Packing and Unpacking

We would take years, moving at near light speed, to reach the nearest planet.

To reach light speed (c), you need

• 354 days at 1G
• 1 day at 354G

You need the same time to slow down once you near your destination.

Those numbers assume constant acceleration, which assumes infinite energy. They also don't consider time dilation effects as you get close to light speed.

In reality, it will take centuries to reach even a nearby planet. People can't live in a spaceship for centuries. How to solve the problem?

• Sex: Treat a spaceship like the family home. It may take centuries to get there, but your great-to-the-tenth-power grandkids will have a nice, clean planet to terraform.
• Cold sleep: Deep freeze the human cargo. Thaw it out when you get there. Sure, some will die, but many will live. Exploring space carries dangers, don't you know?
• Packing and unpacking: You still freeze the human cargo, but then your nanorobots pack the human molecules into compressed modules. When you reach the destination, the nanorobots unpack them.

I like the idea of packing and unpacking. Just as we compress data now, we can compress organisms in the future. A compressed organism could survive as long as the nanorobot swarm holding its unpacking instructions exists. Interesting idea.