Do You Think We Will Ever Travel Outside This Galaxy? If so, what do you think it will be like?

Answer 1

Maybe if we can over come the time thing. I mean even traveling at the speed of light it would take hundreds or thousands of years (hence light years). Or maybe we could learn to utilize things such as worm holes and see where they lead us. Either way I feel that is a long way off I mean people have not even set foot on our closest planet neighbors. If we did ever make it I think that it will be totally different than what anyone has ever expected or maybe just the same (but that would be boring so I hope not) :)

Answer 2

Since your question asks if we will "ever" travel outside this Galaxy, it gives us (humans) eseentially all of eternity to get it done. Humans are extremely creative and resourceful critters. Being an optimist, my own view is that we will be able to accomplish the impossible over and over again.

The key question is: can we keep ourselves alive as a species long enough to give ourselves a chance to do those impossible things? That means, first of all, can we keep from killing ourselves out of existence?

If we can do that, then there is hope.

The Earth will eventually run out of resources and is threatened by such things as asteroid impacts. I am convinced that we can figure out how to survive that by settling space and learning to live and work there until we achieve self sufficiency.

Then the Sun will eventually run out of fuel and turn into a red giant. That will be about 4 billion years from now. I think in 4 billion years, we will certainly figure out how to travel to other stars within our galaxy and perhaps even how to create and control starts themselves.

Then, many billions or trillions of years later, the Universe itselff will begin to run down and cool down, loosing most of its usable energy. I still see humans as figuring out how to maintain our civilization in this kind of Universe.

There are, in my opinion, many things to be discovered about how the Universe works. There is a real chance that some of those discoveries will completely change the way we live and travel in the Universe.

But remember: even the Star Trek civilization, which is set 300 years in the future and has some very sexy and advanced technology was limited to travel within the Milky Way (which is 100,000 light years in diameter and contains 150 billion stars). But the Milky Way will be an amazing place to explore and should keep us busy and mesmerized for many thousands of years to come.

Answer 3

it would be quite hard to travel outside the galaxy. we would have to overcome the obstacle of time though. it takes about 25 years just to get to pluto and beyond, based on voyager 2's flight. so we would have to make an incredibly long lasting spacecraft. i do not think that humans will ever get to travel outside the galaxy. in order to get out of the galaxy, we would also need to figure out how to travel at light speed, or find a way to transmit radio signals from that far, with a long-lasting spacecraft.

Answer 4

I'd give it at least another 500-1000 years. We would need to learn how to manipulate wormholes, overcome our own biological cumbrance (longevity, cancer, etc), and learn how to take care of our own planet before we could travel to another one. We'd first have to travel to local stars, before we travel to other galaxies. So, yes, we may (if we don't kill each other off first!), but it will be a long time coming!

Answer 5

well, after dealing with michael crichton's question about the benefits of mapping the human genome, i'd give this answer a small 'yes'....

provided that we do finish mapping the genome and allow ourselves to either live a heck of a lot longer than now, or just live forever (i'm hoping against forever, 'cause that would get REALLY crowded).....

right now, humans can't travel outside this galaxy, due simply to our longevity....until we can lengthen our lives or 'control' those wormholes out there, it's still just a dream....

a dream that i perceive as seeing new, different forms of life....seeing new worlds...perhaps even seeing some 'familiarity'....experiencing that would be my only cause of wanting to live forever (and healthy, at that)...