What one advance will make space travel (to other planets or further) possible ?

Answer 1

hibernation. even at light speed the stars are far for a human lifetime.

Answer 2

Faster than light travel, of course, first you need a destination worth going to and so you need to discover an M-type planet; sorry for using a Trekkisim there but it sums it up quite well.

If you don't have faster than light travel you would need a generational ship capable of sustaining life for hundreds - even thousands of years. Of course, then you'll need a whole host of new techologies to make life on board the ship bearable for the residents, not least being an artificial gravity unit.

Then you have the problem of relocation, if the generational ship is in action for thousands of years, will they want to leave it to live on a planet. That concept may be totally alien to them and the wide open spaces could bring forth new psychological disorders.

If you aren't looking that far afield but are looking to Mars (Venus and Mercury aren't really viable options) alone, I suppose the number one new technology would be a terraforming kit to enable you to eventually life out in the open.

Answer 3

The single most important advance would be controlled nuclear fusion. This would allow space travellers to scoop up interplanetary or interstellar hydrogen to use as fuel, instead of the woefully inefficient practice of carrying the fuel inside the craft.

With this (effectively) unlimited supply of fuel, spacecraft could reach speeds near c, where time-dilation effects would eliminate the need for huge stores of food and for crew hibernation. From the perspective of the travellers, at 1 G of acceleration, it would seem to take about two years to reach just about any destination in the universe (one year accelerating, one year decelerating). That leaves the monumental problems of avoiding space debris and protecting the astronauts from radiation.

Answer 4

It is *possible* to go to Mars with current technology. It's just a matter of political will and money.

Any place further than Mars would have to take a major advance in propulsion systems, and some way to efficiently store the huge amount of energy needed for the trip (right now "nuclear" is the most efficient means of storing vast quantities of energy).

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Answer 5

We need a rocket motor that is much more efficient than chemical rockets. Some sort of nuclear powered ion drive is well within current technological capability---it just needs a few tens of billions in development costs. A drive that could sustain 0.1 g for weeks would open the entire solar system.

Answer 6

one of the main reasons we can't send a person to mars is because outside our atmosphere they would be bombarded with particles (electrons or protons not sure but they are charged particles) which would kill them even inside the space ship. one solution is to create a magnet field around the space ship (which is what protects earth because all the particles go to the poles). but if the magnetic field was too strong it would tear all the water from the people because water is di-polar. once the solve this sending people mars is possible.

Answer 7

Disagree. there'll continuously be human calls for that could no longer be sufficiently fulfilled. it is common human psychology that human beings decide on what they could't have. related to hard artwork, there'll continuously ought to be workers who can software those droids, pop out with new designs, map new worlds to discover, and so forth. as properly to those issues, economically, galaxy vacationing will no longer take place every time quickly. Scientifically, that's unbelievable that a human ought to stay long sufficient to return and forth from Earth to Uranus. and that's barely in our galaxy. Billions of miles away, we at present do no longer very own any rockets that should return and forth speedy sufficient to make the holiday effective. in addition to, is there a call for for those issues? to truly assume what is going to exchange the destiny, you need to first look lower back traditionally to what replaced societies: -Invention of gunpowder and rockets -clinical Revolution -business Revolution -suggestion Age -and and so forth.

Answer 8

For the Solar System; we need a fusion drive.
For the stars; nothing makes sense except anti-matter propulsion (...and confinement! Don't forget that!).

Answer 9

The ability to jaunt,and not just a blue jaunt. Instantaneous trans galactic travel is just a thought away.

Answer 10

find a new powerful fuel which will permit travel for longer space in fewer time

Answer 11

Time travel.