Generation ship

A generation ship is a spaceship that travels at sub-light speeds to planets in other solar systems. They are currently the only way to colonize the galaxy because going to any other star system would take at least 100 years.

Features/Capabilities

These are the necessary features of a Generation Ship:

1.) A large enough ship to hold in comfort at least 150 people (the minimum over ten generations to avoid inbreeding).

2.) The crew would have to be made up of people from at least the following professions: Scientist, Physicist, Biologist, Astronomer, Geologist, Botonist, Chemist, Metalurgist, Doctor, Pshyciatrist (Yeah, I know but you got to have at least one), Counselor/Negotiator, Law Enforcement (Got to keep the peace), Military, Miner, Smelter, Biochemist and many more.

3.) The ship would have to have the ability to mine minerals and metals from Asteroids and other space debris and then refine it and turn it into tools and other items needed to repair the ship and keep it in operation.

4.) The ship would have to have Polarized hull plating to repel micro-meteors and protect from space radiation.

5.) The ship would have to have an un-dying supply of power, possible a nuclear reactor and the ability to mine plutonium or uranium and make new rods every hundred years or so.

6.) The ship would have to have artificial gravity similar to that of Earth. This could be achieved by spinning the ship slowly.

7.) The ship would have to have an Ecosphere large enough to grow enough food to sustain around 2000 people, because by the time the ship found a suitable planet to colonize (Another Earth) they would have undoubtedly multiplied drastically. The ecosphere would also have to contain a sealed environment capable of raining (or at least misting) as well as capable of filtering the carbon dioxide exhaled by the crew and converting it back to breathable oxygen. Assuming the ecosphere was large enough to produce enough oxygen to support 500 people it would probably also produce enough hydrogen and oxygen to create an ample water supply for the crew.

8.) The ship would have to be capable of filtering and recycling all waste water including that exreted by humans.

9.) The ship would have to be large enough to breed goats or sheep or some other small milk/meat producing animal. Milk and meat occasionally would be essential for the sustained health of the crew.

10.) The ship would have to have a very extensize medical facility, one not only capable of handling births, illnesses, etc. but also capable of treating and isolating new diseases before they became epidemic.

11.) The ship would have to carry or be capable of storing enough food, medicine, extra parts, etc. to maintain the crew and ship in case of an emergency.

12.) The crew would have to be capable of extended space walks to repair the ship, make in flight modifications, etc.

13.) The ship would have to be able to communicate back to Earth via some sort of long range communication.

14.) The ship would have to have the ability to build and launch probes to travel ahead of it and report dangerous or interesting spacial anomolies or possible New Earths to colonize.

15.) The crew would have to be capable of building settlements on other worlds upon finding them. In order to do this they would have to have some sort of transport ship to carry the crew, supplies, etc. to and from the planets surface. It would have to be fueled by something they could mine either from space, asteroids or planets.

16.) The ship would also have to be equiped with short range mining ships the crew could use to travel from the Generation Ship into asteroid belts to mine and then return back to the ship.

17.) The ship would have to be able to hold onto asteroids and mine them in flight.

Problems

There are many problems with the idea, such as inbreeding, population growth, and energy. Population growth also produces the problem of the Oxygen levels going down to dangerous levels.

Inbreeding

The minimum starting population in a closed group to avoid inbreeding over 10 generations is 150, preferably not related. Strict controls on who can marry would have to be inplace until the population was large enough that it isn't a problem.

Population Growth

As the ship would take centuries to reach its destination, the population will grow drastically. The ship will need to be able to produce enough food for the projected population growth (with a margin.)