Earth’s far-off ‘cousin’ could support life

[Wisconsin9]

Right, that wasn't a good choice of words. Any aliens that would be interesting for non-scientific purposes. Any other life we meet will probably appear either non-sapient or nigh-omnipotent.

And why is that?

Part of the argument for why we haven't made contact yet is that space is so ridiculously large that our signals may jot have even reached them, right? But time is pretty damn big too. It's been, what, maybe a century since we started beaming out radio signals? 10,000 years since we started to form cities? There could be species out there that landed on their moon a hundred thousand years ago, a million years ago, ten million, a hundred million, billions even. It's possible there's a fair amount of life out there our age, but it's likely that a vast majority of it is older than the Sun.

[Risottia]

I think 80% of us would be dead by the time they get efficient enough technology to make a sustained voyage, but I could be wrong.

You're wrong. At least 99.999% of us will be dead by the time humanity develops technology sufficient to send there a robotic probe. As for getting HUMANS there,

[Meridiani Planum]

I make no predictions on how long it would take for us to build a craft that could take human beings to that planet, given how quickly technology has been improving lately. It could be in the next few decades, and it might not happen for thousands of years.

[Risottia]

I make no predictions on how long it would take for us to build a craft that could take human beings to that planet, given how quickly technology has been improving lately. It could be in the next few decades, and it might not happen for thousands of years.

The only viable technology for humans to reach that planet (500 ly away) is a generational spaceship.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

I make no predictions on how long it would take for us to build a craft that could take human beings to that planet, given how quickly technology has been improving lately. It could be in the next few decades, and it might not happen for thousands of years.

The only viable technology for humans to reach that planet (500 ly away) is a generational spaceship.

Hopefully the planet is still there by the time it gets there.

[The Greater Ohio Valley]

The only viable technology for humans to reach that planet (500 ly away) is a generational spaceship.

Hopefully the planet is still there by the time it gets there.

Or the crew becoming a floating colony of cannibals within that span of time...

[AiliailiA]

What? Any alien civilization would be monumentally interesting. Any alien life at all would be monumentally interesting.

Right, that wasn't a good choice of words. Any aliens that would be interesting for non-scientific purposes. Any other life we meet will probably appear either non-sapient or nigh-omnipotent.

I agree.

"The candle which burns twice as bright burns half as long". Kepler 186 is an M1V star, it does not burn bright. It's a slow-burning red star. It could be billions of years older than Sol. It's lower metallicity (and yes, that is an awesome word, though technically imprecise) probably means fewer heavy elements like oxygen and carbon in its planets. Life may not be possible under those conditions, or it may be possible but take longer.

If there is life on Kepler 186f, it could have a billion year head start on us. Or it could be a billion years behind. We just don't know.

[Divair2]

I make no predictions on how long it would take for us to build a craft that could take human beings to that planet, given how quickly technology has been improving lately. It could be in the next few decades, and it might not happen for thousands of years.

The only viable technology for humans to reach that planet (500 ly away) is a generational spaceship.

Based on current knowledge of physics, that is.

[AiliailiA]

Hopefully the planet is still there by the time it gets there.

Or the crew becoming a floating colony of cannibals within that span of time...

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 4 mark 3 and a bit, I lose track cos my sleep patterns are shot to hell. Today, the ship's doctor presented to the officers a very interesting proposal, to enhance crew members born in passage with the regenerative capabilities of starfish. The Science Officer and two technicians have been assigned to the project.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 6 mark 9 mark 1. Another birth has been celebrated onboard. The infant has been named "Starfish" in recognition that she is the first crew member with full regenerative capabilities. The dissent of Aftshipsman O'Shad is noted, and the Science Officer has been retasked to investigating reports of fish in space.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 19 mark 4 mark 4. Certain junior crew-members have been enjoying the pastime of swordfighting. While swordfighting will still be permitted among regeneration-capable crew members, I and the council of Officers have applied restrictions on the number of limbs severed per stardate, in order to conserve nutrients.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 21 mark 0 mark 4. I am pleased to report the commission of Regeneration Officer Spacetits to represent and regulate the interests of our regeneration-capable crew members, who now number 20.4 percent of the crew. We all keenly anticipate further developments in this area.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 39 mark 0 mark 6. Issues raised by some crew members, concerning sources of nutrients, have been resolved. Henceforth, discarded or severed body parts will not be returned to the general nutrient cycle. The Regeneratives among the crew sought, and have been granted, jurisdiction over the processing of their own discarded or severed tissues.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 39 mark 2 mark 9. Issues raised by some crew members regarding the consumption of discarded or severed nerve tissue have been resolved. The nerve tissue will be processed separately, according to the wishes of the Neural Regenerative member of starship crew.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 42 mark 9 mark 2. All issues regarding the reprocessing of crewmember tissues for nutrients have been resolved, and all crewmembers are now brains subsisting brains entirely on unprocessed neural tissue. Power previously used by food brains replicators has been rebrained to the main engines.

