 fact, it isn’t hard to imagine a time when this region of the solar system may be the preferred place to conduct astronomical observations of not only extrasolar planets, but an array of distant objects. Thus, the innermost parts of the Oort cloud may not become economically or demographically important, but they may well become scientifically important for this reason alone.
Considering that the concept for a mission of this type is already being promoted by Claudio Maccone and being talked about at NASA, the innermost Oort cloud may be penetrated by space telescope arrays sooner than almost anyone even suspects. The build-out of such an infrastructure (one might call it the “telescope cloud”) is hardly imminent, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it was built up at roughly the same time humans establish colonies in the outer solar system. The same level of propulsion technology that can get you from Earth to Saturn in a few weeks can also get you to the gravitational lensing distance in a few years.
An Oort Cloud Gold Rush?
Gravitational lens telescopes may not be a driver of human settlement like the reasons explored in the previous post on colonizing the Oort cloud, since telescopes can be operated autonomously, especially with the sort of technology likely to be available in the near future. The fact that a round-trip transmission takes a week, however, may compound any errors that occur, making human servicing so frequently necessary that it may be easier to simply station people on-site or on a more mobile spaceship nearby that roams the region checking up on the telescopes. Visits for servicing will likely be needed from time to time in any case, though this wouldn’t be a driver of permanent settlement.
The very fact of week-long round-trip transmission times, however, might stimulate some scientists and scholars to station themselves on-site in order to access and analyze observational data faster than would otherwise be possible. In a scenario where detailed observations are needed with multiple-step decision-making processes as to what, how, and when to observe, transmitting all the steps from the inner solar system could take months (at one week per message round-trip). Without the light-speed lag the same could be accomplished in days, accelerating by a factor of ten the gathering of scientific data in these sort of contexts. If these scenarios prove to be commonplace (as they have to some extent in the probes we’ve sent out already), if the scientific data is valuable enough, and if the launch cost of sending humans and their habitation module is low enough (it’s likely to be cheap by the time the telescope cloud is built out), it may actually be worthwhile to permanently station people at these telescopes.
This would only support Antarctica-style research station populations at first, but with a bit more imagination one could see these telescope arrays and research stations evolving into full-scale research centers for all fields relating to their observations, particularly astronomical fields. If trainees, apprentices, and students are added on at a later date it turns into something like a college. Together with support personnel and the families of all those who live there, one now has a full-fledged space colony in the outermost solar system.
One could see it expanding even further, but any good science-fiction writer, worldbuilder, or futurologist can see the possibilities of a more purely research-focused colony as a setting for stories or other artistic purposes. Both in real life and in fiction, it isn’t that much of a stretch to see it evolve into a more diversified colony eventually, but unless the population were interested in investing in the construction of a full-fledged city Dubai- or Las Vegas-style it is very easy to imagine a college-town-like setting as the end point of its development.
Communicating Through Gravitational Lenses
In addition to passive observation, gravitational lensing can be used for active transmission of information. Claudio Maccone has proposed that the magnification 