Would you help settle a new planet?

Imagine for a moment that you’ve been selected to immigrate to a new earth like planet that has been discovered. The probe that returned states that the planet has abundant natural resources and should be perfect for colonization. If you’re married, your spouse and children are included. It’s quite an honor to be among the first group of settlers selected.

But of course the devil is in the details. The transport ship will be traveling at near the speed of light but the new planet is over 400 light years away. You and your family will be placed in cryogenic suspension for most of the trip. There will be about 2000 settlers on the ship total along with sufficient technology to build a city, power plants, farms etc.

The catch of course is that there is great risk and you can’t come back. You have to leave most of your personal effects behind and you have to leave your extended family behind. They'll be long dead before you even get there.

The question is “Would you choose to go?”

If I wasn't married, the answer is YES I would.
However I am married with children, and I would never subject them to the risks.

When I was young, like 21, not married I would have gone in a second. What a great adventure.

If I was recently married and my wife was up for it, once again I'd be there.

Once you have kids, your perspective on what's an acceptable adventure changes. So, I doubt that I'd go unless conditions here on earth were such that I saw this as a better alternative to life here.

no first of all with all the risk there is no point 2nd i dont trust the govt/nasa so i wouldnt depend on them to send me to space

There was a day not so long agaio that my answer would have been a resounding YES.But now at 42 and at the edge of total failer of even teching one small group (my family) family lol sad
Not what humans are but what humans could be .I read these post on this board alot. Define human =to care or to treat well.
Now turn on the news or better yet take walk down any town street and see for your self just how human we realy are .
expept for one son ,one out of 6 I have failed teaching them to be human they belive as every one fighting is the solution . and let me say I started the day they were born spending all my effert to not just say these things but SHOW these things .In all my years never once broke a promise never once lied .and yet even the oldest lies and thinks fighting will solve his problems . No I havent goin the religion rout as that rout is riddeled with much violance as any other .
But religion tells the end story never the less the first 2 brothers that ever lived one killed the other .Truly my hope and dream that human would ever live up to its defionation is goin so no i wouldent want to move to this garden of edin as I know that in a 1000 years it will truly be the new earth war torn and striped of its resorces .
Im sorry to say earth has no place for our so call kind of intellegence .

I think I would definately be up for it. I wouldn't mind having a hand in the colonization of Mars, in all seriousness.

i dont trust the govt/nasa

I don't trust them myself either. How about a private space program? Since we're dealing with the far future of space travel, it is a possible option. Besides, eventually this will be required. Count me in on it.

My kids are adults now. If they went, I'd want to go with them.

If they didn't want to go, I wouldn't leave them.

That's my reality as a parent.

I would defintely go! If we're talking about risks the obvious one being death well there's no guarantee that you or your family wouldn't die on earth any given day.

I'm probably at a disadvantage with my opinion because i have not got kids yet i understand you don't want anything bad to ever happen to the ones you love ever. But at the same time think of the opportunity you would be providing for your family and future families. You always have to sacrifice things to acheive great things and i would dare say the task would not be an easy one especially if your the first group on the planet but nothing worth doing comes without hard work in my opinion.

Just imagine the oppertunities. Land land and more land. You could end up owning an entire huge island. Your descendents could live their for generations.

It would be a chance to set up a new society.

It would be a chance to create a new society.

The possibilities stagger my mind.

Sleeping for too long a time gives me the willies. How much we'd miss.

I like the idea of wide open spaces, where unexplored land waits with its
secrets. What if we were to find the remains of an older civilization, and
there was a tablet there explaining the purpose of our being?

Or came close enough to touch the face of God?

I would've gone in a heartbeat years ago. Now, I wait for others to
discover us.

Interesting thought. What happens if we get to a planet and discover the remains of another civilization?

Interesting thought. What happens if we get to a planet and discover the remains of another civilization?

Yes i could just see that, a civilisation of dinosaurs!

and it all starts again.

cheers

I would absolutly go, if I could talk my wife into it, which I doubt.

Of course, She's recently said She's move to New Mexico. (I LOVE the desert).

New Mexico is almost like a different planet so I'd say she'd be up for it.

Yeah, I would most definitely choose to go. Being cryogenically frozen for 400 light years while traveling through space doesn't bother me. If we were "waking up" 400 light years into the future, i don't think that would be very relevant considering the only thing that we could use to really get a feel for this distant future would be Earth, which wouldn't have contact with us anyway by that time, so it wouldn't be important WHAT year it really was, or how long we were suspended and waiting to arrive.

Yeah exacatly fundamentally you are no longer a earthling anyway. If there was someway for you to know what had happened on earth during the past 400 years say through satellite updating or something would you really want to know anyway? It's abit catch 22 because there are pro's and con's to the situation i.e. pro: Finding out about new advancements etc. and con: Possibly finding out your the last group of humans alive etc.

There would definitely be pros and cons to something like this.

You could only bring so much in the ship. You'd have to bring enough equipment and fuel to get some houses built, some crops planted but at some time, you'd have to become self sufficient.

It would certainly be interesting.

Me, hell ya I would go in a heartbeat. I would drop all my material possessions, and hop aboard. Just think of the what the new colonists from Europe thought when they made the trip to America. It would be like that but alot farther away. It would be like the game Sid Miers Alpha Centari, an awesome game btw.
If I was married, and had kids, I would ask them first. If they said no I would not go.

But ya I have thought about this alot, as some of the posters have said, it would be a chance to start a new civilization based on what you want it to be like. At first it would still be like Earths government, but get into a couple hundred years after the towns are formed and stuff like, then you can start up your own government.

Well, it would depend on the planet.
If it was a planet like the Florida keys; sure I'd go.
If it was a planet like Lubbock, Texas; no thanks!!!!