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Materials and technologies for interstellar flights and intra-galactic spread of lifeSmall automated spaceships are capable to deliver seeds, frozen ova and gametes to other planetary systems. A spaceship can be equipped with a freezer containing reproductive cells, an artificial uterus, a robotic nursery and school, and a collection of instruments and equipment. The whole spaceship will be frozen during a long interstellar flight. Approaching another star, a spaceship will generate electricity from light, warm up, slow down and land on a suitable planet (if any), give birth to a human, provide care and education. After schooling, the human will vacate the spaceship and either build more space for living (using local materials) or die. A vacant spaceship will supply more people, one at a time. Hopefully, they will collectively create a sustainable colony on a remote planet.

Our Milky Way galaxy has hundreds billion stars (i.e., more stars than humans on Earth). Mass production of spacecrafts for intragalactic spread of life will make each spaceship cheaper, will improve employment and purposeful production on Earth, and will spread human life beyond the Solar System. If any spaceship will miss its target stellar system, it will fly to the next one, retaining ability to bring life to another planet.

Which materials and technologies are needed for the interstellar life propagation? Materials age during a long interstellar flight, which can last from 10^4 to 10^10 years. We evaluate the computational methods (such as C2NEB, available from https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ameslab_software/1) that are suitable for addressing materials aging at low temperatures and high radiation levels during the appropriately long-time scales.
Document ID
20205006811
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Presentation
Authors
Nikolai A Zarkevich
(Ames Research Center Mountain View, California, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2020
Subject Category
Chemistry And Materials (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: ASGSR 2020 virtual meeting
Location: online
Country: US
Start Date: November 5, 2020
End Date: November 6, 2020
Sponsors: Ames Research Center
Funding Number(s)
WORK_UNIT: TI20
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
Keywords
Technologies
interstellar flight
intra-galactic
spread of life
computational methods
Materials
Aging

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