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daikatana t1_iwd71mb wrote

Reply to comment by ObligatoryOption in imo the most terrifying part of space is rouge planets in deep space where there are no stars around. just pitch black. those planets are real. right now. freezing in the dark, thousands of light years away from any kind of light. imagine being on that planet, or even in its place. just terrifying. by Stufy_stuf

It would take much more energy to rendezvous with a rogue planet, and when you're talking about a generational ship (which would presumably be massive), that's a lot of energy. It would take far less energy to just go to your destination, and I'm pretty sure energy would be the most important factor on a trip like that.

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Routine_Shine_1921 t1_iwdfmja wrote

Not really, think of the planet as an Aldrin cycler. If you rendezvous with the planet, you only have to accelerate ships packed tight with people and some resources. Say, travel time to the planet at its closest approach is two years, but your actual destination is ten thousand years away. Then you only need to send up enough mass to support your initial group of people for two years, instead of all resources for the full population for 10k years.

Say such a planet where to pass through the solar system at some point. You could say, say, 50 Starships with people, tools, etc, which is within our capabilities. Then those people set up base on the planet. The planet provides everything required for the multi-generational trip.

Instead, putting up a generation ship of such size and meant to last that long, is well outside of our capabilities.

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