Future Space Colony
|
Researchers are trying to figure out the ideal number of
people needed to create a viable population for multi-
generational space travel. They?ve decided it needs to be 160
people. But with some social engineering it might even be
possible to reduce this to 80.
Anthropologist John Moore of the University of Florida
wondered how future humans might successfully undertake
century-long journeys out into space. Other scientists have
concentrated on freezing people with cryogenics or taking
along sperm banks, but Moore says, ?the ?right stuff? for a
journey into space is the family?a million-year-old institution
designed to assist reproduction.?
Moore has previously studied small migrating populations of
early humans and has developed simulation software called
Ethnopop that analyzes the reproductive viability of small
groups. A space trip of 200 years would perhaps take eight to
10 generations, and for this, his calculations suggest a
minimum number of 160 people are needed to maintain a
stable population. This would produce around 10 potential
marriage partners per person, he says, and if this seems too
small a number, ?think about how many people you dated
before you got married.?
Room would be at a premium on any spacecraft and reducing
the number of people initially required might be desirable.
Moore suggests two ways to accomplish this. The first is to
begin with young childless couples, the way Polynesian
seafaring colonists once did. The second is to ask the space
crew to postpone reproduction until the woman is 35 to 40
years old, creating longer time gaps between the
generations. This results in a stable population of just 80 but
the consequences of the increased medical risks of late
childbirth have to be considered.
Small populations can suffer a damaging reduction in genetic
diversity due to inbreeding, says Dennis O?Rourke of the
University of Utah. He considered the same 10-generation,
200-year journey as Moore did, looking at both genetic drift
and inbreeding, and found there wasn?t a problem. ?The
decrease in genetic variation is actually quite small and less
than found in some successful small populations on Earth,? he
says. ?It would not be a significant factor as long as the
space travelers come home or interact with other humans at
the end of the 200 year period.?
O'Rourke believes that a more serious concern would be the
presence of potentially damaging genotypes in the initial
space pioneers. Genetic screening might be needed when
choosing the first space colonists. He says, ?Any harmful
recessive characteristics might lead to increased healthcare
loads which would deplete scarce resources.?
A final concern is the possibility of infighting. Small
communities isolated for long periods at research stations in
Antarctic have shown how small conflicts can quickly
escalate. But Moore says, ?Some small island communities on
Earth have lived in peace and harmony for thousands of years
because they have developed ways of solving conflicts.
These [solutions] are not taken to Antarctica.?
For more information,
click here.
Unlike today?s relatively small space stations, the craft of
tomorrow will have to be the size of small cities and will be
constructed in orbit. Transporting large numbers of people
across the galaxy to new worlds will require vast ships driven
by gigantic sails, blown across deep space by intense bursts
from a giant laser. American space agency researcher Dr.
Geoffrey Landis says, ?You could have a sail that is perhaps
hundreds of miles across. It would be huge but extremely
light and then the colony itself that?s being pulled by the sail
would be just a tiny little speck compared with this enormous
sail. It would glide serenely through space, lit up from time to
time as the sail hit dust particles on the way.?
An interstellar ship would be like an ark, carrying everything
the colonists might need, including greenhouses for growing
food and sophisticated manufacturing facilities.
Anthropologists think it could be important for the crew to be
composed of a variety of nationalities to increase the size of
the gene pool. And if these humans remained in reproductive
isolation for long enough, they could evolve into another
species altogether.
For more information,
click here.
The volunteers who went on a long mission would have to
realize that they would probably not live to see the ship?s
final destination. Linguistics expert Professor Sarah Thompson
of the University of Michigan, believes the colony could soon
have difficulties communicating with Earth. ?Let?s say you
start with one language?perhaps English,? she says. ?After
500 years, English will have changed so much on Earth and so
much, and completely independently, on the spaceship that
they will be mutually unintelligible. So, you'll have space
English and Earth English and they won?t be able to
communicate.?
Basic vocabulary like mother, father, run, walk and sit would
still be used but words that don?t apply to life in space, like
car and train, would die out. Thompson thinks the most
noticeable change will be the dialect they speak. She
says, ?This single relatively homogeneous dialect will be
noticeable with the first generation of children born on the
space vehicle and will surely result in a dialect that differs
from all of the parents? dialects, and from every other dialect
of English spoken on Earth.?
For more information, click here.
