There are 2 strategies for colonizing alpha centauri or proxima B.
1.) Colony Ships
Due to the harsh realities of lesser than earth gravity on all of our bodily systems, including the reproductive system- we can only lessen earth's gravity by a small degree. Where ever we go or whatever habitats we create have to mimic the earth in a lot of ways in order to preserve the nature of our biology and to keep us safe and healthy on our journey. The only way of recreating gravity is with centrifugal force generated by rapidly rotating the habitat in which we'll be living in. I believe that the best design is a Bernal Sphere, because we can design it to stand up well against small space debris as well as solar and cosmic radiation. A layer of water and lead around a colony might make a good barrier to these things but I'm sure we'll be able to come up with something lighter weight and more durable to do the job by the time we build it.
Enclosed in the Bernal sphere will be an ecosystem similar to earth. We will have to carefully maintain it and watch over it, anything that it can't produce on it's own will have to be produced artificially through respective technologies adapted for the situation. We'll have to work closely with ecologists to design this habitat- and we'll have to develop the means to recycle water, oxygen and other elements that we'll need to preserve to do safe farming and perpetual living in the Bernal sphere. The Bernal sphere will be able to receive energy through solar arrays and it will have to protect itself from debris with a weapons system designed to identify and disintegrate asteroids before they impact the colony, as it will have no protective atmosphere to do this job. We'll power the space colonies propulsion system with nuclear fusion, and it should be able to reach speeds that should allow it to reach alpha centauri within 400-800 years.
1.) Colony Ships
Due to the harsh realities of lesser than earth gravity on all of our bodily systems, including the reproductive system- we can only lessen earth's gravity by a small degree. Where ever we go or whatever habitats we create have to mimic the earth in a lot of ways in order to preserve the nature of our biology and to keep us safe and healthy on our journey. The only way of recreating gravity is with centrifugal force generated by rapidly rotating the habitat in which we'll be living in. I believe that the best design is a Bernal Sphere, because we can design it to stand up well against small space debris as well as solar and cosmic radiation. A layer of water and lead around a colony might make a good barrier to these things but I'm sure we'll be able to come up with something lighter weight and more durable to do the job by the time we build it.
Enclosed in the Bernal sphere will be an ecosystem similar to earth. We will have to carefully maintain it and watch over it, anything that it can't produce on it's own will have to be produced artificially through respective technologies adapted for the situation. We'll have to work closely with ecologists to design this habitat- and we'll have to develop the means to recycle water, oxygen and other elements that we'll need to preserve to do safe farming and perpetual living in the Bernal sphere. The Bernal sphere will be able to receive energy through solar arrays and it will have to protect itself from debris with a weapons system designed to identify and disintegrate asteroids before they impact the colony, as it will have no protective atmosphere to do this job. We'll power the space colonies propulsion system with nuclear fusion, and it should be able to reach speeds that should allow it to reach alpha centauri within 400-800 years.
