Colonization of trans-Neptunian objects: Difference between revisions

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[[Image:Kuiper oort-en.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|Artist's rendering of the [[Kuiper Beltbelt]] and [[Oort Cloudcloud]].]]

{{Space colonization}}

[[Freeman Dyson]] has proposed that [[Transtrans-Neptunian Objectsobject]]s, rather than [[planet]]s, are the major potential habitat of life in space. Several hundred billion to trillion [[comet]]-like ice-rich bodies exist outside the orbit of [[Neptune]], in the [[Kuiper Beltbelt]] and Inner and Outer [[Oort Cloudcloud]]. These may contain all the ingredients for life (water ice, ammonia, and carbon-rich compounds), including significant amounts of [[deuterium]] and [[helium-3]]. Since Dyson's proposal, the number of trans-Neptunian objects known has increased greatly.

Since Dr Dyson's proposal, the number of Trans-Neptunian Objects known has increased greatly.

Colonists could live in the [[dwarf planet]]'s icy [[Crust (geology)|crust]] or [[mantle (geology)|mantle]], using [[fusion power|fusion]] or [[geothermal]] heat and mining the soft-ice or liquid inner [[ocean]] for [[volatiles]] and [[mineral]]s. Given the light gravity and resulting lower pressure in the ice [[mantle (geology)|mantle]] or inner ocean, colonizing the rocky [[Planetary core|core]]'s outer surface might give [[colonists]] the largest number of [[mineral]] and [[volatility (chemistry)|volatile]] resources as well as insulating them from cold. Surface habitats or [[domes]] are another possibility, as [[background radiation]] levels are likely to be low.

Colonists of such bodies could also build [[space habitat|rotating habitats]] or live in dug-out spaces and light them with [[fusion reactor]]s for thousands to millions of years before moving on.<ref>[[Carl E. Sagan]], "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space". Random House, 1994, ISBN 0-345-37659-5.</ref> Dyson and [[Carl Sagan]] envisioned that humanity could migrate to neighbouring star systems, which have similar clouds, by using natural objects as [[Generation ship|slow interstellar vessels]] with substantial natural resources; and that such interstellar colonies could also serve as way-stations for faster, smaller interstellar ships. Alternatively Richard Terra has proposed using the materials from the Oort-cloud objects to build vast starlight collecting arrays to power habitats, thus making an Oort-cloud community essentially independent of its central star and fusion fuel supplies.<ref>Richard P. Terra, "Islands in the Sky: Human Exploration and Settlement of the Oort Cloud", in ''Islands in the Sky: Bold New Ideas for Colonizing Space'', Stanley Schmidt and Robert Zubrin, eds. Wiley, 1996, ISBN 0-471-13561-5</ref> Gregory Matloff has suggested that [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial]] intelligences have already colonized the Oort Cloudcloud, easily avoiding observation by emulating the appearance of natural objects.<ref>Gregory Matloff, "The Re-enchantment of the Solar System", National Institute for Discovery Science, http://holtz.org/Library/Natural%20Science/Biology/Exobiology/The%20Reenchantment%20of%20the%20Solar%20System%20A%20Proposed%20Search%20for%20Local%20ET.htm</ref>

==In fiction==