The latest threat to the global recovery

[Lord Beria3]

Read The Ark, on how humans to get to a Earth like planet, its based on actual theory developed back in the fifties.

http://www.DODGY TAX AVOIDERS.co.uk/Ark-Stephen-Bax ... pd_sim_b_1

[DominicJ]

Second, there is the question of- for a manned mission- permitting life support for that length of time. Prolonged exposure to solar and interstellar radiation could possibly kill, and there are the health impacts of zero-gravity

The momentum limited Orion ship would have 100,000t for the living space and stores. Radiation shielding wouldnt be much of a problem, you could just store all the materials your planning on building your new civillisation with in an outer hull, all your water in an inner hull and your people further inside.
Actualy thats not as much as I thought, 150 crew submarines weigh 8000t and they arent properly self contained.
Is Long term 0g still a problem?
I thought they'd sorted exercises for it.
I suppose they havent tested 45 years of 0g have they.

Even so, a lunar and mars colony is within our grasp.

[RenewableCandy]

In 45 years, unless you want your new planet colonised by geriatrics, you'd probably have to have some pregnancies. I can't find the ref., but I remember reading that g is used by the body to start the process of deciding "which way round" the tiny lump of cells starts to grow into a foetus..apparently without it you get something that makes Thalidomide look like a tea party.

Of course it could only have been a theoretical model: no-one's done it irl, so they could be wrong.

[the_lyniezian]

In 45 years, unless you want your new planet colonised by geriatrics, you'd probably have to have some pregnancies. I can't find the ref., but I remember reading that g is used by the body to start the process of deciding "which way round" the tiny lump of cells starts to grow into a foetus..apparently without it you get something that makes Thalidomide look like a tea party.

Of course it could only have been a theoretical model: no-one's done it irl, so they could be wrong.

You'd have to take into account that anything travelling from here to Alpha centauri in 45 years is travelling at 1/10 the speed of light- so there are going to be (albeit limited) time dilation effects, i.e. time passes more slowly on the ship than it does on Earth.

I'd also doubt there's much to colonise when you get there- Alpha Centauri is a multiple star system where stable orbits for planets probably couldn't form, IIRC. Much better to send an unmanned probe. To colonise, you'd need to find something alot further away.

And if peak verything happens, where are we going to get all the resources for interstellar space missions anyway?