starship-design: Numbers needed for Colonization

[Kelly St <KellySt@aol.com>]

Sorry to hear you were that sick.  Drink plenty of fluids and don't breath on
the E-MAIL!!

   ;)



In a message dated 5/11/98 8:44:26 AM, f96bni@student.tdb.uu.se wrote:

>On Thu, 30 Apr 1998, Kelly St wrote:
>> 
>> In a message dated 4/29/98 4:49:47 AM, guderiak@hotmail.com wrote:
>> 
>> >Hi Bjorn,
>> >
>> >>And YES a planet is maybe NOT neccesary for the colony to survive, but 
>> >it
>> >>probably IS neccisary for the endevour to make "economic sense" even in
>> >>the long run. (If the target star system doesn't have planetary bodies 
>> >you
>> >>wanna exploit, why go there???)
>> >==> A very, very good idea...
>> 
>> We never could come up with a reason for a colony.  Resources are more
>> plentiful and easy to get to in space, and the danger of an ecology is
less.
>> But, this solar system is rich in stuff too, and its a lot easier to set up
a
>> colony nearer to your spare parts suplier.  ;)
>> 
>
>Well, don't forget the most valuable comodity of them all: KNOWLEDGE!!!
>
>The amount of things that will be learnt from colonizing another solar
>system is probably the best economic incentive of them all!
>(This is espisially true of systems with alien lifeforms.)
>
>
>This is also how the Colony will yield "interest" to the investors back
>home! And the good thing is that "trade" of information/knowledge will be
>posible at Light-speed (and fairly low-cost), where as PHYSICAL trade will
>be quite a bit slower AND more expensive!

Given the danger of an alen world a orbital colony would be safer, easier, and
have better access to resources.  On the other hand, you'ld learn as much by
building it in our own solar system.

Scientific exploration is generally not very profitable.  It can't generally
pay its own bills on Earth or our starsystem, so interstellar is a REAL long
shot.


>>
>> As to the microbs, a bit of American history.  The term "Manifest destiny"
was
>> an old phrase in the American colonies refuring to a beleaf that god ment
us
>> to take over the continent from the indians.  Where it first came from is
the
>> early colonists (not the first, but soon after) who found a continent of
dead
>> indians.  Vilages recently abandoned or full of dead and deing.  Old world
>> deseases whiped out well over 95% of the tribal populations before they
ever
>> saw a white guy.  All that from desaese they'ld only been isolated from for
a
>> few thousand years.
>> 
>> 
>> Kelly
>> 
>
>Well, this is with basicly NO technology! I think modern medicine WILL be
>able to cope EVEN with alien diseases... (Call me optimistic.)
>
>Another comment is that the same factors were in places for the Europeans
>coming to the new world and they fared much better...

The Europeans also lost most of their population to deseases they imported
back to Euroup.  Which was one reason most children died before the age of 6.

As to the new world deseases, they weren't as evolved as the ones recrited
from Africa to Japan by the Euros.  (Yes we planed it all HA!!)    ;)


>Bjorn...


Kelly