mstrefford

Comment Threads

• Charlie Stross commented on Microbes grow the starship
  You'll need a huge uterus, and a complex one at that, with the placenta alone being a huge feat of design. I take issue with the "huge", and note that you're thinking in terms of placental mammals. Why not make it oviparous, and start with an egg? (Consider how small many dinosaur eggs are, and consider that the growth potential of a spaceship isn't limited by its ability to maintain structural integrity in a constant 1 g field.) Alternatively, if you can manage a full placenta, why not go for a marsupial design -- have parturition as early as possible,...
• Charlie Stross commented on Microbes grow the starship
  Or it strikes the Moon moving it out of orbit destabilising planetary rotation also wiping out most life on Earth. I think you need to look up how massive the Moon is; it's quite a bit bigger and harder to shift than most people seem to think! Please can we try to keep our options in this discussion within the realm of the plausible, at least wrt. the physics?...
• Moderator Alan commented on Microbes grow the starship
  Some form of exoskeleton seems appropriate for the environment. Perhaps it's appropriate to take a page out of the crustacean's book and have some way to moult off the outer shell, rapidly inflate a still-flexible shell packed just inside it, and then harden off that new shell. This allows growth from a small egg or the like up to a 'final' size. (Do we have to have a final size?)...
• michaelgr commented on Microbes grow the starship
  If we could grow starships, I think it would make more sense, at least in the short run, to grow them on Earth. Sure, they would then need to be launched to orbit, but let's think a moment on why launching today is so expensive: it's not the fuel, it's the costly, non-reusable, insanely complex hardware. If you grow your hardware, then the price goes way down. And growing organics in space is difficult: no air, extreme temperatures, no available resources. The best way to go about it is to design several organisms, each producing a different part of the...
• Sean Eric Fagan commented on Microbes grow the starship
  Charlie's already written about it, in Palimpsest. I don't know that it will make you sleep easier, though....