How many people are needed for interstellar flight?
What would warpy, wormholes, warp engines have come up with fiction, to exceed the speed of light seems impossible. So, the stars will have to fly long. So how many people will be needed for such an expedition?
Scientists from Strasbourg University, has calculated how many people will need to travel to the nearest exoplanet, Centauri b.
It will be 6.3 thousand years, and, of course, for such a mission will need a classic generation ship. And to the surprise of his crew was not as great as it seems at first glance.
To calculate the optimal number of people in the crew, the scientists used the method of Monte-Carlo, that is one of the methods of statistical modeling, where the process is modeled with the help of generator of random values, and a lot of times, and on this material line up probabilistic characteristics of the task. Since analytically to simulate such a long process with so many variables is impossible, scientists have used this method, taking into account accidental death and accidents, and infertility, and more.
The result was that for a successful flight for a period of 6.3 thousand years, the ship has to come up 98 people.
It should be young and childless couples, and all the children should appear on Board the ship. The crew will have to take action to combat overpopulation, and therefore the question of fertility is strictly regulated.
How do we need this expedition is hard to say. But the number of her crew, however, are already calculated.