Edit: so there are millions of people onboard. Thats a lot more than I thought.
Yeah, quite a few more
Currently, the number is a very vague 1 million, though it might end up being a bit more than that in the end. The current size of the Outerra takes this into account. When Cameni and I were discussing the ship's design, I took a loose measure of the human body, added a possible measurement of the cryo-chambers, added another approximate measurement for the support computers, and so on. Based on 1 million colonists, the Outerra is the exact size needed to house all of that, plus the engines and other equipment (including vehicles of all types, housing materials, food, etc).
In total, according to my timeline, 180 years is needed
for the mission's on-board clock. None of the crew will experience 180 years though. Each on-board ship year, a select group will emerge from cryo, attend the ship for one year, and then re-enter cryo for the next group to emerge. Thus, only 2 or 3 years total pass for the crew.
The Earth's clock, due to time dilation, sees a ±300 year variation. This is within the "mission's" protocols. However, as noted in the Epilogue teaser posted for Anteworld, we see that almost 2000 years have actually passed on Earth
.
Basically, in a nutshell, if the Outerra left Earth today (February 25th, 2012), the on-board ship date would be February 25th, 2192 when they returned, according to mission protocols. The crew would "feel" like it's only February 25th, 2015/2016. The
Earth date, however, would be February 25th, 2312. In the epilogue teaser, the date would actually be February 25th,
4312.
IF the ship left today (it actually departs on January 1st, 2100, at 00:00 GMT).
So pretty much, the crew would be no more nor less than like today's current population.
;tldr version:
The ship departs only 90 years from today's date. They only experience about 3 years of time during a mission that lasts 180 years of on-board time, due to cryogenics. Earth clocks read 300 years of time. Anteworld takes place 2,000 years later, so you'll have to wait to find out why the disparity (ie, 300 vs 2000)
