Organically Grown Space Ships

[stephen.samuels]

I am toying with the creation of organically created space ships for interstellar travel, and I wanted to get the Chrons thoughts.

So fire away!

 

[RJM Corbet]

The Aliens in Stephen Donaldson's GAP series grow their spaceships ...

 

[Jake Reynolds]

I seem to remember that the White Stars in Babylon 5 were part organic too.

 

[VALIS13]

The TARDIS is organic, as are the ships in Peter F.Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy.

 

[stephen.samuels]

interesting have to have look

 

[stephen.samuels]

just to make clear, no crystal based tech

 

[prizzley]

The Ship in Julian May's Saga of the Exiles is organic/telepathic.

 

[Ursa major]

And Farscape had the Leviathans, including Moya.

I'm not sure whether the Leviathans we see are an entirely constructed species, or a natural species that has been engineered to match the role they perform.

 

[stephen.samuels]

So people are comfortable with the concept?

 

[Ursa major]

Of course.

And why not? It isn't as if SF is devoid of their digital analogues (): ships, run by AIs, which can reconfigure themselves.

 

[stephen.samuels]

Of course.

And why not? It isn't as if SF is devoid of their digital analogues (): ships, run by AIs, which can reconfigure themselves.

I do think it is good to gauge peoples opinions though Ursa

 

[James Coote]

I think that in the future, we'll all be living in organically grown houses. Self repairing and a lot more eco-friendly than all that concrete, brick and cement we currently use.

Organic ships however, you'd first have to work out how to make a plant or animal that can live in space (eat, move etc), then all the stuff on top of it, like adding crew compartments, weapons, cargo space etc

Or did you mean using genetically modified plants, bacteria, yeast etc to 'grow' the ship hull, even if the hull itself dies in the process?

 

[Toby Frost]

Yep, I've had a go at this myself, mainly to be able to make airlock jokes. I operate on a pretty sophisticated level, as you can see.

 

[nubins]

Star Trek had quite a few story lines over all of it's various iterrations that involved organic ships or life forms. I'm pretty sure there were storylines in The Next Generation, Enterprise and Voyager that explored spaced based life forms.

I think in principlethere isn't a reason why not (the natural evolution of these forms would be questionnable, but engineered would seem fine). The question has to be where they get their energy from, how they stay warm, where they get water. Sunlight would be easy enough, but not the carbon dioxide.

Then again if you have humans living on an organic plant based spaceship, it could be quite an elegant solution to providing fresh air.

 

[RJM Corbet]

... Organic ships however...

But in fact I'm told by reliable sources that they do use chemical fertilizers and insecticides, and that most are genetically modified too, in spite of being advertised 'organically grown' and priced accordingly. But Press Intergalactica have never wanted to expose the scandal in case they pull their advertizing. Le plus ce change, le plus il sont meme chose ...

 

[J Riff]

I used the very idea about a year ago in a SS. Crutacean-like alien that grows a replacement shell after thoughtless earthlings destroy its crash-landed spaceship.
To quote:

"You mean it will just grow... like a chia spacecraft?"
The monstrous crustacean rolled many eyes. "Yes Frank, it will grow by itself. I will have a look at it every few days, but it's not rocket science."

So I think it's a swell idea.

 

[stephen.samuels]

I used the very idea about a year ago in a SS. Crutacean-like alien that grows a replacement shell after thoughtless earthlings destroy its crash-landed spaceship.
To quote:

"You mean it will just grow... like a chia spacecraft?"
The monstrous crustacean rolled many eyes. "Yes Frank, it will grow by itself. I will have a look at it every few days, but it's not rocket science."

So I think it's a swell idea.

Nice quote

 

[Vertigo]

Hamilton's Nights Dawn books had organic grown spaceships and habitats.

 

[stephen.samuels]

Its a beauitful concept just gonna take some pulling off I reckon.

 

[chrispenycate]

Baxter's Spline spacecraft are grown, and at least partially sapient; Mofitt's 'Genesis Quest' has interstellar, nay intergalactic trees, though they don't have much of a propulsion system. I remember a short story where the main characters were space-living organisms where the adults were ships, and the young passengers.

My principal difficulty is with an organic drive system that is at the same time reasonably efficient and fits into present-day physics. Then again, the drive might be dead matter (equivalent to the mineral shell of a coral polyp), though this removes the auto-reparing function that's a living vessel's most positive aspect.

Of course there are any number of ships which are cyborgs, with some part (generally the control system or parts of life support) living, while others are manufactured. Ships that sing, mutate, eat asteroids…