Do you have a feeling that the first people to decide to go on an interstellar ship will be overtaken?

Question

Say telescopes eventually find an Earth-like planet at Alpha Centauri or another nearby star.

Probably the first engineers will find a way to make 1% lightspeed possible, decide it's enough, and put people on a centuries-long trip in suspended animation.

Later, progressively faster and faster ships will pass them, and they can't do anything because it takes months to slow down and doing anything to catch them at that relative speed will vaporize them both.

So the first dudes will reach a fully formed civilization while the last ones have to do all the hard work. Weird eh?

Answer 1

This is the subject of a novel. The first people are sent at sub light speed. While in transit, they are passed by some effect they can't see. This is a newer ship going much faster than them. When they arrive at the planet, they find out the people there have been there for many generations and that they are repulsive to them. Their diet and habits are disgusting.

Answer 2

Maybe. This assumes that lots of progress is made in drive technology. Enough that it is worth sending another ship.

Unless we only find one planet "within range" we'd probably send the faster ship to a different star.

With current technology, it takes years to reach the outer reaches of the solar system, it would take millenia to reach Alpha Centauri.

A passing ship could still contact them via lasers, albeit with considerable delay between messages.

Answer 3

Thats deep!

Answer 4

I agree!