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Re: RE: starship-design: Numbers needed for Colonization (was Antiproton-Cataly
>
>In a message dated 4/28/98 3:01:08 AM, f96bni@student.tdb.uu.se wrote:
>
>>SO, which are the two main criteria???
>>
>>First: We must bring enough INDIVIDUALS to ensure that we have enough
>>"genetic diversity", to protect vs Inbreeding and such things.
>>Unfortunatly my Biological/medical knowledge is way to poor to know
have
>>many this is, maybe someone else knows???
==> In wildlife biology, it is generally agreed that any population must
consist of more than 200 individuals to remain healthy. And if there are
less than 50 individuals left, it's most likely that the population is
doomed to extinction.
Note: This is not true for zoos. There are cases in which a whole
species (e.g. the onyx antelope) has been successfully recreated on the
basis of only 9 specimen.
So I think a colonization program starting with 10,000 people is a very
safe proposal. In the Alpes or Pyrenees, there are mountain villages
with less than 1,000 inhabitants, and it is supposed that at least a few
of them have an uninterupted existence since prehistoric days; this is
especially the case for the Western Pyrenees, where there are still
Basque villages which can hardly be reached by foot or horse.
But if you start a colony of 10,000 on the surface of a planet, it would
still need support from Earth (at least one ship every 50 years),
because it is unlikely that a small community can repair or rebuild
vital large scale equipment (say a fusion power plant) on their own.
In addition, in both scenario 2
>>and 3, we must also bring enough of all SUPORTING life-forms to ensure
the
>>same diversity.
==> Right, but don't start to clone your cattle...
Christoph
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