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Just read the recent news and it is very exciting!

Kepler-22b

So, given that we know from SB1 Revised that the US had usable cryogenic stasis technology prior to the cataclysm, do you think that we would have launched a colonization mission in the Golden Age (assuming the planet IS habitable)? More importantly, do you suppose an effort could have been made or attempted to ensure the survival of the species by launching some kind of evacuation mission after the 2098 'event'?

They had space travel and the tech for it, I'd say it was quite likely. Contrary to some who look for every reason why it couldn't happen we already had a colonization effort on Mars in Rifts and AtB, someone was bound to have tried at least one long-range colonization effort. With the traction drive to reach near-light speed they could make it to Alpha Centauri inside 10 years, and while we haven't detected any you can in sci-fi assume like many writers that there are habitable planets around both primary suns (the third if memory serves is a red sun and the habitable zone so close the planet would be tidal locked). A couple of centuries of development and you could see a return mission to see what kind of shape the home-world is in.

I do think that is an interesting Idea, and I really don't see why not. we had the tech to Crio freeze people. I think there would likely to at least be some effort to scout out worlds that we might want to send a mission to in the hopes that they would retrun and with news of worlds that could support human life. I could just see it now the scout of Alpha Centarie would take 20 years to just to get there and back. and I am not sure how long it would take to scout the system. and see how viable the Eco systems are to human life. now I could see that mission getting back ether just before or after the coming of the rifts. if it is just before then planning for the mission to colonize the world or worlds found would likely be in some level of the planing stage the Question is would it be fare enough to make some kind of evacuation likely, IE has the ship or ships been built, and the supply's gathered... if not the only people who might be able to go ahead with the mission would be people in orbit.... would they be willing to comment the resources to such a mission.....

I don't see any one going to anther star system to live because there might be a place they can live when the get there. sorry....

so what you have to ask yourself is this.
How long will it take to plain and execute the scouting missions?
when do they start planing for when the scouts come back and tell them if there is any place to go?
when do they start building the ships?
how long does the planing take, and the Training of the people taking part in the mission?

All good questions to have in mind!

I like that idea a lot! Kind of like the premise of Pandorum. Minus the cannibalistic super evolved survivors.

Or would it be?

keep in mind the planet is 2.4 times larger in radius than earth. if it has a density similar to earth's, it'll have gravity on the 4-6 g range, fatal for humans.

if it's much less dense, it could be between ~1 and 2 gravities, which humans could survive, but will suffer a lot of phyisical problems as a result.

however the less dense option basically is an Ocean world, all water with no land. oceans hundreds of miles deep. and since there is no land, and thus no mineral run off to keep concentration up, the odds of recognizable life existing are pretty slim. microbial stuff perhaps, but larger creatures would have trouble with the lack of minerals in the enviroment.,

(Mineral content of water is the result of erosion of land due to the water cycle. the minerals leeched out of the rocks, or carried to the sea as silt and mud provide mineral content for life processes. the reason erosion is an important factor in this is the fact there is constant settling of mineral content out of the system. dead animals and excess disolved minerals settle out and eventually form new layers of rock. on an ocean world, where the seas are so deep that the core is surrounded in exotic pressure created ices, these settled minerals leave the system the same way, but unlike on earth, there is no steady influx of new minerals into the system from erosion of the land.)


it's also woth pointing out that the planet is over 600 light years away. while traction drives can get you up to some increadable speeds, travelling safely you wouldn't want to exceed 20% C or so, probably less. (even at .2c, a grain of dust hits the ship with the force of an atom bomb.) so your looking at a one way trip of over 3000 years. and we don't know whether the traction drive is actually pre-rifts tech or not. if stuck with fusion drives (the next best drive type, albeit highly unreliable as per MiO), you could maybe get up to a few % of light for a 'small' interstellar probe (small in this case meaning several billions tons, delivering a payload of a couple of tons of deployable drones that make high speed passes through a system), meaning your looking closer to 30,000 years to get there..

either way, if pre-rifts earth did send out an expedition, manned or otherwise, it wouldn't even have arrived yet by the timeframe of RIFTS.

well as this is a fantasy setting we can do with as we want. we can say that our space program found another possible planet within a 150- 300 year range. this would allow for furture exploration, disaster prevention (extintion of the human race), the mission would also drop off Satellites every so often to set up communications and other mission operations so the space program could expand even furture in future missions.
I would see a rather large colony ship built and sent. the ship would basicly drop off the prefap stuff to get the colony set up stay in orbit for the first couple of years just incase, before returning home.

Instead of thinking this mission a government operation, what if it was a civilian or even corperation sponsored mission. the people who are going are willing to take the risk. If the world pays off in riches as it is hoped for then those who have gone will get a huge pay off.

now imagine what happens when another race discovers the satellites and decides to go find those who are litering the universe with thier junk.

Water world? No access to metal?
Suggested reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_World
Great Jack Vance sci-fi story, not so much hard sci-fi as adventure/space opera(planet-bound). True, the colonists are the survivors of a prison ship, but they have to make do with limited resources, as available living atop giant seaweed/lilypads.

any trip to there would still be on the way, unless another form of travel was found

taalismn wrote:Water world? No access to metal?
Suggested reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blue_World
Great Jack Vance sci-fi story, not so much hard sci-fi as adventure/space opera(planet-bound). True, the colonists are the survivors of a prison ship, but they have to make do with limited resources, as available living atop giant seaweed/lilypads.

Ok taalismn, I am gonna find this one and give it a chance.

I can see a one way trip being sent out as a forward mission to get things ready for when the technology is being developed.

Kepler-22b doesn't look like a planet people would live on, but rather a planet that could be used for scientific study assuming life did develop on it. Now give me an alternate dimension where mars and venus are switched in positions and things would get pretty interesting in our little niche in the milky way pretty fast.