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Humans Will Sail To The Stars
oddsheep points to an "article on BBC news from the AAAS Expo in Boston about how researchers are discussing spreading the human race across the galaxy in solar sailing ships. Not a new idea of course but the social implications discussed are great: what the hell do the volunteer colonists (and their descendants) do for the hundreds of years it would take to get anywhere? Cue "Are we nearly there yet?" from the back seats ad infinitum and the longest game of 'I Spy' in history..."
Good overview here.
What strikes me is the sense of drama and tragedy if the on-ship culture panics or corrupts itself before it reaches the goal. Does anyone know of any stories that focus on that? Where generation eight of ten finds that they need to scrap the historic goal, due to some miscalculation or some unforeseen hardships, or merely a decadent generation five?
I can think of a few:
- Robert A. Heinlein's Universe short story.
- Michael Cassut's The Longer voyage (which, interestingly enough, deals with a spaceship voyage gone wrong even before it even sets out from orbit).
- Ian R. McLeod's "Starship Day".
- Robert Reed's "Chrysalis".
There's a lot more, but those are the ones I remember right now.
Tongue-tied and twisted, just an earth-bound misfit, I
Learning to fly, Pink Floyd.
David Brin and Gregory Benford's Heart of the Comet has a group of people try to colonise a comet to bring it back to Earth to mine it, but find their original goal becomes increasingly more remote.
You're thinking about the Orion project, which was proposed in the 70s. It was quietly dropped, and I think it's safe to say that it will never come about, given humanity's disillusionment with nuclear bombs. Not to mention the impracticality of the design, compared to the alternatives.