The Discovery Enterprise: Evacuate Earth

On 2/14/13 12:25 PM, Frank wrote:

>> Ooooo, now there's a thought! If the Asteroid Belt contains enough
>> material to build habitats totaling three thousand times the Earth's
>> surface area, then how many times Earth can you build with the materials
>> of the shredded Earth?
> If you are speaking of the film, who should build them? The billions
> left on Earth would be dead, when the materials of the Earth would be
> available and the rest of 250000 heading towards an other star.

I don't think we were still talking about the film. We're talking about
more realistic scenarios.

> Wouldn't this materials be a ring around this neutron star?
> I guess this star is on a fast transit and would be away some years
> later taking the ring with it.

No, it's highly unlikely the neutron star would actually capture much
material. It would just generally tear things up as it passes through.
A shredded Earth would probably either form a thin ring around the
Sun, with a denser bulge where the Earth used to be.

> A better project, when humanity had 75 years time before the impact
> would be, to build several habitats from materials already in space on
> asteroids instead of sending all the materials up from Earth and start
> with the evacuation of Earth years before the impact happens with the
> first habitat, whereby the people already evacuated could build further
> habitats for those yet staying on Earth.

Yes, exactly right. And I think the point of this thread is, there are
plenty of materials to build new habitats -- even more so if Earth is
destroyed.

Best,
- Joe