Home is Kepler 186f

[Walsingham]

[Woldan]

Needs more basic information: 

 

The artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f , the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone—a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. The discovery of Kepler-186f confirms that Earth-size planets exist in the habitable zones of other stars and signals a significant step closer to finding a world similar to Earth.

The size of Kepler-186f is known to be less than ten percent larger than Earth, but its mass, composition and density are not known. Previous research suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky. Prior to this discovery, the "record holder" for the most "Earth-like" planet went to Kepler-62f, which is 40 percent larger than the size of Earth and orbits in its star's habitable zone.

Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130 days and receives one-third the energy that Earth does from the sun, placing it near the outer edge of the habitable zone. If you could stand on the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon would appear as bright as our sun is about an hour before sunset on Earth.

Kepler-186f resides in the Kepler-186 system about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus. The system is also home to four inner planets, seen lined up in orbit around a host star that is half the size and mass of the sun.

[Keyrock]

Nice.  That would be a fairly cold place to live, based on the amount of energy it's getting from its star, though there may be other forces at work heating it, such as tidal friction or a run away greenhouse effect.

[Woldan]

Nice.  That would be a fairly cold place to live, based on the amount of energy it's getting from its star, though there may be other forces at work heating it, such as tidal friction or a run away greenhouse effect.

 

Any planet that doesn't instantly deep freeze, fry or squish you and you can't fall through is a win in my book. Maybe terraforming can increase the temperature to a more comfortable level one day. 

[Nonek]

Three obvious questions arise: Primus - Does the planet have a strong enough magnetic field to support a viable atmosphere and block out harmful radiation? Secundus - How do we reach the planet, cryostasis, generation ships? Tertius - How do we protect the crew of these ships from the cancers that arise from high levels of radiation exposure during quite (in comparison) brief space voyages?

 

I admit though it does raise hope of there being habitable planetoids nearer to our home system, though if they show any signs of life would it be moral to expose them to our microbe and alien bodies?

[Woldan]

Baby steps. We can't get there the conventional way, it would take so much time that it would become highly unpractical. Don't forget the weight of all the equipment required just for the journey, then add all the supplies and stuff people would need to build a colony there, then add the time to get information back to earth. Radiation shielding isn't a problem but its very heavy. 

Also during the hundreds if not thousands of years the space ship is traveling to that distant planet scientists might discover a far more efficient and faster way of space travel which makes the whole trip kinda dumb. 

Extremely unpractical². 

 

IMO things we need to invent before we can travel to planets light years away: 

 

* Space elevator or an accelerator cannon to get thousands of tons of equipment and supplies into orbit 

* Moon base to assemble the space vehicle

* Space warp/bubble engine

 

Check back in 300-500 years or so. 

Edited April 18, 2014 by Woldan

[Walsingham]

Three obvious questions arise: Primus - Does the planet have a strong enough magnetic field to support a viable atmosphere and block out harmful radiation? Secundus - How do we reach the planet, cryostasis, generation ships? Tertius - How do we protect the crew of these ships from the cancers that arise from high levels of radiation exposure during quite (in comparison) brief space voyages?

 

I admit though it does raise hope of there being habitable planetoids nearer to our home system, though if they show any signs of life would it be moral to expose them to our microbe and alien bodies?

 

If we don't colonise then we are doomed to live out only as long as this biosphere is amenable. Also, I don't see why we should suddenly get all squeamish when aliens are involved.

[Keyrock]

 

IMO things we need to invent before we can travel to planets light years away: 

 

* Moon base to assemble the space vehicle

 

To me that's step 1 before we do anything interstellar, or even make manned journeys to the far reaches of our own solar system.  We expend an enormous amount of energy escaping the Earth's gravity well.  Starting the journey from the moon would save massive amounts of fuel.

[Woldan]

To me that's step 1 before we do anything interstellar, or even make manned journeys to the far reaches of our own solar system.  We expend an enormous amount of energy escaping the Earth's gravity well.  Starting the journey from the moon would save massive amounts of fuel.

Agreed. I don't get it why people focus that much on building a base on mars. NASA already invented pretty cool inflatable yet highly spacious and robust space modules and we're blessed with a large extremely stable moon right at our doorstep. What we need is a second Cape Canaveral up there, that would make the true start of space exploration.

Also, what most people don't realize - you can build more effective space exploration vehicles in near zero gravity, those vehicles don't have to survive re-entry and escaping gravity and atmospheres. It offers many design and effectiveness advantages.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Woldan

[Nonek]

 

If we don't colonise then we are doomed to live out only as long as this biosphere is amenable. Also, I don't see why we should suddenly get all squeamish when aliens are involved.

