Can our current technology allow us to colonize local planets?

Question

Do you believe we could travel to distant solar systems, stars, or galaxys in the not so distant future..?

Answer 1

The most important element for such colonization is funding. Basically with the exception of a few; i.e., China and many Euro countries, the nation's of the earth are broke. The key nation in such an effort would be the U.S. which has 8.7 trillion dollars of debt and it's getting worse with the Military Industrial establishment's continual shakedown of the American taxpayer. Much if not most of our huge military budget is wasted on useless, to questionable projects and the purchase of too much gadget technology. The cost of social services weighs heavily on this nation, so as far as executing such colonization it would be a matter of money. The technology exists to establish a moonbase, with Mars being second, but we are talking about trillions of dollars in terms of expense to do so. For a return on investment, it would be foolish to do so when so many problems need attention on the earth. The nearest star is 4.3 light years from earth. Each light year is approximately 6 trillion miles, so the nearest star system is about 25 trillion miles from earth. With the most advanced propulsion systems we have today, it would take 25,000 years for a one way trip to the Alpha Centauri systems, which is ludicrous. As far as ramjet schemes scooping up hydrogen and somehow accelerating a craft to near light-speed although in theory is doable; in terms of engineering it is science-fiction at this point in time. Again the costs of such a venture is far in excess of the tax-base of all the nations of the earth. Too much money spent for too little in return. We have a lot to do right here...right now on "our" planet earth.
As far as travel to galaxies are concerned, forget it, because getting to the nearest star would be a mind-boggling achievement. The nearest galaxy, Andromeda is 2.2 million light years from earth, making our 25,000 year journey to Alpha Centauri 4.3 light years seem like a cake-walk... ;-)

Answer 2

We'll never travel outside our galaxy; the distances are much too great. Even the closest galaxy, Andromeda, is about 2 million light years away, so it would take at least 2 million years to get there. And, if we can only travel a small fraction of the speed of light (likely this will be the case) it would take hundreds of millions of years to get there. And most galaxies are much further away than Andromeda.

As far as going to other stars in our own galaxy, this may be possible, but not in the near future. But within several centuries, probably yes. Even so, getting to even the nearest star system will take many years. Alpha centauri is the nearest known star to us, and it is a bit over 4 light years away. So, if you could build a spaceship that could travel at 10% the speed of light, it still would take over 40 years to get there, and that's not including a return trip.

Our solar system is different. The distances are much more manageable: flight to the Moon takes about 3 days, to Mars about 6 months, and to the outer planets (the moons of Jupiter and Saturn) probably 1 to 3 years, one way. So, if we could build the ships, the travel times would be similar to sailing across oceans or around the world, in the days of wooden sailing ships. Basically, as soon as we have the technology to build spaceships a bit more capable than what we have now, we can explore and begin to colonize our solar system.

This would open up a huge supply of energy and material resources that dwarf what is available here on Earth. And, it would also allow us to expand off just the Earth and provide several redundant places for life to exist.

Check out the website of the Space Studies Institute:
www.ssi.org

I'm not associated with SSI, but I think they do good work.

Answer 3

I think research done in space is aiming for something like this and maybe there are a lot of things on which scientists are working, and of which is not yet known to the public. I think we have yet to discover our own solar system fully first .The question regarding other solar systems would depends on whether we have the means to go that far. I think the answer is no. I think, however; "local" planets may hold the key-in that they may have some elements (yet to be discovered) that would help advance our technology; to enable us to build more sophisticated and reliable space crafts. Just my thoughts though!

Answer 4

Our current technology can travel to other planets but not colonize. We do know how to collonize other places pretty far away but we just need more time. An example is anti-matter. Humans can make it but very slowly. About one molocuele at a time. We would need 100 million years to fill a fuel tank with anti-matter but if we ever did we could travel to solar systems very far away and if we used up more time we could even get to our closest galaxy. Andromeda. The best way to mass produce anti-matter is to set up many places that can produce it and make stops along the route that one is planning to go in where one can refuel their ship.

Answer 5

Our technology at this time could not allow us to colonize other planets in this solar system. There are too many factors to be dealt with, not just whether or not the planet has water, but things like what gases make up the other planets atmosphere, what resources are available, the distance to the sun, and its temperature extremeties.

Answer 6

NASA wants to launch the first intestellar probe around the year 2025. Can it be done? Uhm,,,,*Scratching his head* I'm pretty techno savy, but thats a LONG streach- you're talking about a machine that can run for 100 years, without maintence, self powered, and has to be at least aware of its location in the universe and be able to find its way back to earth. It'd be a strech- not impossible, but it'd be damn'd tough to do

Answer 7

No. Not for another hundred years. Why you ask??? Because it too important of every country to spend billion of dollars of weapons of mass destruction. Hell, we may not even be here in a hundred years.

Answer 8

Only if you can get back before dinner!

Answer 9

no, we have no idea what the atmosphere , and we wouldn't live long enough...