Evacuating Earth

[Deleted]

we should liberate a large asteroid and hollow the fecker out and strap engines to him, don't have to get whole ship in orbit before or after build (cheaper) and nothing better than a few miles of stone to stop cosmic rays ^^ barring a huge-ass electromagnet which would likely cost a bomb to do in space.

---------- Post added 2012-12-31 at 12:12 PM ----------

I think the idea is that unless we are forced by imminent destruction that will not happen.

looking back over human history id say that as soon as we are able to, we will.

[Deleted]

How about launching cloning facilities and massive DNA banks. Or maybe that's way too sci-fi.


Also, this.

I'd rather watch a documentary about us leaving earth to venture out into space without the fearmongering visuals of CG planets getting destroyed accompanied by dramatic music.

[DeltrusDisc]

I lot of people would likely not want to leave, even if they knew they would die.

I am absolutely horrified of going into Space, as much as I find Space amazing. I'd be torn, myself.

[Deleted]

I lot of people would likely not want to leave, even if they knew they would die.

Exactly. Look today, we can't even evacuate a few villages when a flood comes or something like that. To evacuate the entire planet would be impossible.

[Catta]

How about launching cloning facilities and massive DNA banks. Or maybe that's way too sci-fi.


Also, this.

That really doesnt save many... Rather have people out in space having SEX! IN SPACE! Think of the possibilities.

[cudomix]

Why do you need to evacuate Earth anyways, that's impossible and grossly inefficient. If Earth is faced with a similar catastrophe, our only hope of preserving human race would be some kind of generational ship (assuming that Solar System would be uninhabitable), but i'm not sure we could construct and launch one in 75 years. While engineering and technological part may be possible to achieve, social requirement would be insane, you'll need to unite most (if not all) of Earth into one common goal, probably with some kind of military dictatorship, abolishing currency and strict rationing of everything (food, energy, probably removing most of non-usable population).

Crew (probably around 300-400, that should be enough to ensure genetic diversity and enough overlapping between skillsets) would be selected and trained from birth (maybe from million or more of potential candidates), their goal would be to get to Alpha Centauri (their descendants' goal actually) and from there they would try to increase population and search for any potential habitable planets or moons. Alpha Centauri has at least one planet, so existence of asteroid belt or similar source of required materials would be probable. Sadly, most of these goals would be pretty much impossible considering the nature of humans, so our end would be much faster.

[shise]

If such think was about to happen (chances are prolly higher that we can think of) and they knew it, we would never know it


They'd pick X people and get them to Mars or who knows where.


There's just no point saving 7Billion lifes, let's be sadly honest.

[Kalyyn]

All this talk about asteroids and neutron stars, and not one mention of the far more likely scenario: A full-scale Cylon invasion.

[Catta]

Going to watch this now. I also found out that there is a HD-version of the same documentary in Youtube, it's not FullHD but to me it seems at least slightly better than 360p.

[video=youtube;0hds_fiwSqs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hds_fiwSqs&hd=1[video]

Put it in the OP

---------- Post added 2012-12-31 at 05:35 PM ----------

All this talk about asteroids and neutron stars, and not one mention of the far more likely scenario: A full-scale Cylon invasion.

You spelled "Reapers" wrong,

[Catta]

If such think was about to happen (chances are prolly higher that we can think of) and they knew it, we would never know it


They'd pick X people and get them to Mars or who knows where.


There's just no point saving 7Billion lifes, let's be sadly honest.

Im pretty sure they could see the star - and Mars wouldnt fare better

[Kalyyn]

If such think was about to happen (chances are prolly higher that we can think of) and they knew it, we would never know it

I'm pretty sure we would all know. I mean, you can see stars from billions of light years away at night, right? So when you look up in the night sky and see one that's vastly larger than all the others, you'd probably think to yourself "something seems to be amiss here..."

[Catta]

Why do you need to evacuate Earth anyways, that's impossible and grossly inefficient. If Earth is faced with a similar catastrophe, our only hope of preserving human race would be some kind of generational ship (assuming that Solar System would be uninhabitable), but i'm not sure we could construct and launch one in 75 years. While engineering and technological part may be possible to achieve, social requirement would be insane, you'll need to unite most (if not all) of Earth into one common goal, probably with some kind of military dictatorship, abolishing currency and strict rationing of everything (food, energy, probably removing most of non-usable population).

