Which Propulsion Systems Are Best Used For Intergalactic Space Travel ?

Question

Considering that all of the current line up of space vehicles use rocket engines and that the space shuttle uses massive tanks full of fuel to lift out of earths gravitational pull, the hubble and other space-probes relied on the gravitational pull of other planets for its trajectory, how then can we consider rocket engines for Intergalactic travel involving light years and thats assuming that as Humans we can cope with it ?

Answer 1

Wow, what a great question. Too bad that neither of us will be alive to see it happen. To be honest, if you are looking for intergalactic space travel, we are still in the stone age or less. What we have today is to very primitive that when I see things like Star Trek and think it is only 400 years into the future, I think we are way off.
Nevertheless...to get to your question. The only way I believe we will ever travel long distances in a reasonable amount of time to return without much of the aging process taking place here on earth is to find a way to harness gravity waves or just forget the whole thing and look for inter-dimensional travel in parallel dimensions.

I read a most interesting article many years ago I think is so very true. It said something like this; "If you notice where we are in the Milky Way Galaxy, and note where this is located in respect to the rest of the universe which is far more crowded than here, I wonder why we are so very, very far away from other places? Could it be for our good or for the good of others?" Wise words to ponder. I know I did not directly answer your question but you did get me to thinking and I hope I did the same for you.
May we stay away from them and they from us...until we are both ready.
Jim

Answer 2

Solar sails and other means of propulsion is just not going to cut it, if you want an intergalactic space vessel the only way it can be done now is with a multi generational spaceship that would take 10,000 years or more to reach the next solar system, but as for rocket technology N.E.R.V.A. rockets have a little potential.

oh and for the people saying that there is nothing to slow a ship in space, then there wrong if a ship was to get near the speed of light there would still be gas and dust particle's in space that would impact the vessel and slow it down, plus if a space ship travelling at the speed of light entered a dense cloud of gas in space the space ship could be torn apart.

Answer 3

I dont think we can even begin to meaning fully answer this question or even if intergalactic Space Travel is possible. However if your asking about possible propulsion system for long distance space travel then a 'Solar Sail' is seen by many people to be the best option.

It uses a large reflective sail which depends upon light incident upon the sail to push it forward. And since there is practically no resistance in interplanetaery space, it is suppossed to accelerate and build up speed over time and in the long run even travel much faster than a conventional rocket.

NASA decided to test a solar sail recently. But unfortunately the spacecraft which was to launch the sail developed problems and the mission ended in failure.

Answer 4

For interstellar travel, at least on a small scale, "propulsion systems" might be adequate. But for intergalactic space travel, we're talking about a whole different scale, by a factor of billions. No conventional propulsion system is good enough to travel between galaxies. The only way to do this is to invent teleportation or some other form of instant, or at least much-faster-than-light transportation.

Answer 5

We're going to need something a lot more powerful than what we've got today.

Within the solar system, chemical would be OK for the moon.

Fusion or Ion for the planets. Theoretically possible, but not practical yet.

But to go to even the closest stars we're going to have to 'warp' space to get there in less than years. Something like Star Trek's warp drive will be needed. However, that one is still a science fiction tool, not possible with today's science.

But to go to the nearest Galaxy, even that won't be enough. We're going to have to come up with something truly spectacular for this one.

Answer 6

We don't have an answer today.
You should not be asking us.
You should tell us what should that be since you are still young. Do your best at school and become a scientist or engineer. Development and invent the new technology that will allow us to do the intergalactic travel.

Answer 7

Just a quick FYI. The Hubble Space Telescope is a sattelite in orbit around our planet. It didn't use any gravity assists to get up there. It was placed in orbit by the space shuttle.

Answer 8

there is no truly viable propulsion system for intergalactic travel.Considering that our closet galactic neighbor is 20 trillion miles from our sun(alpha centauri) if you could travel at 1 million mph, it would take you roughly 20000 yrs to travel there.The only feasable way to travel intergalactically would be to find a wormhole to travel through.This is because of Einsteins general theory of relativity, which states that you cannot travel faster than, or even at the speed of light.If we were able to travel at the speed of light it would still take 4 yrs to do so.

Answer 9

Probably a low mass high speed action/reaction type engine. A plasma engine that uses ions or smaller particles at near the speed of light should do the trick.

Answer 10

Well you don't need propulsion to keep a ship moving in space, you only need it to accelerate and to slow down.
So a simple fission engine should be enough to propel a ship quickly enough, once at speed, you shut down the motor and let inertia do the rest.