i love this project, it has had me transfixed for some time now. in my head i created a whole story around it. imagine either being on board the ship when it leaves and travels across part of the galaxy, or when it returns. you have the equivalent of a ford model t showing up at your doorstep. i also try and use what knowledge i have of sea faring explorers for insight into how this might go. the time scale and the constraints are just so far beyond anything we've ever done, however, so it has no real historical precedent.<p>this project is so immense, it requires so much thinking: air, food and water prodiction and recycling, population genetics and management (both biological as well as sociological), materials management, energy production, navigation, communications back to earth, etc. you can't just stop and fix something, you have to actually manage it while you fly.<p>in my night time thinking about this you'd have designs tested in multi-year experiments first under the sea (no new air, sun light, etc), then a small (10-12 year) mission to mars or something, and then finally you launch for the stars. where do you go? frankly, 100 years isn't very much to explore too far beyond the solar system and the next one (as i understand it you'd wind up in the middle of nowhere if you made a straight trajectory out of our solar system). so what do you find and where would you go?<p>then think about being on that craft. what if you're a kid who was whisked away by exploring parents, would you resent them for taking you away from everything you knew forever? imagine being the last person alive who could recall earth. imagine the governments that would form on the ship and how they would manage things, i imagine euthanasia would become realistic sine your resources are so visibly constrained. imagine how that would fly when you came back to earth.<p>i find this whole thing fascinating, it's such rich fodder for the imagination. i love it.