Charting

Charting the Oort Cloud

Need to Chart the Comets

We are probing the mysteries of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud today with optical telescopes. In coming decades this ability will be improved. Larger bodies like Sedna or Quaror will be studied in great detail. Eventually, huge space telescopes will allow even greater penetration of the dim Oort Cloud and perhaps even into the Oort Cloud of the Centauri system. For safe interstellar travel this will be essential. Centuries from today we will launch beam riding probes with radar dishes many kilometers in diameter into the Cloud where they will brake with mag-sails and go into slow orbits at enormous distances from the Sun, the Centauri system and other nearby stars. Theses AI probes will be capable of self repair and they will have enough fusion fuel for centuries of operation. A swath of space between Sol and Centauri will be mapped in great detail down to the level of large boulders with the powerful radars of these probes. Since many objects in the Oort Cloud have orbits lasting for thousands, even millions of years, we won't have to worry about many objects outside of vast swaths of space between Sol and nearby stars through which ships will travel, at least not for a long time. The probles will also have enormous compound telescopes with apertures of several hundred meters to scan space in IR, UV and the visible spectrum to detect objects shining by starlight that comes from all directions. Thousands of the these probes will take up residence in interstellar space in slow circular orbits around the Sun and nearby stars. They will transmit data back to inhabited worlds via radio or laser. Computers will store data on billions of objects and their orbits. It will be possible to predict which objects will collide with other objects or be perturbed by the gravitational tides of nearby stars and become comets that dive in towards their central star. It seems as if an army of astronomers will be needed and that may be true, but the AI super computers of the future will do most of the work and inform humans about potentially dangerous comets and objects that might intersect the path of a starship or impact an inhabited planet and cause a catastrophe. Money to afford all this of course will be no object in the AI robotic future. Star Carriers will plot courses through space that do not intersect any dangerous objects and collisions will be avoided.

Dwelling in the Oort Cloud

Eventually, we will chart swaths of space between Sol and Barnard's Star and other nearby stars to enable safe interstellar voyaging. This data will be of interest to rugged pioneers who wish to colonize the comets. A typical comet has enough deuterium for power for many millenia and enough protium for millions of years to sustain small colonies of a few thousand people. Colonizing the Oort Cloud will be no more difficult than the Outer Solar system. Oort Cloud space colonies will be made with thick shells of ice for radiation protection and thermal insulation. The beauty of the Oort Cloud is not just its remoteness but its size. There is enough material there to sustain large populations. Comets are separated on average by about 20 A.U. Fusion powered and beam riding ships could zip between clusters of colonies near various comets. Some colonies as large as O'Neill's Island Three could have temperate climes within, others tropical and others oceanic settings. Artificial illumination would be required. There would be no tidal stresses on these structures as in orbit around a planet so Comet Colonies could be made of extreme size. People will live as if they are on the surface of a planet minus the extremes of temperature, storms and tsunamis, although there could be gentle rains. When colonies 100 kilometers wide and larger are built, why would anybody prefer a planet? Balloon borne islands could float in the calm skies of these artificial worlds. Despite the appeal of these man and woman made worldlets, extrasolar planets with other suns and moons in the sky as well as exotic alien life forms have a strong lure.

With most of the stars, about 80%, in the galaxy being red dwarfs that emitt little warmth and light but have the tendency to flare up with X-rays hundreds of thousands of times more intense than those emitted by flares on the Sun, much territory near stars is undesirable unless colonies have very thick X-ray proof walls; and who would want to be in a spaceship near a flaring red dwarf? Shielding a spaceship against these flares would be impractical. Out in the interstellar reaches of space where material is abundant, there is no danger. Colonizing the vast cometary spaces as well as the space near K, G and F type stars may be the most reasonable plan of action for a star faring galactic civilization of the far future. However, I have recently learned that after a billion years the x-ray flares of red dwarfs settle down, so many red dwarfs are safe. Also, though the life zone around a red dwarf may be narrow, there are so many red dwarfs that the chances of planets in the galaxy being in a red dwarf life zone are as high as the chances of a planet being in the wider life zone of stars like our Sun which are less numerous. Also, planets close enough to red dwarfs to receive enough warmth for life may be tidally locked but atmospheric circulation between the star side and the dark side may exist to even out temperatures, thus the star side may not overheat while the atmosphere freezes out on the dark side. Moreover, an entire planet would make excellent x-ray shielding for colonies on the dark side of a planet orbiting a flare star so possibilities exist. Energy from red dwarfs could be collected by complexes in close orbit and beamed out to space colonies at distance from the flares if we can keep the beams tight enough. If beams do disperse it is possible to have relay stations that receive the widened microwave power beams and transmit a tighter beam to greater distance.

