If we discover another habitable planet, will the country that gets there first be able to keep it for?

Question

themselves? What do you think?

Answer 1

In a word - no - in another word yes. (see below)

Well, first think about it this way, we wouldn't be going anytime soon, if a new planet was discovered tomorrow there would be many decades of preparation on the part of any nation wanting to go. - it would be a multi-decade project unlike anything except perhap the great wall of China or the Pyramids, taking decades from start to finish, it would likely be or have to be an international effort.

However let's say it's a national effort, The US would have to rededicate about 1/2 of it's national budget just to build the first starship/colony ship. But there would have to be a whole space infrastructure build first because there are some things we would need beforehand.

1. Good/cheap reliable access to low-Earth orbit. Basically if we get this, we're golden, the solar system and the stars are probably ours for the taking.

2. Fusion reactors - better than nuclear, fusion or high-efficiency nuclear reactors for supplying the megawatts of power needed per day for the 100-200 year long trip to the next nearest habitable stars.

3. Hibernation sleep chambers - sleep is good , especially since on a 100-200 year long trip, you can never really ever have enough happy meals. People and animals along with viable seeds and microbes of every description (for future stocks on the new planet) would be cryogenically frozen for the journey.

4. Lead shielding might not be enough, An effective/light Van-DeGraff generator - high-energy radiation could turn our hibernating colonists into so many frozen meatcicles, as gamma rays would shred the colonists at the cellular level if they were not regularly shielded they and the animals would all have terminal cases of cancer by the time they arrived and might all be sterile as well. Think the shields from "Star Trek".

5. Probes, fast probes would have to be sent forward before the colony ship was ever launched to ensure some of the following possible conditions weren't the case.


For our new target colony, "habitable" isn't enough, probes would have to determine some of the following.

1. Bad Neighborhood - the Solar system is a relatively stable place, - sure every couple of million years the Earth gets hit by a big asteroid but overall it's a quality neighborhood, we would need to ensure the target planet wasn't regularly bombarded from space or had a moon some other object ready to crash into it in 50 years or so.

2. Rough Weather - a survey drone or two would have to orbit the planet and ensure that the weather was accomodating. If the planet suffered violent storms or volcanos or earthquakes it might be perfectly "habitable" but no place you could build a colony.

3. Rough Weather 2 - The planet's oceans are too acidic or alkaline or lack some other mineral or chemical that humans and our plants and animals need for life. so without nice happy amounts of sodium, potassium, carbon, nitrogen etc, and a distinct lack of sulphur, chlorine etc. We might be able to successfully found a colony but things would be rough, colonists would have to live in domed cities and hydroponic vegan diets would limit the colonists population (animals would have to stay frozen in orbit), until giant atmospheric processing factories or microbial chemosynthesis had terraformed the planet sufficiently for colonists to live on the surface.

4. Axial tilt, The Earth is a pretty cool planet and most would say fairly "habitable" but if nothing else about the planet was altered but the rotation of the planet was not along the axis, you would have seasonal glaciers and melts across the entire surface of the planet, winter might "come" never or sometimes 9 times in a "year" depending on how this axial tilt was in relation to the year and the rotation of the planet, it could make an otherwise perfect planet uninhabitable.

5. Rotation/orbit - we would likely know this ahead of time but the planet might be otherwise prone to long droughts or orbital changes due to a companion planet or something, while not necessarily dangerous, it could mean that the planet suffers from 100-200 year long winters and 100-200 year long summers, that we might not notice until the starship was already en-route or there. We might think it's a wonderful planet, send the ship (with everyone asleep) and watch as it turned into a frozen wasteland or swampish nightmare during their journey.


Once however the colonists arrive, the fun is just beginning. There could be other conditions that make the planet similarly inhospitable.

1. No/too much minerals or ores - if the star has a "low metalacity" it could be the case that planets have very few or no surface metals, we might be able to land and found a successful colony but have no iron or other ores to build an advanced civilization from so the colonists would either have to refuel and leave OR find moons / asteroids that do have metals and mine them as soon as possible. Too much metal could also present a problem contaminating water supplies etc. Barring the discovery or mining of deep metals , the society would probably revert to a very advanced medieval form of civilization over time but might not be able to maintain itself as a spacefaring/starfaring colony.

2. Megatides - if the colonyworld had a large moon or was in orbit of a gas giant planet (like Jupiter), the planet might suffer from tsunami type tidal forces.

While finding any kind of life would probably mean we didn't go to the planet in question if we didn't or couldn't detect the lifeforms beforehand there are a variety of potential circumstances that could arise.

