Neil deGrasse Tyson Explains Generational Spaceships

What if you lived your whole life on a spaceship and never saw the final destination? On this StarTalk explainer, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice investigate generational spaceships.

We discuss the ethical questions posed by the idea of generational spaceships. Would you ever plan to come back to Earth? Neil and Chuck ponder the idea of artificial incubation and Chuck raves about the new show Raised by Wolves.

Lastly, Chuck tells us why he wants astronauts to come back with superpowers after a long journey away from Earth. All that, plus, you’ll hear why Earth itself is a generational ship.

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About StarTalk:
Science meets pop culture on StarTalk! Astrophysicist & Hayden Planetarium director Neil deGrasse Tyson, his comic co-hosts, guest celebrities & scientists discuss astronomy, physics, and everything else about life in the universe. Keep Looking Up!

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[hendrikblauw]

This combination of wisdom and humour has got me hooked to these shows.

[hareecionelson]

Chuck out-geniused Neil for the second time. First time was when he said the speed of light is the loading speed of the simulated universe.

[osirismnunez]

Chuck hit the nail on the head with the spaceship Earth concept.

[elizabetholiviaclark]

"Earth: The Nascar of space travel." I'd buy that bumper sticker.

[FMFvideos]

There should be an episode where Chuck explain things while Neil make jokes.

[brentwilbur]

By the time the first ship we send gets to where it's going, the second and third ships will have already arrived because of improved propulsion technologies. So the first ship should have most of the people, with a majority of the population in stasis. The second and third ships could be largely robotic, designed either to pass the first and autonomously build a waiting colony, or to dock with the first and take a handful of people ahead to build the colony.

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades. I gotta wear shades.

[leroycasterline]

I wish I could remember the title of the book or credit the author, but when I was a kid growing up in rural Ohio in the late 50's or early 60's, I read a book about just such a starship from the perspective of a young man.

I don't remember many of the details, but the gist of the story, revealed slowly and expertly over the course of the book, is that they had been on the journey for so many generations that they didn't understand they were living on a spaceship and heading toward an unknown world. As the story goes on and the ship approaches its destination, the unchanging world these people had known for generations begins to change (the ship hadn't forgotten it's mission, after all).

As I recall our young hero finds a forgotten book or artifact that reveals to the passengers how their lives are about to change forever. Thanks for the fond memories!

[philipberthiaume]

Fun fact: warping is actually a very slow and tedious process from the age of sailing ships. To warp a ship out of port, you would put an anchor on a rowboat, row it forward of the ship, drop it into the ocean, sailors on the ship would then pull the anchor's rope and move the ship forward to where the anchor was dropped and repeat the process over. Very slow, very tedious and necessary when there was no wind or the ship was in a very tight spot.

[Justacoustic]

That Chuck's quick and deep tought at the beggining of the video about procreation in the earth having the same ethical implications as in space, just blew my mind.

[elevatedintuition]

Aren't we essentially on a space voyage that lasts longer than our own life?

[SunflowerKinggg]

Chuck blows my mind more than Neil these days lol.
Listening to his philosophies got me like "😂😂😂😂😂😂🤔"

[quontox]

Imagine sending a generational ship out and it travels for 200 years and when it reaches the destination, theres already a large colony of humans there because we figured out faster than light travel 50 years after we sent the first ships.

[jjbud]

This show reminds me of the some of the SciFi I was reading 60 years ago. I particularly remember one about a generational spaceship where, after many generations, the occupants eventually lost track of their mission.

[ericvosselmans]

starting at 0:45 "...never engage in an experiment, where you don't get the results until after you are dead..."

They forget to tell that to the James Webb Telescope Team!

[thomaslane]

Then there was the sci-fi book I read where folks left on a 500-year journey in a generational ship, but warp drive was invented 150 years after that, so other families had been living at their destination a couple hundred years when their descendants arrived...

[dennis]

These explainer-zone vids are my new favourite. Keep 'em coming!

[dickcastle]

"Farms of women"
I'm sure tht line will never be misconstrued

[davidsisson]

There's actually an episode of The Orville in which they encounter a generational ship originating on an alien planet and something went wrong that failed to inform the passengers of the original mission and they thought the interior of the ship was the entire universe.

[JAMESHARTDRUMS]

I would love to sit down with these two and have the entire discussion about every aspect of this concept... The snowball effect would be wild. So many details to be thought of

[aceleone]

..I GENUINELY LOOOOVE THESE TWO GUYS TOGETHER..!!
#EDUTAINMENT👌👌💯