Travel in the Oort Cloud

Beam riding Star Carriers could transport enormous numbers of people between the brighter stars, but dwellers of the Oort Cloud it seems will be isolated. A ship could be propelled to 0.3c to 0.67c and use mag-sail brakes to stop at a distant comet colony cluster, but it could not return, or could it? Perhaps antimatter propelled ships could travel between comet colonies and brighter K, G and F suns. Antimatter would be generated with lasers and fusion reactors powered by cometary hydrogen, or antimatter would be produced near bright stars with the abundant energies of stars harvested by solar energy complexes in space and propelled via high speed beam riding freighters on trips to comet colonies. Antimatter will be tricky stuff. If it can be produced and handled safely it could allow free roaming of the galaxy to dwellers of the Oort Cloud and its comet colony clusters. Antimatter powered ships will use explosive pulses and mag-sails similar to the old Orion nuclear pulse type ships and magnetically contained plasma beam core engines.

Another possibility is the use of giant protium fusion reactors to power propulsion beams that drive mag-sailing ships from the comets and small worlds of the interstellar regions back to the planets of central stars. Another possibility is the use of miniature black hole powered propulsion beams firing jets of plasma from cometary hydrogen fed into the artificial mini-BHs. It might even be possible to ignite brown dwarfs and rogue Jupiter sized planets in the Oort Clouds with mini-BHs. These man made stars could then supply light energy to colonies and propulsions beams. This would enable space travelers and denizens of the Oort Cloud to travel freely amongst the worlds orbiting nearby stars no matter how distant they are from the warmth of the stars.

Fusion rockets could use deuterium and helium 3 harvested from the atmospheres of gas giants orbiting near stars that is transported out to the comet dwellers.

Life in Interstellar Space

Eventually, dwellers of the Oort Cloud will map the entirity of this region and stop comets from falling in towards their parent star by applying low thrust rocket power over lengthy time periods. Although a huge population could be sustained, even the denizens of the interstellar regions will have to practice birth control. Not everybody will be concerned with space faring. Most people will be wrapped up in work, creative pursuits, social life, romance and family life. People will be people. Robots will do all the manufacturing and "grunt" work but people will still do all the child rearing and education, medical, nursing and elderly care with robot and computer assistance. Research into bio-science may go on for thousands of years given the complexity of life besides human life. People will do the art, sculpture, writing, music and poetry of the future. Eventually androids will do all the cleaning and scrubbing. It might still be nice to have human bar tenders and waiters. People like waiters that they can get to know and interact with. A robot won't have that personal touch. Hopefully, people of the future will be sober and well educated in the art of fine etiquette and not drive their waiters and bar tenders crazy! A waiter might have a robot helper. The robot might take orders down faster than the human. That will ease the job and people of the future will enjoy finer restaurants and coffee/tea houses and bars than ever. I don't envision computer generated actors and singing stars and android athletes. Come on! That won't be any fun! We want real people to idolize and emulate and talk about. People who don't work and don't do anything talented will be fun to just hang around with and drink coffee with and talk about the birds and things. Unless we start making people in artificial wombs, something that has no romance at all to it, we are going to need everybody in the gene pool minus the defects that plague us. Nobody should be cursed with deformity and inherited disease. Some guy who would have been a blue collar worker today who really doesn't have much to do besides drink coffee with french vanilla in it and make small talk with you (won't be much extreme weather in a space colony, but there will be birds flying around and small mammals) might sire the most fabulously beautiful daughters. We need that guy and his wife! He could be our father-in-law! While our biological Dads are working on nano-circuits all the time and ignoring us we can talk to our unemployed father-in-law ( unemployed not because he is lazy but because there is no job for him) about stuff we are doing in the wood shop or the new grand baby. With young people demanding attention to the day they die, it will be great if some folks don't have to work but just hang around with and pay attention to us! That will improve social harmony. People with nothing else to do could always sing in the church choir also. They could whip up home cooked meals, read lots of books and tell us about stories they read, talk to people having problems and run support groups, philosophize endlessly, take kids for walks, and be on hand for emergencies (volunteer firefighters, paramedics?). They might devote themselves to amateur astronomy. We can be sure that will be a popular hobby in outer space! Nobody is useless. The entire "everybody must work or he is a social parasite" mentality must dissolve. That's just what all the rich bosses want. Everybody working and making a few extra cents to put in their fat pockets. Everybody can give love and understanding. That's worth a lot more than delivering mail or welding up pipe all day long! In the AI robotic future, people will work when and if they want to. Some people will have positions of responsibility that demand regular hours and they will take these administrative and legislative jobs out of altruism and respect in the community. They will be rewarded with more stuff produced by the machines and human aritisans also to make it worth their while and show our appreciation. Men and women won't have to worry about social status and financial pressures any more. They will be able to marry out of love alone and not have to worry about material concerns like "does he have a job making enough money to support me and the kids and pay for medical bills?" Some couples will work, some won't and some will have one partner working while the other one stays at home and minds the kids or draws pictures or just hangs around with the neighbors at the coffee and tea house making small talk all day long and keeping people company. The non-working partner might read books, magazines and surf the internet and learn all kinds of astounding things that his computer technician wife doesn't have time for. Non-working folks might have deep discussions about politics, social affairs, philosophy and religion and work up letters to the community leaders to help them make decisions. As much news as there is, you could devote yourself full time to following current events! And if you make wonderful children you are worth every last bit of oxygen and energy you consume in the space colony because people have to come from somebody, and people need people to love, even hard star sailing men of space who have a girl in every port, or like to think they do. With artificial wombs and cloning we could make lots of desirable people.