Colonization of trans-Neptunian objects: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:38, 18 March 2016

Revision as of 20:28, 2 June 2017

Line 5:

Colonists could live in the [[dwarf planet]]'s icy [[Crust (geology)|crust]] or [[mantle (geology)|mantle]], using [[fusion power|fusion]] or [[geothermal]] heat{{CN|date=January 2016}} 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.{{CN|date=January 2016}} Surface habitats or [[domes]] are another possibility, as [[background radiation]] levels are likely to be low.{{CN|date=January 2016}}

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>{{dubious|date=January 2016}}<!--Low gravity health issues.--> 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>

==References==

Line 11:

==Bibliography==

*Freeman Dyson, "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil", Third J.D. Bernal Lecture, May 1972, reprinted in Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence, Carl Sagan, ed., MIT Press, 1973, {{ISBN |0-262-69037-3}}

*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}}

*Ben R. Finney and Eric M. Jones, eds., Interstellar Migration and the Human Experience, University of California Press, 1986, {{ISBN |0-520-05898-4}}

*David G. Stephenson, "Comets and Interstellar Travel", in Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 36, 1983, pp.&nbsp;210–214.