What to bring on a Generation Ship/Fleet

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by (E)

Breed stability as I've used the term means enough genetic diversity to ensure a breed's characteristics are maintained (or improved at a reasonable rate) while ensuring genetic health.
100,000 is the number quoted for sheep, cattle are similar.
The number can be reduced in two ways, managing breeding and by keeping the vast majority of genetics in hibernation.
If you use the later then divide 100,000 (or whatever number you use) by the amount of time sperm, eggs and zygotes. remain viable in cold storage (currently about 20 years)

From the description (and ways to modify it), it sounds like the 100,000 number is assuming essentially random breeding (as having a controlled breeding program reduces the starting number) and a very high attrition rate (as those cold-storage gametes aren't contributing to starting diversity, they are simply allowing a cow to continue to produce offspring after it's been made into hamburger, yet they have such a drastic effect on the needed starting number). Considering the human breeding won't be random (I'm not intending for there to be a formal breeding program, but steps will be taken to avoid inbreeding) and that the crew of the ships aren't being raised for slaughter, I don't think the 100,000 number is relevant for my setting.

That said, I do still expect for a starting population of 100,000 to result in some degree of a founder effect, which is why they're bringing a larger selection of Earth gametes with them. I should note I'm considering the setting as having sufficiently advanced cryotechnology that gametes/zygotes are viable indefinitely in cold storage (full organisms are a no-go, however, hence no sleeper ships).

Originally Posted by (E)

Vat meat in it's current form also requires animals as source material, functionally increasing the per head efficiency of meat production by a factor of 20,000 or so. Current technology has a high chemical requirement.

Vatmeat in the Harpyias setting would either use immortalized cells for sustained vats (harvesting from it every so often and leaving the rest to regenerate) or would use a system where you pull a stem cell starter out of cold storage, use that to whip up a large quantity of meat, and then harvest the whole thing. I'm leaning more toward the latter.