2011-12-06, 02:52 PM
A few ideas:
1) The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time gets. So if humans could travel at (or near) the speed of light, then the "600 year journey" wouldn't take very long at all to the travelers. If we reached the speed of light, the journey should be instantaneous to the passengers.
2) If we can't get to the speed of light, then what's so wrong about the idea of a ship designed to support multiple generations? I mean, you're set out to colonize the planet, there's bound to be men, women and children on board. Why not design your ship to have a nursery, schools, etc. on board?
3) A fully-autonomous robot ship carrying frozen embryos (and/or cryogenically frozen adults), specially programmed to "hatch" a (new) generation several years before contact with the planet. The humans would be in charge of establishing the colony. Or of course, you can have the robots finally unfreeze the humans after the base is established.
4) Wormholes?
1) The closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time gets. So if humans could travel at (or near) the speed of light, then the "600 year journey" wouldn't take very long at all to the travelers. If we reached the speed of light, the journey should be instantaneous to the passengers.
2) If we can't get to the speed of light, then what's so wrong about the idea of a ship designed to support multiple generations? I mean, you're set out to colonize the planet, there's bound to be men, women and children on board. Why not design your ship to have a nursery, schools, etc. on board?
3) A fully-autonomous robot ship carrying frozen embryos (and/or cryogenically frozen adults), specially programmed to "hatch" a (new) generation several years before contact with the planet. The humans would be in charge of establishing the colony. Or of course, you can have the robots finally unfreeze the humans after the base is established.
4) Wormholes?

