Distant Space Travel better as family affair
Forget the kind of macho astronauts you are used to seeing in films - space travel to faraway solar systems will probably be a family affair conducted by married couplesand their kids, says US anthropologist, John Moore. The family has the kind of natural organisation to deal with the tensions likely tocharacterise space trips of 200 years or longer to settle remote planets, says Moore. 'Weare less likely to go crazy in space and more likely to accomplish our missions by usingcrews that are organised along family lines. ''When ever colonisation is done on Earth, it is always by people looking for a better life.All of the colonisations that i know about have been done by families, especially young couples.'In the past, astronauts had to be specially trained and physically very fit to survive invery small space capsules, but spacecraft size is no longer a constraint, making it possible to take ordinary people such as midwives, electricians and cleaners. For a space crew that is going to colonise space and reproduce for many generations, these kinds of people will be just as important as space technologists. Starting with a population of childless married couples it will give the initial crew a few years to adjust to their new surrounds without the distraction and respons ability of caring for children.People may be horrified at the idea that children will be living and dying in space, with their only aimges of Earth coming from pictures and videos. But, says John Moore, parents have always made choices affecting their children's lives. 'we change jobs, we move to another town, we emigrate to a foreign country. If we educate our space kids properly. I think one day they might say, "Gosh, I'm sure glad I'm on this spaceship and not back on dirty old Earth."According to Moore, a starting population of 150 to 180 would best sustain itself at the same rate over six to eight generations. Every person would have the opportunity to be married - with a choice of at least ten possible spouses within three years of their age -and to be a parent. Ideally, the group should share social and cultural values. 'Having some people accustomed to monogamy and others to plural marriages would create some confusion when it becomes time for the sons and daughters of the first generation to marry,' says Moore. 'Designing morals for people on such a fantastic voyage is problematic because people on Earth would have little influence once the crew is on its own. if the space crew decides on a system of slavery for some and privileges for others, there is little the planners on Earth will be able to do to prevent it.'Thinking about these issues is not as far-fetched as you might think. Experts predict that such a space mission will take place within the next hundred years