"Could the Aniara be saved." Topic

If you haven't had a chance to see the movie Aniara, you should catch it on Hulu.

The premise is that a space ship carrying passengers to Mars s knocked off course. Kinda like Avenue 5, but not near as funny.

So here is the problem for you starship captains:

1) You have the means to produce food and booze for the passengers.

2) You have no fuel – had to jettison it during the accident.

3) The best minds onboard are hoping to find a planet to slingshot around to get turned back towards Earth.

Can you come up with any options?

Since you are heading out of the solar system, you have years to think about this so time is not a factor.

I have an idea of my own, but want to hear yours first.

Well, if you can make booze, you can make fuel. But it might be more fun to toss out passengers to accelerate and alter course. Time, however, is most certainly a factor unless everyone is involved is (a) immortal and (b) without interests outside of the ship.

Why are we trying to get back to Earth instead of back on course for Mars? Have you seen Earth lately?

And did these guys pay anything to the author of River of Stars?

From what I've learned watching movies, you can blow the forward hatch and vent some atmosphere to alter course. Works every time!

Option 2: institute "protein recycling" (ie. cannibalism) and hope your really great grand kids can colonize a new solar system.

I didn't claim they were good options.

The movie is based on a book-length poem by Harry Martinson, published in 1956.

Who wrote River of Stars, and when? It's not the 1913 Edgar Wallace novel, nor Guy Gavriel Kay's 2013 fantasy novel about the Song dynasty, nor Vanessa Hua's 2018 novel about modern pregnancy and motherhood.

I guess calling AAA isn't an option? You'd kinda figure Earth would've noticed the ship going off course and dialing 1-800-GetBruceWillis.

The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael F. Flynn link

It's technically the fifth book in the Firestar cycle, although it's set long, long after. I definitely enjoyed the Firestar books, but YMMV.

Reverse polarity |?

Well here is my crazy idea.

First, any solutions that involve venting resources are off the table. We have no means to replenish supplies.

Now the crazy part. We have plenty of warm bodies with nothing to do, so everyday we all move to the bow of the ship and jump up and down until the ship turns around. In a few years we may be able to flip the ship.

@emckinney: Thanks for the tip.

I have questions before solutions:

Does the Aniara carry any smaller craft?
-Do they have enough power to push the Aniara into a course to a suitable destination?
-If not, can they get any passengers to a suitable destination?

Does the Aniara have facilities for cold sleep / low berth / suspended animation?
-For how many people?
-How long can people stay in suspended animation and still be successfully revived?

Based on the movie, no small craft are carried and there is no cold sleep facilities.

There are a couple of other elements. The ship is huge, they do seem to have enough power to run the lights and artificial gravity.