Space races: settling the universe fast

Report

This report examines the issue of the resource demands and constraints for very fast large-scale settlement by technologically mature civilizations. I derive various bounds due to the energy and matter requirements for relativistic probes, and compare with bounds due to the need to avoid collisions with interstellar dust. When two groups of the same species race for the universe, the group with the biggest resources completely preempts the other group under conditions of transparency. Expanding nearby at a lower speed in order to gain resources to expand far at a high speed is effective. If alien competitors are expected this sets a distance scale affecting the desired probe distribution.

Authors: Sandberg, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Reviewed (other)
• Publisher: Future of Humanity Institute
• Publication date: 2018-01-24
• Language: English
• Keywords: interstellar travel; space colonisation; space probes