I disagree that "SSBE" is "one of the very basic problems of space travel". It's an advanced problem and only matters once the following "basic problems" are solved:... we still haven't solved the very basic problems of space travel, one of which is how to build a self-sustaining biological environment(SSBE) for space-farers of the future. — TheMadFool
"SSBE" probably is, or will be, irrelevant. The only scenario that makes sense - given the hazards of space to the integrity of complex organic molecules, let alone vastly more complex organisms, and the light-year scales of distances & durations from here to any other star system (or even to farthest edge of Oort Cloud (c50k au)) - is to send advance robotic probes and autonomous AI-ships as extensions of Terrestrial intelligence into interstellar space and then eventually across the Milky Way galaxy. Such AI-ships could carry genomic information that could be 'compiled like programs' into comparable organic DNA-like materials within non-terrestrial biospheres to "seed" homo sapiens 'templates' throughout the galaxy in order for them to adapt to xeno-ecologies and evolve beyond their distant ancestrial-terrestrial species. These AI-"seed" ships might even discover, millennia in the future, the "alien AI-ships" which might have once "seeded" earth with proto-hominids. :gasp:(https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/380306)
Btw, deep space travel is for machines -- the tinier the better -- Von Neumann self-replicating/nano-fabricators, and not living organisms (e.g. hard radiation exposure is too lethal, transport size increases likelihood of hazardous particulate impacts, life-support limitations & extreme durations between destinations, etc) which exponentially compound the costs/risks. — 180 Proof, 3-12-07
Even if 180 Proof is here talking about interstellar space, I have to add that this "not making sense" argument has been used against any human exploration of space. We are intended for Earth, so let machines take care of things anywhere else.The only scenario that makes sense - is to send advance robotic probes and the autonomous AI-ships as extensions of Terrestrial intelligence into interstellar space and then eventually across the Milky Way galaxy. — 180 Proof
It's an old story that one of the biggest obstacles to space travel is our primitive technology. — TheMadFool
To Boldy Go
Where No Nonagenarian
Has Gone Before
(Stardate 12.10.21)
https://deadline.com/2021/10/william-shatner-terrified-space-trip-jeff-bezos-1234852430/ :monkey: — 180 Proof
I think the biggest obstacle is the speed of light. — T Clark
And Larry Niven's Ringworld. — tim wood
Such as?I'm about 99.99% certain that there's a workaround for that problem. Hint: To change location from point A to point B, do we really have to literally traverse the distance AB? — TheMadFool
Such as? — 180 Proof
The old man is only a passenger. "Astronauts" are crewmembers who operate and maintain the space craft. Think of airline flight crew (trained, fit) vs passengers (fat assed, spoiled). "Captain Kirk" is only a tourist (& Bezos' marketing prop). LLAP, Fool. :smirk: — 180 Proof
We'd need to be able to generate massive amounts of negative energy (e.g. "anti-gravity" à la inflation???) on both ends of the wormhole to open and then keep it open long enough for anything larger than a subatomic particle(?) to transverse it. And you'd have to open the wormhole from both ends, it seems, which means you'd have to travel from A to B through normal space anyway. Megaengineering (interplanetary, interstellar) infrastructure? Way too improbable (for us any century / millennium soon) to be plausible.All time favorite space travel trope: wormholes — TheMadFool
I don't think so. Space expands (inflates like a balloon, or warps) and is not "created".There maybe other ways: According to Inflation Theory, space is being created - between the galaxies.
Even if this question made sense (to me it doesn't), I suspect that would requires generating energy on the scale of cosmic inflation itself. (NB: :nerd: Perhaps a Kardashev Type IV civilization might(?) attain the requisite technological capacity (we Earthlings are currently no more than a Type 0.7 civilization). IIRC, Niven's "Ringworld Engineers" are considered a Type II civilization.)Can we not reverse the process - destroy space?
Same problem: artificially generating and/or controlling a stellar / supermassive black hole. Not going to happen based on current physics or engineering – we're nowhere near (maybe ever?) being a Type II civilization, Fool. You might as well speculate on how "Dorothy clicking the heels of her ruby slippers" works and using that "magic" to transport FTL to Alpha Centuri. — 180 Proof
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