Reaching distant stars requires travel of hundred of years: it makes sense that the crew is made of entire families living inside the ship
during several
generations,
breeding their own successors who, in turn, will inherit the vessel. This design concept is partially inspired
by the Kevin O'Neil model of
space habitat: a 7 to 8
kms long and about 2 to 3 kms wide cylinder rotating around its main axis
(where is located the statoreactor device) to provide
artificial gravity. Inside the hull
is reproduced a biosphere to allow the crew
to live like on Earth. Occasionnally, the inhabitants of the ship will encounter
social troubles and/or technical issues
which will drive
the onboard micro-society to collapse and/or evolve into a very different direction than expected
(like in Brian Aldiss' novel Non-Stop) |