prima Centuari system. A federal government is established; the population is expected to grow at an exponential rate to reach 1 billion by 2300 A.D. A...
How could you create a forest in a space city, like the Citadel of the Mass Effect game? Would this forest provide renewal of oxygen for the population? Is it "simple" to create an atmosphere and ...
Suppose that humanity has spread across the universe, colonizing various habitable worlds, until their empire spans the entire galaxy (or near enough) - but there is no sign of alien life. There ar...
Can you have separate countries in a post-Earth world where humans are colonizing space? I am not talking about physical territory per se, but rather the different identities between separate state...
Let's say Earth's nations meet up and decide to start to colonize space in the next ~50 years. What would the first resources/materials be, that we gather in space/from other planets that we need t...
Far into the future, humanity is largely split into 2 groups. The first group consists of space-dwelling humans, who live in enormous space stations equipped to sustain human life indefinitely, ...
In my other question I tried to find out if it makes any sense to colonize other planets or moons instead of just building space stations. The answer I accepted seems very well elaborated to me and...
I have been poking at the idea of an eventual re-emergence of the PACER concept, where energy is obtained by detonating nuclear explosions... but not exactly in the same form. After humans become s...
My scenario It is 2150, and there are two major human settlements on Mars and a dozen smaller branching-colonies. The colonies, Genesis and Metropolis, founded by Space X and Mars One respectively...
I want to set up a long-term self-sustaining colony on Mercury. What and how needs to be done for a colony to survive and thrive on the planet Mercury?
"It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million." "Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on p...
Let's imagine a near future where mankind starts to expand into the solar system. For various reasons, some humans start to be born and raised in space, in zero gravity and micro-gravity. What cha...
Context NASA commissioned some awesome, vintage-style prints a while back advertising the colonization of Mars. Three of them stood out to me because they depicted colonization of the moons of ...
In a distant future, humans have colonized every corner of the solar system, and we can easily convert any object into anything else - be it food or a tricorder, you name it. Using these replicator...
Venus is being paraterraformed with floating cities. Mechanical machines collect material from the surface and send it floating at an altitude of about 50 Km where conditions are more Earth-like. H...
I've read that the atmosphere about 60 km from the surface of Venus is very similar to the atmosphere on earth (the oxygen/nitrogen/CO2 levels and pressures are about the same). If there was a way,...
If I've recently started a colony on a somewhat habitable, but uninhabited planet, what's the best way to determine the location of any ore or other subterranean resource deposits? The planet is E...
Assuming that in the not too distant future space travel developed enough, that large numbers of ships and people were leaving the earth's surface on a regular basis. Would this ever reach a point ...
We Earthlings like to live in gravity wells but also have a taste for the exotic and are a bit lazy. Why not make colonies that take advantage of local conditions? Cloud cities over Venus, much le...
What would happen to occupants of an O'Neal Cylinder if it suffered a massive hull breach on one of its ends i.e. the base of the cylinder? Specifically, those nearer to the breach. If the breach ...
The idea of adapting to a longer day is not new. Besides other recent questions here, I recall it in When Worlds Collide (or its sequel). As I'm rewarming half a pizza for a late meal, I wonder h...
Even now, in 2016, if you take a look around in a 7-Eleven or any European counterpart of similar small shops, you can find a comparably huge selection. In fact, this applies to large counterparts ...
If you arrive at a distant planet you mean to colonise, without enough food for the long term - just maybe a couple of plants and a bunch of seeds and enough food in storage to keep you going for t...
Given advanced enough telescopic technology, would it be possible to detect that a planet in the order of 50 light years away is inhabitable? (i.e. without having to actually go there) I'm just lo...
Lore: "Not much is known about the past of Unus Solum. What is known is scattered and fractured. Unus Solum was a planet that was subject to colonization efforts. The Ark ships that came were pre...
In the mid-21st century, humanity has an interplanetary colony system principally spanning the Moon, Mars, and Titan (as per usual). The furthest established colony is on Proxima b. Humans have FTL...
I am wondering if there is any benefit for a rotating wheel space station to be based on mobius strip layout such as more rooms for growing population maybe because both side of the strips are popu...
Would there be any benefit to this? At first I was thinking if you had an outpost on Mars you could spend less money on the actual trip to the belt itself, but I'm not sure if having your launch st...