3. Lifeforms - Bad-a** microbes or some other contagion - that wouldn't infect us like the flu or a virus but maybe just use our bodies as oh-so-convenient walking fertilizer pots with water and chemicals and minerals all in a handy-dandy walking-talking carry case. Humans could be considered tasty to certain microbes or mites or something.

4. Lifeforms - Megafauna (big and/or hostile animals) - the early colony would be extremely vulnerable and subject to chance quite a bit. On Earth even today with most of the Megafauna killed by our ancestors, there are animals which are dangerous even with advanced weapons. This could make the early colony prey for some predatory land-based version of the "landshark" or "super sabertooth tigers" or something that we might have to basically "wipe out" to be reasonably safe.

The Megafauna might be so large/dangerous that it presents real problems, (think Dinoplanet or Starship Troopers "Bugs" or Alien/Xenomorphs) or so numerious (think a planet covered in crustaceans or smaller insects) it's not dangerous but it would definitely crimp our "style" and we might not exactly have the run of the place for the first few years or decades.

Any kind of humanoid or sentient life might work into three basic categories

5. Lifeforms - Cavemen - If our intrepid colonists landed and found a primitive native civilization or hunter-gatherer-race, they might consider leaving but they might also consider integrating into that civilization or possibly conquering that civilization. As history shows "first-contact" situations are rarely benign experiences. As in early european colonial experience, the Natives generally were non-hostile but after being provoked/attacked became sufficently capable of wiping out many smaller/undefended/prepared European colonies.

6. Lifeforms - moderately advanced intelligent life, this is a wonderous discovery but also has the potential for things to go very wrong and perhaps disasterously so for any number of reasons - this is where some star-trek like non-interference directive could seem pretty reasonable. They could be curious and inquisitive just like us, or barbaric and looking for a new source of expendable labor (read slaves)...... just like us....

7. Lifeforms - advanced - we might run into a colony world from a civilization superior to our own or so far advanced we have problems communicating or they view us the way we view cats and dogs, small, furry ,cute and not too bright.

Answer 2

A great question, that needs to be answered carefully. Unfortunately, a few people are verging on rediscovering eugenics. Others are not thinking deeply enough, and are focusing on too many elites. Here's an analogy. What crops should they bring? The highest yielding, most specialized hybrids? Or natural, more adaptable common species? While I would weed out the most obvious, persistent genetic defects for the first couple of waves, I wouldn't look too deeply, because we don't know what complexities of personality and creativity we may lose. We will need the elites listed by Tripper above, but you would want a mix of some people of average intelligence, to give the society more stability. Strength for manual labor and hard living may be required - it is more resilient and adaptable to unexpected circumstances than machinery. Bon voyage!

Answer 3

It will go the same way as any other discovery. First they'll try to get along and share. Then one country will claim another country is not being fair about the division of resources. Then some other country that doesn't have a stake in the new planet will claim that its not fair that they don't get to share in the new planet. They'll want some other country to pay their way. Everyone will say everyone else is being unfair. Then there will be a war or two or more. Eventually it will all get worked out.

Answer 4

Have we not learned anything from the barbarians and their victims:

Columbus, Spain, Portugal, Brtish Empire, the French, the Pilgrims, the Afrikaans, Napoleon etc, the American Indians, Zapata, The Caribes, Hawaiians, Arawaks, Incans, Mayans, Aztecs, Shaka Zulu, Arborigine, Eskimos............... you got my drift, Sherlock?

Answer 5

Ask Spain, they discovered the Americas. Err... no, come to think of it ask the "Native Americans." They discovered the Americas. Err... no, actually the people who wandered here from Siberia and are thought of today as "Native Americans" took the land away from other peoples who found their way here even earlier. So ask those earlier peoples if they got to keep it, if you can still find any.

Answer 6

If it's USA, we should reserved it for the liberals to start their perfect society. As the pilgrims did it back in 1620's, but now, since we've been so enlighten by the progressive movement it would be easy for them to succeed.

Given 40 years they will find that as the Pilgrims did the capital system works best.

Answer 7

We won't discover another habitable planet. We will either save the earth, or die.

Answer 8

No. Remember that Bush has made our right to space a law. We have authorized only ourselves to the space loot; nobody else can claim it.

Answer 9

If it's habitable, there will probably be life already there.
It will have to be in a diffferent solar system, which means it will be lightyears away from us. The chance of us getting their in my lifetime is nil.

In theory, I guess however is their 1st could claim it, but it won't happen, so why worry about it? Have you run out of things to worry about on Earth?

Answer 10

It'll be just like the colonization of the new world, accept this time it would literally be space wars.