Reasons to pack weapons on interstellar mission?

Question inspired by discussion under this answer: https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/70360/2071

Dear people of Proxima Centauri. Our planet is dying. Our suns are dying. As you all know. We found out that nearest stellar system just 4 lightyears away has G2V star. And not only that. We think that one of its planet could hold life. Most probably the third from the star, maybe even the fourth one.

We made attempts to send signals to that star, but no one is answering to our signals.

We built the ship which can get about 50 000 of our people to that system and we will aim for third planet, because our data give us 98% probability that such planet has sufficient environment to allow survival of our people.

The trip will be one way ticket. People on that ship will most probably be the only ones surviving from our race, so we hand-picked the best of the best.

Now, we have tough decission to make: Should we pack weapons?

So far we listed these pros and cons:

Cons

• Every gram of equipment is calculated and carrying x kilograms of weapons is real premium price for the bucks, because you will not need it until arrival
• We can make weapons to hunt animals from materials on that planet

pros

• We do not know what awaits us
• If such planet holds intelligent life, it can fight back with firearms

Assumptions you can make:

• Aliens from Proxima Centauri think as "human-like" as possible
• They can 3D print the weapons, but to make bullets is quite complicated, so they still need to pack at least the bullets
• They have no solid proof that there is intelligent life on Earth (their destination)
• Once they set to voyage they cannot turn back. It is one way travel all long
• Rest of planet will continue observing the Earth and send message to the ship
• Aliens are leaving their planet at same weaponry level as today Earth. They can pack anything you know exists on Earth and can be considered as weapon. But still, remember, weight is premium

posted almost 8 years ago

Pavel Janicek‭

6 reputation 38 0 1 0