Hypothetical how to colonize space...

I once had an idea on how to spread out into space...

First Figure out the bare minimum breeding pairs of humans and what gene mix to make it worth maybe 20 generations.
Second Build a test dome on the moon or Mars, put that colony of volunteers there. With enough Raw materials to expand the dome 4 times.
Third Observe the Results over 5 generations...
Fourth Tweak the Process, making a second volunteer colony
Fifth Capture large Asteroids out of the belt big enough to support a 4x dome and a set of targeting rockets.
Sixth Build the 3rd volunteer colony on that asteroid Target the Closest Goldilocks planet, and Send it on its way with a couple escape pod atmosphere reentry modules.
Seventh as our Tech gets better Send Supply, Refuel and Retool Expeditions to the colony asteroid. (Assuming we keep advancing while it is making its targeted voyage.)
Eight Wash Rinse Repeat with volunteers until Earths Population is Sustainable.

Understand Not all the Asteroid colonies will make it but that just gives us better formulas for the successors. If a colony makes it to a Goldilocks and establishes we become intergalactic...

What yall think?

CoBaZ

a reply to: CoBaZ

Sounds good.
But I'm sure its already happening, they're just not telling us

First Figure out the bare minimum breeding pairs of humans and what gene mix to make it worth maybe 20 generations.

I wonder how much of a mix we need to prevent problems. I'm sure there's a few members on ats who could answer that?

originally posted by: VoidHawk
I wonder how much of a mix we need to prevent problems. I'm sure there's a few members on ats who could answer that?

According to this, you would need 80 breeding pairs, though in other places, I've seen that figure reduced to as low as 25 breeding pairs.

originally posted by: CoBaZ
I once had an idea on how to spread out into space...

First Figure out the bare minimum breeding pairs of humans and what gene mix to make it worth maybe 20 generations.
Second Build a test dome on the moon or Mars, put that colony of volunteers there. With enough Raw materials to expand the dome 4 times.
...
What yall think?

CoBaZ

I generally thought about this too. The thing is, you do not want to waste effort getting materials into outer space, then fly to where ever, it is all too much effort. That is an old, 1950's sci-fi method of doing it.

If you ever get an aneutronic fusion reactor (no neutrons bouncing around but direct conversion to electricity) when you reach your destination you put all that energy you were using to propel yourself to convert CO2 to the base elements of oxygen and carbon. You then use the carbon to create building materials graphite, graphene, and graphene aerogel to build a simple box structure. You get the oxygen to breath.

Then you build a geodesic dome over that. And one more over that. You can re-purpose some of the original material for the next shell. You will need to shield the entire structure from cosmic rays and other radiation.

This can be done as a dry run on the moon or Mars but you really need to get the self-sufficiency factor to see if this is viable.

Once manufacturing and tooling is done, well understood, and the building process is repeatable then you venture further out with better supplies, more crew, etc.

Maybe most fabrication will be done in space using variations on this method (i.e., spaceships).

You have the start of an idea! We need more ideas as to what to do if there is no earth due to (pick your favorite doom scenario) and we are kicked out the door to the general uncaring universe.

This should be our specie's number one goal to colonize space while we still can.

Seems like a lot of work. But people will do anything besides limit/reduce their population growth and work out ways to balance and recycle resources to make Earth the paradise it could be.

Storing generated energy just seems like a given if we are heading to the stars.

Ran across this today: a supercondenser. It takes excess heat and due to heat differential it stores electrons for use later as electricity!

Link: Supercondenser stores heat as electricity

Simply put, a supercondenser is energy storage: a type of battery that consists of an electrolyte of charged particles -- ions -- between two electrodes. The charge is stored next to the electrodes, most often in carbon nanotubes. One of the physical phenomena that the researchers make use of here is that if a supercapacitor is exposed to a temperature gradient -- that is, one end is warm and the other cold -- the ions rush towards the cold side and an electric current arises.

The thermoelectric effect is used to make electricity of heat; how much heat is converted to electricity depends both on which electrolyte is used and how great the temperature difference is.

The story states that any thermal source can be used with this device.

Yet more news on repurposing waste products into construction material. The article is for using waste CO2 from power plants but this can be used on CO2 from any source (may need another step in condensing it from the atmosphere).

(The team's) plan would be to create a closed-loop process: capturing carbon from power plant smokestacks and using it to create a new building material—CO2NCRETE—that would be fabricated using 3D printers. That's "upcycling."

"What this technology does is take something that we have viewed as a nuisance—carbon dioxide that's emitted from smokestacks—and turn it into something valuable"

Further down in the article,

(Team member) DeShazo said. "But we need to begin the process of increasing the volume of material and then think about how to pilot it commercially. It's one thing to prove these technologies in the laboratory. It's another to take them out into the field and see how they work under real-world conditions."

Source: Physic.org: Researchers turn carbon dioxide into sustainable concrete

As always, the jump from lab to real world is an issue. The good part about this news is that it does not need to be controlled at the micro-level as is necessary with other 3D printed materials.

In space nearly every amount of energy created and not immediately used will have to be "upcycled" (and/or repurposed and reused). It will be the ultimate "you packed it in, you will pack it out" scenario.

Unfortunately we still have a "throw away society" mentality.