There’s no great rush to jump dozens of light years away when we have hundreds of planets and moons and other large bodies we’ve barely even taken a glimpse at right here in our own back yards
It’s not particularly likely that any of the planets or moons around other stars are habitable either. At least not “step out of the ship and take a nice deep breath of the fresh air, picking an apple off of a nearby tree and making some kind of comment about how it’s like Eden” habitable like is so common on TV. It’s likely that if there’s a native biosphere then that planet is going to be incredibly hostile to alien life like us.
Build habitats. If you’ve got the tech to build a starship then you’ve got the tech to build a habitat, it’s way easier. Habitats will give you exactly the environment you want, not whatever you happen to find.
As long as the atmosphere is roughly similar, the native biosphere would have very little defense against us. Sure, some of the defenses that local plants and animals developed against each other might cause issues, or they might not.
We would be an invasive species on the grandest scale. A completely foreign biology would maybe have useful nutrients, or maybe not. That would be the key, but the periodic table will be the same everywhere, and chemistry being what it is, we’d probably see similar molecules, at least the simple stuff. Basic hydrocarbons and such.
The complex biochemistry would be vastly different. That could trip up human explorers.
None of those are habitable
Orbiting Habitats are
It’s not particularly likely that any of the planets or moons around other stars are habitable either. At least not “step out of the ship and take a nice deep breath of the fresh air, picking an apple off of a nearby tree and making some kind of comment about how it’s like Eden” habitable like is so common on TV. It’s likely that if there’s a native biosphere then that planet is going to be incredibly hostile to alien life like us.
Build habitats. If you’ve got the tech to build a starship then you’ve got the tech to build a habitat, it’s way easier. Habitats will give you exactly the environment you want, not whatever you happen to find.
As long as the atmosphere is roughly similar, the native biosphere would have very little defense against us. Sure, some of the defenses that local plants and animals developed against each other might cause issues, or they might not.
We would be an invasive species on the grandest scale. A completely foreign biology would maybe have useful nutrients, or maybe not. That would be the key, but the periodic table will be the same everywhere, and chemistry being what it is, we’d probably see similar molecules, at least the simple stuff. Basic hydrocarbons and such.
The complex biochemistry would be vastly different. That could trip up human explorers.