[Nervium]

I'd be more impressed if it was a far-left cousin.

Planet Anarchy! Woohoo!

[Diopolis]

I meant what if they used a completely different way of encoding genes, or if they didn't have genes at all.

A species without pants. Sounds like paradise.

No more than most science fiction movies...

[Shnercropolis]

I think 80% of us would be dead by the time they get efficient enough technology to make a sustained voyage, but I could be wrong.

You're wrong. At least 99.999% of us will be dead by the time humanity develops technology sufficient to send there a robotic probe. As for getting HUMANS there,

We could send a probe to Alpha Centauri pretty quick. All we'd have to do is give it a gravitational slingshot around the Sun, then have a really powerful burn. Those two combined would probably accelerate it to relativistic speeds, and then we only have to wait a few decades while it gets there.

[Shnercropolis]

And why is that?

Part of the argument for why we haven't made contact yet is that space is so ridiculously large that our signals may jot have even reached them, right? But time is pretty damn big too. It's been, what, maybe a century since we started beaming out radio signals? 10,000 years since we started to form cities? There could be species out there that landed on their moon a hundred thousand years ago, a million years ago, ten million, a hundred million, billions even. It's possible there's a fair amount of life out there our age, but it's likely that a vast majority of it is older than the Sun.

The chances of a species dying out increase over time, since it hasn't died out up until that point. By the time you've been around for a hundred million years, the chances of surviving are pitiable.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

You're wrong. At least 99.999% of us will be dead by the time humanity develops technology sufficient to send there a robotic probe. As for getting HUMANS there,

We could send a probe to Alpha Centauri pretty quick. All we'd have to do is give it a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter, then have a really powerful burn. Those two combined would probably accelerate it to relativistic speeds, and then we only have to wait a few decades while it gets there.

Here's the problem: When we look at Alpha Centauri, we are looking at it as it was four and a half years ago. It's position will have moved since then. It will move even further by the time a probe approaches it. So the chances of one or more course corrections being necessary during this probe's trip are extremely high; almost a certainty. But as we are several years away by radio, the probe will have to be capable of making these course corrections automatically based on observations en route. That's a pretty tall order for a computer. Not the calculations, the observations.

We might have the technology to build the rocket and the probe, but the brain needed to fly it is still a few generations away.

[Blakk Metal]

We could send a probe to Alpha Centauri pretty quick. All we'd have to do is give it a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter, then have a really powerful burn. Those two combined would probably accelerate it to relativistic speeds, and then we only have to wait a few decades while it gets there.

Here's the problem: When we look at Alpha Centauri, we are looking at it as it was four and a half years ago. It's position will have moved since then. It will move even further by the time a probe approaches it. So the chances of one or more course corrections being necessary during this probe's trip are extremely high; almost a certainty. But as we are several years away by radio, the probe will have to be capable of making these course corrections automatically based on observations en route. That's a pretty tall order for a computer. Not the calculations, the observations.

We might have the technology to build the rocket and the probe, but the brain needed to fly it is still a few generations away.

But Alpha Centauri moves at a constant rate.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Here's the problem: When we look at Alpha Centauri, we are looking at it as it was four and a half years ago. It's position will have moved since then. It will move even further by the time a probe approaches it. So the chances of one or more course corrections being necessary during this probe's trip are extremely high; almost a certainty. But as we are several years away by radio, the probe will have to be capable of making these course corrections automatically based on observations en route. That's a pretty tall order for a computer. Not the calculations, the observations.

We might have the technology to build the rocket and the probe, but the brain needed to fly it is still a few generations away.

But Alpha Centauri moves at a constant rate.

Even the tiniest of errors are magnified greatly by distance. Even the slightest of orbital eccentricities are magnified by time. Take my word for this: We're not going to score a 4.4 light year bullseye on a moving target.

[Shnercropolis]

We could send a probe to Alpha Centauri pretty quick. All we'd have to do is give it a gravitational slingshot around Jupiter, then have a really powerful burn. Those two combined would probably accelerate it to relativistic speeds, and then we only have to wait a few decades while it gets there.