 

 

Suffer not the Xeno's to live?

 

Edit: It does make one wonder however whether we will ever (if possible) invent some stable form of Gap drive? The nearest theories i've heard that sound remotely feasible involve shackling a singularity and forming a wormhole, and one imagines the cost and effort of such an endeavour would bankrupt all of Earth.

 

It may be that the colonisation of other worlds might be for all intents and purposes a one way trip. With vast generation ships upon which families of engineers, mechanics, gardeners and whatever other trades are needed, breed, grow and repair on their conveyance until it reaches the destination. Such an undertaking would be again an almost prohibitively expensive undertaking.

 

A most interesting topic.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Nonek

[Monte Carlo]

We need to do what we did with Australia - get a load of convicts and peasants, put them in a ship and fire them at this rock.

 

The result is a race of hardy athletes who are resistant to hostile environments and spiders. Perfect,

[Drowsy Emperor]

We need to do what we did with Australia - get a load of convicts and peasants, put them in a ship and fire them at this rock.

 

The result is a race of hardy athletes who are resistant to hostile environments and spiders. Perfect,

 

The sole argument worth considering. Otherwise, why bother. Grand colonization plans are kinda balls when half the planet still barely has access to clean drinking water and a no roof over their heads other than corrugated iron.

[rjshae]

Given that the host star is a red dwarf, planet is likely tidally locked to its star, just like the Moon is to the Sun. This produces some unusual climactic conditions, to say the least--perhaps deep ice on one side and endless desert on the other, with extreme winds to transfer the energy between hemispheres. The transition zone may be a place of violent weather extremes.

[Nonek]

We need to do what we did with Australia - get a load of convicts and peasants, put them in a ship and fire them at this rock.

 

The result is a race of hardy athletes who are resistant to hostile environments and spiders. Perfect,

 

And a few centuries down the line they send their Kylie's back to us, that's forward thinking Mr Carlo.

[JadedWolf]

We need to do what we did with Australia - get a load of convicts and peasants, put them in a ship and fire them at this rock.

 

The result is a race of hardy athletes who are resistant to hostile environments and spiders. Perfect,

 

And then we can train them to be Sardaukar.

[pmp10]

Edit: It does make one wonder however whether we will ever (if possible) invent some stable form of Gap drive? The nearest theories i've heard that sound remotely feasible involve shackling a singularity and forming a wormhole, and one imagines the cost and effort of such an endeavour would bankrupt all of Earth.

Not only that but we would need to use a planet for the sheer mass/energy required to form a stable wormhole going somewhere/somewhen.

But then it's not like anybody would really miss Saturn anyway.

 

It may be that the colonisation of other worlds might be for all intents and purposes a one way trip. With vast generation ships upon which families of engineers, mechanics, gardeners and whatever other trades are needed, breed, grow and repair on their conveyance until it reaches the destination. Such an undertaking would be again an almost prohibitively expensive undertaking.

That's essentially impossible due to enormous amount of supplies required.

Unless you give up on humans and do away purely with machines.

But if you are willing to do that then why not just settle for Mars instead?

[Nonek]

 

Edit: It does make one wonder however whether we will ever (if possible) invent some stable form of Gap drive? The nearest theories i've heard that sound remotely feasible involve shackling a singularity and forming a wormhole, and one imagines the cost and effort of such an endeavour would bankrupt all of Earth.

Not only that but we would need to use a planet for the sheer mass/energy required to form a stable wormhole going somewhere/somewhen.

But then it's not like anybody would really miss Saturn anyway.

 

It may be that the colonisation of other worlds might be for all intents and purposes a one way trip. With vast generation ships upon which families of engineers, mechanics, gardeners and whatever other trades are needed, breed, grow and repair on their conveyance until it reaches the destination. Such an undertaking would be again an almost prohibitively expensive undertaking.

That's essentially impossible due to enormous amount of supplies required.

Unless you give up on humans and do away purely with machines.

But if you are willing to do that then why not just settle for Mars instead?

 

 

You grow, breed and gather your supplies en-route one would postulate, all hypothetical however as it's totally beyond us at the moment.

 

I would think you would want a habitable life bearing planet, with a thick atmosphere protected by a hardy magnetic field, so that crops and cattle can be sustained and thrive. Mars wouldn't be suitable for such would it?

[Keyrock]

 

That's essentially impossible due to enormous amount of supplies required.

