Sending a manned mission to Gliese

[grapes]

"First of all, there is basically no way to make a self-contained habitat that can sustain itself for thousands of years"
*looks around*
Really now.

Cute! :)

But, you realize, that implies that we'd drag the sun along with us, on this journey...

Is anybody, now-a-days, thinking about, mulling over, designs of self contained space faring habitat? Maybe sombody should be.

At least, us. :)

[NEOWatcher]

Is anybody, now-a-days, thinking about, mulling over, designs of self contained space faring habitat? Maybe sombody should be.

Yes; Besides (very expensive) space habitats like Skylab, Mir and ISS, there are also ground experiments like Biosphere 2.
Maybe they are only (relatively) small increments to what you are thinking, but it's what we can afford to do at the moment.

[Paul Beardsley]

But, you realize, that implies that we'd drag the sun along with us, on this journey...

Is there a sporting metaphor for a win this comprehensive?

Incidentally, are there any alternative solutions to the "Mars-sized thing rushing straight for Earth" scenario that nobody has mentioned yet? Such as moving the Earth out the way?

[Paul Beardsley]

I just have one thing to say:

There are thousands of stars named "Gliese"! It's a freaking catalogue of stars!

There's a reason why there's a number behind "Gliese 581" or whatever other star you may or may not refer to within the catalogue. Without it, you aren't talking about one specific star.

How about sending a starship to Norton?

[Grey]

Incidentally, are there any alternative solutions to the "Mars-sized thing rushing straight for Earth" scenario that nobody has mentioned yet? Such as moving the Earth out the way?

I started looking into that. From the paper here (one of the co-authors is an old professor of mine!), it sounds like you could shift the orbit of the Earth by about 30 miles by sending a massive asteroid on a close pass. They're thinking more about the very long term, shifting Earth out to the orbit of Mars as the Sun heats up later in its lifetime, and for that, it sounds like it could work well, sending an asteroid flying by every few thousand years over a very long time period. But for the kind of emergency move we need in this scenario, you'd still need at least a few hundred passes (just how far away does the Earth need to be from a Mars-sized impactor before the tidal forces from a near miss aren't just as effective in destroying life as a direct hit would be?), which might be hard to orchestrate in the very short time frame available. I also tried to do some order of magnitude calculations on building mass drivers to start launching rocks at high speed to shift the Earth's orbit, and again it appears to fall well short of what you'd need.

[IsaacKuo]

Is there a sporting metaphor for a win this comprehensive?

Incidentally, are there any alternative solutions to the "Mars-sized thing rushing straight for Earth" scenario that nobody has mentioned yet? Such as moving the Earth out the way?

The Mars-sized thing has much less mass than Earth, so it would be easier to nudge it than Earth. Also, we would care less about any violent side effects of the nudging process--like huge impact craters.

There may be an interesting alternative, though. There's a Moon-sized thing available which is much less massive than the Mars-sized thing. It might be easier to nudge it so that it gets in the way of the Mars-sized thing. This will still involve a stupendously violent shower of impactors that bombard Earth...and over a long term, also, as most of the ejecta ends up in a huge torus of NEAs around 1AU from the Sun.

But this reduces the problem from space habitats to mineshafts...

[ravens_cry]

Cute! :)

But, you realize, that implies that we'd drag the sun along with us, on this journey...

Just take a page from illicit marijuana growers and change the source of energy.
You probably want something as future proof as possible.

[grapes]

Just take a page from illicit marijuana growers and change the source of energy.
You probably want something as future proof as possible.

O if only Gro-Lites were thousand-year rated! :)

And, not only does homan not live by pot alone, those lights are usually plugged into something--and suck up enough power to alert the DEA. But I agree, that problem is probably solvable. We just haven't done it yet.

[ravens_cry]

O if only Gro-Lites were thousand-year rated! :)

And, not only does homan not live by pot alone, those lights are usually plugged into something--and suck up enough power to alert the DEA. But I agree, that problem is probably solvable. We just haven't done it yet.

Heck, given the OP's premise, it is hardly even necessary to have an artificial energy source. A Mars sized world crashing into Earth would not render the solar system uninhabitable. The sun would still shine, so we could use O'Neill's and other space habitats as is.
We could save so much more if we decide to stick in solar system compared to trying to get to another star.

[Rhaedas]

There may be an interesting alternative, though. There's a Moon-sized thing available which is much less massive than the Mars-sized thing. It might be easier to nudge it so that it gets in the way of the Mars-sized thing. This will still involve a stupendously violent shower of impactors that bombard Earth...and over a long term, also, as most of the ejecta ends up in a huge torus of NEAs around 1AU from the Sun.

But this reduces the problem from space habitats to mineshafts...

That's nice outside-the-box thinking. We'd get really lucky if it was just a matter of altering the Moon's orbit just a bit so that it hits the incoming object somewhat perpendicular. Although that might be too late, too close.

[Ara Pacis]

That's nice outside-the-box thinking. We'd get really lucky if it was just a matter of altering the Moon's orbit just a bit so that it hits the incoming object somewhat perpendicular. Although that might be too late, too close.

But the Moon has a lot of momentum. Maybe we'd have better luck with outer-solar system objects.