Their has been a long tradition of Exodus from Earth. It populates Science Fiction in literature and film and NASA have also flirted with the idea. Of the many movies, which featured humans departing a stricken Earth "When Worlds Collide" is a prime example, although, by way of a lottery, only a small fraction of humanity were 'chosen' to leave.
Project SWORD is another example of exodus technology, dreamt up by Gerry Anderson's dream factory. But how much energy would it actually take to take everyone to another planet on an ark or arks?
Well, it would seem to be a lot. This very question was posed to science site "What If". You can check out their answer for yourselves here http://what-if.xkcd.com/7/
What's your favourite Earth exodus/ space ark in books or film readers?
a 60s scientist said a moon size spacecraft leaving every 10 minutes wouldne keep up with birth rate and would have nowhere to go
ReplyDeleteWhen Worlds Collide is my favourite Earth exodus movie. As for whether we could escape when the sun dies in real life then I doubt it. If faster than light travel is impossible then the human race is doomed in about 6 billion years, though we'll probably kill ourselves off or wreck the planet well before then! Maybe a few will reach some of the nearer star systems in sub-light vehicles, though whether anyone could live there is also unknown.
ReplyDelete