Will Sci-Fi every come true?

Question

Will mankind every explore space on the scale described in science fiction.

How will that look, Startrek, FireFly, Andromida, etc.

Answer 1

Oh Oh. You need to be more specific re the word scale. It could be anything from 1 or more. If one, yes there was a movie (SF) that was about a trip of one rocket to the moon, carrying passengers. So, that has already come true.

But I know what you mean: Star Trek!

On the other hand, there is a convenient SF trick called 'Warp' that allows fictional characters from different places in the galaxy to meet freely. So far, there is not the slightest chance that we will invent a warp drive. Until that happens, there is not the slightest chance that we will freely meet people from other planets not in this solar system, because the distances are too great.

There is too much dust in space to allow near light speeds because as speed increases so does momentum. That means that the impact of a grain of dust at near light speed would destroy the craft by the release of kinetic energy. Even at orbital speeds around the Earth they have to be careful of micro-meteorite hits. There have been many movies portraying impacts on space craft, and since they were trying to be realistic, they were all traveling at realistic speeds that we can actually attain by rocket propulsion. The little rocks made holes through the craft like it was made of paper. Imagine the energy of the impact at speeds 1000 times as fast. Instead of a pin hole, there would be a hole many times larger. Perhaps some shield could be devised to absorb the energy in a way similar to the Shuttle heat shield. This could work for high speed interplanetary travel, but when you talk about interstellar travel, the speed is 1000 times more again.

Escape velocity from Earth is approximately 20,000 MPH (32,000 KPH) If we could accelerate to 1,000 times that speed, we would be going 20,000,000 MPH (5,555 miles per second) Sounds fast huh? Think again.

Light travels 669,600,000 miles an hour.
Light travels 5,865,696,000,000 miles in one year.
The nearest star (No known planets, used for illustration purposes only) is 4.3 light-years, or 25,222,500,000,000 miles away. So, at our leisurely pace of 20,000,000 MPH, it would only take us 143 years to reach Proxima Centauri.

So, getting there is definitely going to take us well past the first commercial break. How we will arrange to have an adventure, fall in love with the leading lady, save the craft from alien computer virus infection and land in one piece, so that we can make a sequel... well you get the picture? Fiction is a lot easier than reality.

;-D Get busy and invent that WARP DRIVE, will ya!

Answer 2

There are people called "Futurists", that do nothing but think up of stuff for the future. Type in the word "Futurist" on Yahoo! or Google and check what they have to say about what is and what will be possible in the near and far future.

Now, as for being able to travel like they do on Star Trek, etc;
The use of nuclear fuels will allow space travel at neck breaking speeds, however, the materials needed to withstand the amount of heat generated for that type of travel has yet to be produced.

There are certain ceramics that NASA uses for the space shuttle, but that material can only withstand a certain amount heat (not sure of the temp).

In short, the answer to your question is "yes"...its just a matter of when.

S.T.

Answer 3

Some of it. Some things in Startrek came true. Some things are compact computers, space travel (small scale), sliding doors, etc. More and more things will come true as technology advances. Be patient!

Answer 4

Ever read Jules Verne ?
Science fiction is constantly coming true..

Answer 5

Look at your laptop. Look at your cell phone. Then watch a little Star Trek and you'll see what I mean. Beam me up, Scottie!

Answer 6

We need the technology to catch up with us.