Crew (probably around 300-400, that should be enough to ensure genetic diversity and enough overlapping between skillsets) would be selected and trained from birth (maybe from million or more of potential candidates), their goal would be to get to Alpha Centauri (their descendants' goal actually) and from there they would try to increase population and search for any potential habitable planets or moons. Alpha Centauri has at least one planet, so existence of asteroid belt or similar source of required materials would be probable. Sadly, most of these goals would be pretty much impossible considering the nature of humans, so our end would be much faster.

Did you even watch the video before commenting? They aren't evacuating all of Earth - only about 250.000.

And it would never be completed if you had to force countries to do it.

Furthermore it would be insane to just aim for some star because its near and hope for a planet rather than trying to figure out the existence and chemistry of a planet before deciding.

---------- Post added 2012-12-31 at 05:45 PM ----------

I'm pretty sure we would all know. I mean, you can see stars from billions of light years away at night, right? So when you look up in the night sky and see one that's vastly larger than all the others, you'd probably think to yourself "something seems to be amiss here..."

I was wondering why the Frisbee was looking larger the closer it got - and then it hit me.

[Deleted]

A very low end estimate on how much it costs to get one pound of material into space is $10,000.

You're assuming earth to space transport costs will remain static, with no major scientific breakthroughs - or really any cost cutting at all? By 2060 space technology will be far far more advanced than it is now. I mean SpaceX was in the news recently providing $54 million liftoff costs, while it costs ULA on average $464 million per launch - technology can have a large impact on the feasibility of such a project. Just look at the bloated US space shuttle program & how much that costed compared to private enterprise or even the Russian program.

Also as you can see from here, you can already transport material for 2000$ per pound, and you can assume within 50 years or even 10 years that cost will be far lower.

[ddsad2212]

Watched it 4 days or so ago, was entertaining to watch and I like how they went through everything. I honestly think it would be possible to build a space ship similar , even easier then shown there if the earth was in danger. Then again I also think the ship would not work due to no real testing

[bellabulldog]

Any ship to be built would never be that big with anything resembling modern technology. A ship that big would absolutely have to be built (or at least assembled) in space, and just the recourses and logistics to get the materials to construct it into space from earth (much less actually harvesting the recourses to build the pieces at all) would be insane to an impossible level. The ship would need to be vastly smaller. We wouldn’t be talking about hundreds of thousands of people; we would be talking about single digit thousands at the most with hundreds being a more likely number.

EDIT: Further into the video now and they even say it would have to be built in space and talk about how we can lift all of 130 tons into low orbit with a single launch. The shear mass of the ship would make it impossible to get it all into space. There would need to be hundreds of thousands of such rocket launches to accomplish this (we may as well aim to build the Death Star like that one petition to the White House that has been posted on this forum before). I dislike fictional documentaries like this that seem to assume the audience is a bunch of complete idiots (even if the general populous actually is).

Wrong.

Existing technology could easily put 130 tons in orbit. Would not even need to be assembled in space. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project...ar_propulsion) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4k_YZAXSEI

And travel at 1-3% the speed of light.

[CrazyKenny]

If this was to be the case in the next few years I would not want to go. I feel like going down by being destroyed by a neutron star would be the most awesome death I could've ever wanted.

[Deleted]

Furthermore it would be insane to just aim for some star because its near and hope for a planet rather than trying to figure out the existence and chemistry of a planet before deciding.

Seems to me that betting that a planet will be able to support us is even more insane. Honestly I'd just target a star that would have useful resources. Who cares about resettling ? Once you've got a spaceship that can support life on this scale, just build more of them! And if you really want a planet, you can probably find some fuel for whatever propulsion engine you have as well.

[Knough]

http://what-if.xkcd.com/7/
great although short website, that particular link covers the idea of global evacuation fairly well.

[Catta]

Seems to me that betting that a planet will be able to support us is even more insane. Honestly I'd just target a star that would have useful resources. Who cares about resettling ? Once you've got a spaceship that can support life on this scale, just build more of them! And if you really want a planet, you can probably find some fuel for whatever propulsion engine you have as well.

Mind you, that the innovation is likely to stop. How do you imagine us getting a significant amount of resources off a planet with an environment that requires space suits - with a space ship that cannot land on the planet.

Also - there are drawbacks to living in such a ship - completely annihilation of the human race being a hull breach away being but one.

[PACOX]

looking back over human history id say that as soon as we are able to, we will.

I doubt it. We could of had colonies on the moon a long time ago. We only went to space because the US and USSR wanted to see who could build the best missiles and spy satellites. The US was the leader in human space exploration and we aren't doing much with now because other nations are playing catch up. Unless there is another space race or there is some looming cosmic threat, we are stuck on this rock.