Hundreds of tiny Nanocrafts the size and shape of a sewing needle are
accelerated to 10-20% the speed of light and shot into the sky in the direction
of a habitable planet.
The acceleration technique is similar to the Large Hadron Collider at
CERN where magnetic fields are used to accelerate particles to 99% speed of
light.
To avoid collision with air molecules, a cleansing projectile is launched
milliseconds ahead of the Nanocraft creating a temporary vacuum tunnel.
These Nanocrafts contain a group of specialized Microbots that are able
to build complex structures.
As the Nanocrafts have no propulsion engine whatsoever, it can only adjust
its course by folding out one of four separate sails to provoke collisions
with particles. These impacts with particles enable the Nanocrafts to adjust
their course.
For example, if a Nanocraft has to correct its course going south, it
unfolds the south sail and increases the probability of particle collision
on that sail. If the course is corrected, it folds in its sail again.
This way, not only is the problem of particle evaded – collisions
are also utilized for steering the Nanocraft in the right direction.
As the Nanocraft approaches the target planet, it unfolds all four sails
to provoke equally distributed particle collisions and to slow the Nanocraft
down.
The particle density will increase when the Nanocraft reaches the target
solar system, so the Nanocraft reduces its speed to 3% light speed when it
reaches the target planet's atmosphere.
The particle density will increase dramatically when the Nanocraft punches
through the atmosphere, further reducing its speed so it hits the planet surface
with only 0.001% light speed.
After successfully landing on the target planet, the first generation
of microrobots start to scout the environment, collect and mine ressources,
transform the resources into useful elements and construct more microbots and
microstructures that will soon develop into megastructures.
After five to six years, the robots have constructed energy supply systems, communication
structures and habitable buildings with Earth-like atmospheres as well as landing
structures to provide better landing survival chances for more Nanocrafts to
come.
In preparation for human life, the robots start to grow plants and possibly
breed animals to collect food for the humans to arrive.
With an average mass of 75kg, the human body is too big for Nanocrafts.
What’s more, the life support system and food supply would require a massive
star ship that could not reach relativistic speeds with the current level of
technology.
In order to develop human life on this new planet, some of the Nanocrafts
are filled with frozen fertilized eggs, arriving safely on the landing structures
built by the robots already on the target planet.
This means the first generation of humans on this distant planet will
be raised by robots.