Does Xenoarchaeology Require Time Travel

[Num7]

As discussed in another thread I started yesterday, the universe is HUGE, in terms of space and time.

What if it is so huge, that perhaps, a civilization might not have enough time to travel and discover the remnants of another? By the time they would, the evidence of this other civilization might have already disappeared.

This begs the question: Can Xenoarchaeology exist without time travel? Is time travel mandatory, to find traces of alien civilizations in the far reaches of the cosmos?

 

[Wind7]

As discussed in another thread I started yesterday, the universe is HUGE, in terms of space and time.

What if it is so huge, that perhaps, a civilization might not have enough time to travel and discover the remnants of another? By the time they would, the evidence of this other civilization might have already disappeared.

It's the makings of a great Sci-Fi movie premise you have here.

To find a planet with all the bearings of having had life upon it then,
set travel to the destination with a kind of space vivarium where humanity can live out entire generations...

Only to arrive and find nothing there but an old ships log with reams of information of an entire
race of beings who had once made the exact same trip.

This begs the question: Can Xenoarchaeology exist without time travel? Is time travel mandatory, to find traces of alien civilizations in the far reaches of the cosmos?

I have a feeling that, this answer lies much closer upon (or within) Mars.
With one very slow-moving rover, science is looking but with both arms strapped to the back.

There is talk of things like this> Cryogenic Sleep for Space Travel.

We have a ways to go either or....Time travel seems a bit more in the distance. (to me.)

 

[MODAT7]

Who's not to say that aliens found a long dead Earth, went back in time, took some samples, returned to their present (following the Temporal Prime Directive), fed it into their supercomputer, and we're all living in their simulation of humanity being studied like lab rats?

There is talk of things like this> Cryogenic Sleep for Space Travel.

I've studied cryo pods (as in deep freezing) for some story ideas. I came to the conclusion that it would kill any humans trying it. The solution was genetic engineering since there's life on this planet that can handle the deep cold. This would require significant changes to humans, but it seems doable.

Hibernation would be viable with the right drugs, but as the article mentioned, it would be for relatively short time periods. Most of the drugs to do this right now are somewhat toxic and can kill a person. Hibernation would get deeper and deeper as better drugs and technology developed.

The third option would be a stasis pod that truly stopped time inside it. Anything and any being could safely use something like this. The main drawback is high power usage.

Another thing I noted is that "sleeper missions" aren't really practical beyond the 3-10 year mark, depending on the mission parameters. With technology rapidly advancing (at least ideally), by the time someone spends 10 years in stasis, space travel has improved enough that the mission could easily be done in a fraction of that time. It would be kinda funny if astronauts took off for Alpha Centauri on a 10 year flight just to be passed by astronauts with newer technology 5 years into that flight. By the time the first astronauts got there, their new exploratory mission would be scrapped because there's already a colony there.