Here's the problem: When we look at Alpha Centauri, we are looking at it as it was four and a half years ago. It's position will have moved since then. It will move even further by the time a probe approaches it. So the chances of one or more course corrections being necessary during this probe's trip are extremely high; almost a certainty. But as we are several years away by radio, the probe will have to be capable of making these course corrections automatically based on observations en route. That's a pretty tall order for a computer. Not the calculations, the observations.

We might have the technology to build the rocket and the probe, but the brain needed to fly it is still a few generations away.

Orbit plotting is something that computers can do with ease. And we can predict Alpha Centauri's motion easily, so it's unlikely we'd miss the system entirely. The hard part, I think, would be getting the probe to slow down once it enters the system. Getting down from relatavistic speed isn't easy. Perhaps we could reverse the gravitational slingshot with another one? Or maybe have the probe do a quick fyby? Then we'd have to send multiple probes to get anything of substance back. It's an engineering problem for sure, but if we really wanted to there's no reason we couldn't. It's just that people are more interested in Obamacare and the Crimea crisis.

[Lordieth]

Breaking News; Russia Annex Kepler-186f.

[Risottia]

The only viable technology for humans to reach that planet (500 ly away) is a generational spaceship.

Based on current knowledge of physics, that is.

True.
Still, our current knowledge of physics seems to be fairly accurate as long as stuff like a 500 ly travel is involved. I don't see a warp drive coming up any soon.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

Based on current knowledge of physics, that is.

True.
Still, our current knowledge of physics seems to be fairly accurate as long as stuff like a 500 ly travel is involved. I don't see a warp drive coming up any soon.

I've almost got it worked out. There's just one detail that continues to elude me and then I can patent it and be a gazillionaire!

I'm not sure what color it should be.

[Risottia]

True.
Still, our current knowledge of physics seems to be fairly accurate as long as stuff like a 500 ly travel is involved. I don't see a warp drive coming up any soon.

I've almost got it worked out. There's just one detail that continues to elude me and then I can patent it and be a gazillionaire!

I'm not sure what color it should be.

Loony LG, only Ruskies are allowed to be GAZillionaires!

Anyway, paint it infrared or microwave. This way we can see it when it comes back.

[Lunatic Goofballs]

I've almost got it worked out. There's just one detail that continues to elude me and then I can patent it and be a gazillionaire!

I'm not sure what color it should be.

Loony LG, only Ruskies are allowed to be GAZillionaires!

Aww. Screw this then. *shreds the blueprints*

[Risottia]

Perhaps we could reverse the gravitational slingshot with another one?

Generally, I don't think it would work.

[The Serbian Empire]

I bet a UFOlogist will say this is where aliens and UFOs come from. We have found the source for extraterrestrials.

[Zaldakki]

Or the crew becoming a floating colony of cannibals within that span of time...

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 4 mark 3 and a bit, I lose track cos my sleep patterns are shot to hell. Today, the ship's doctor presented to the officers a very interesting proposal, to enhance crew members born in passage with the regenerative capabilities of starfish. The Science Officer and two technicians have been assigned to the project.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 6 mark 9 mark 1. Another birth has been celebrated onboard. The infant has been named "Starfish" in recognition that she is the first crew member with full regenerative capabilities. The dissent of Aftshipsman O'Shad is noted, and the Science Officer has been retasked to investigating reports of fish in space.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 19 mark 4 mark 4. Certain junior crew-members have been enjoying the pastime of swordfighting. While swordfighting will still be permitted among regeneration-capable crew members, I and the council of Officers have applied restrictions on the number of limbs severed per stardate, in order to conserve nutrients.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 21 mark 0 mark 4. I am pleased to report the commission of Regeneration Officer Spacetits to represent and regulate the interests of our regeneration-capable crew members, who now number 20.4 percent of the crew. We all keenly anticipate further developments in this area.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 39 mark 0 mark 6. Issues raised by some crew members, concerning sources of nutrients, have been resolved. Henceforth, discarded or severed body parts will not be returned to the general nutrient cycle. The Regeneratives among the crew sought, and have been granted, jurisdiction over the processing of their own discarded or severed tissues.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 39 mark 2 mark 9. Issues raised by some crew members regarding the consumption of discarded or severed nerve tissue have been resolved. The nerve tissue will be processed separately, according to the wishes of the Neural Regenerative member of starship crew.

Starship Fool's Errand, Captain's Log. Stardate 42 mark 9 mark 2. All issues regarding the reprocessing of crewmember tissues for nutrients have been resolved, and all crewmembers are now brains subsisting brains entirely on unprocessed neural tissue. Power previously used by food brains replicators has been rebrained to the main engines.