 

Not necessarily.  With artificial lighting you could grow food inside the ship and you could set up a filtration system to recycle fluids.  It would be extremely difficult (not to mention prohibitively expensive) with our current technology, but it's not inconceivable for the near future.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Keyrock

[213374U]

Given that the host star is a red dwarf, planet is likely tidally locked to its star, just like the Moon is to the Sun.

 

You mean tidally locked to Earth? I had never heard about the Moon being tidally locked to the Sun. How does that even work?

 

And yeah, I hate windy days as it is. I don't think living in an area with permanent hurricane-level winds is up my alley.

[Woldan]

But if you are willing to do that then why not just settle for Mars instead?

Mars' gravity is too little and would cause many long term arterial, cardiovascular and bone related health problems, human bodies are not designed to live in near zero gravity environments, I don't think sustained life could be possible up there. Not to mention due to the immense UV and x-ray radiation because of the missing magnetic shielding you couldn't leave your habitat for very long. A long term solution would be building underground habitats. Sustained human life wouldn't be possible that way, you'd better of living on the moon.

 

Also terraforming Mars is probably not possible because the radiation and coronal mass ejections would literally blow away most of the atmosphere because -again- of the missing magnetosphere.

 

IF Kepler 186f has a somewhat working magnetosphere to protect the surface and its habitants from deadly radiation, IF its dense enough but not too dense to create gravity around 0.8-1.2 G's, IF the weather isn't absolutely crazy (storms with wind speeds in excess of mach 2 are nothing special in our solar system), IF it doesn't have excessive geothermal activities and IF it has water it might be an option for human settlements in the very, very, VERY distant future.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Woldan

[Keyrock]

 

But if you are willing to do that then why not just settle for Mars instead?

Mars' gravity is too little and would cause many long term arterial, cardiovascular and bone related health problems, human bodies are not designed to live in near zero gravity environments, I don't think sustained life could be possible up there. Not to mention due to the immense UV and x-ray radiation because of the missing magnetic shielding you couldn't leave your habitat for very long. A long term solution would be building underground habitats. Sustained human life wouldn't be possible that way, you'd better of living on the moon.

 

 

I think we would adapt.  Mars' gravity is a little more than 1/3 of Earth's gravity.  The first several generations living there would indeed have serious problems, but eventually the humans' on Mars bodies would change in accordance to the gravity present and to those humans (Martians at that point, for all intensive purposes) that gravity would be normal.  Now, if they ever went to Earth they'd have severe problems.

Edited April 18, 2014 by Keyrock

[Woldan]

I don't think we would adapt nearly fast enough. We could adapt to slowly rising temperatures, or air slowly getting thinner / decreasing oxygen satiation, history has shown we can do that given enough time - but an instant change from 1G down to .38G pretty much instantly? Thats a dramatic change, I'm very sure people would wither and die a horrible death in max. 10 years. Astronauts get all sorts of problems only after a couple of months on the ISS, and we're talking about lifetimes here. And pregnancies, I'm sure very low gravity would cause all sorts of birth defects and developmental disorders on the fetus.

 

It would be awful.

[Valsuelm]

We can't even get a man on the moon, let alone to the closest planet Mars or the far reaches of our own solar system. For the most part our endeavors in space have been abandoned excepting for commercial and military endeavors. By the predominant current dogma of astrophysical theory we will never be able to exceed the speed of light to go the ~490 estimated light years to the planet in question. Kepler-186f is as much a non-issue as planning your 283rd birthday right now is.

[213374U]

I don't think we would adapt nearly fast enough. We could adapt to slowly rising temperatures, or air slowly getting thinner / decreasing oxygen satiation, history has shown we can do that given enough time - but an instant change from 1G down to .38G pretty much instantly? Thats a dramatic change, I'm very sure people would wither and die a horrible death in max. 10 years. Astronauts get all sorts of problems only after a couple of months on the ISS, and we're talking about lifetimes here. And pregnancies, I'm sure very low gravity would cause all sorts of birth defects and developmental disorders on the fetus.

 

It would be awful.

 

It would be awful, but not necessarily inviable. The record for the longest spaceflight is ~14 months, and the dude didn't seem to suffer any long lasting health problems. Adults seem capable of supporting that, even if over time their ability to go back to higher gravity worlds could be lost. Now, pregnancy and delivery in microgravity, that's completely uncharted territory.

 

But yeah, by the time the engineering kinks are ironed out (what with c being the absolute maximum speed in the universe and all), I'd expect genetic engineering to have advanced enough to render that a non-issue.

[BruceVC]

I wonder what type of internet connectivity exists on this planet? Would we still be able to check the Obsidian forums....that's an important consideration around any move to a new country or planet