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November 25, 2009

Lecture 41: Interstellar Travel and Colonization

45 minutes

If we ever detect life elsewhere, how will we go visit? This lecture

considers the challenges of interstellar travel and colonization. The

problem is one of basic physics (the enormous energy requirements of

star flight) coupled with the vast, irreducible distances between the

stars. I will describe various starship concepts that use reasonable

extrapolations of current technologies (nuclear propulsion and solar

sails), ignoring for our discussions science-fiction exotica like

faster-than-light drives and wormholes. My interest is in the

scientific aspects of the problem, not an exploration of speculative

fiction. I then turn to interstellar colonization, and how even

a relatively modest star-flight capability might allow a determined

civilization to colonize the entire galaxy very rapidly. This has

implications for how we might interpret the results of Drake Equation

type arguments about the frequency of intelligent life in the Galaxy,

and leads to the Fermi Paradox that will be the topic of the next

lecture. Recorded live on 2009 Nov 25 in Room 1005 Smith Laboratory on

the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.

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By Richard Pogge