what would be necessary for inter-galactic travel?

Question

type of engine, food supply, water,etc... what all would you need?

Answer 1

Three things would be needed primarily.

One is an ftl drive--faster than light speeds would require
a solution to the Einstein mass-accumulation problem; my device is a tachyon drive (they're particles supposed to exceed light's speed) linked to a wormhole creation device
that allows one to go through "hyper-space". Failing that,
there would need to be matter-antimatter engines of the Star Trek warp-drive, with much greater use of ftl robo-devices for early warning than are presently foreseeable; you know, send a drone ahead to do a survey, etc.

Renewable closed-system water and food are not a great problem, even for inter-galactic distances, compared to the other barriers one would face. Inter-galactic speeds would either be so slow as to require multigenerational ships or sleeper-cryogenic ships; or they would allow fast enough travel via a wormhole or some sustainable bubble of counterforce to make such a trip possible.

Air might be a bit harder to obtain; plants would be needed to supply oxygen, water and nutrients for the plants; so a fine array of such things, an entire deck or four devoted to the botanical specimens, insects and animals aboard would be critical; short of a true sub-molecular matter synthesizer array, only this way could the oxygen and protein needs of the passengers be met.
A full range of proteins is available from three sources--meat and dairy products, eggs and spinach, beans, peas, legumes and broccoli, etc.
But I suspect the passengers and crew could not be extremely numerous even if all these technical problems were solved; not unless arrival was to be within weeks or all-but-instantaneous as one was hurled across the galaxy and/or to another galactic destination. And there would be some need for stimulation, diversion, screen-based amusements and earning opportunities, a holo-deck,
3-D recorded plays, 2-d movies, interactive games machines, live human interactions etc.
Those making the trip would still be human...

And that would require a rights-based reason-based marketplace of category-level ideas, honest lives, sane individuals signing a societal contract with every other self-responsible adult; and a government of servants to protect rights, not prey upon them through public-interest totalitarian interferences as now.

Answer 2

"Interstellar travel designs fall into two categories. The first, which we will call slow interstellar travel, takes a great deal of time, sometimes longer than a human lifespan. The second, which we will call fast interstellar travel assumes that the difficulties above can be conquered."

Slow interstellar travel would include several different concepts.

Launching a probe and waiting millions of years for it to travel to another galaxy (a la Voyager) would be very impractical due to the length of time.

Generational ships would contain a self-sustaining colony of humans that would outlast the journey. This is impractical because of the sheer size of a ship we would need to establish this.

Suspended animation ships where astronauts are cryogenically frozen and hibernate throughout the voyage. Freezing people and bringing them back hasn't been done yet, so this way seems very unlikely.

Extending the human lifespan could solve the problem of inter-galactic travel, but we have yet to do such a thing.

Fast interstellar travel could make the journey within a human lifespan and would include:

Teleportation, faster than light travel and use of wormholes.

I believe that slow intergalactic travel would take too long, and would require a ship too large for practical use. The catch-22 of sending large ships is that they require more fuel to escape earth's gravity, thus making it heavier, and consequently requiring even more fuel. For human beings to travel to another galaxy it would have to be with the use of a groundbreaking new technology that would dramatically decrease the journey.

Answer 3

In order to travel outside this galaxy , you would need a ship about the size of the moon, and crew and passengers at about 10,000. Cause it would take thousands of years for us to even get out of the galaxy, let along a couple million to get to the next galaxy. But there is no reason to go to another galaxy. For only to find a new home, we only need to look around our neighborhood, say 15 l.y. or so.

Answer 4

A very long lifespan, a huge ship that could hold enough food, water and fuel for 300 to 400 years. With today's technology, it's just not feasable. Maybe you could make it a huge "cololy ship", so that generations later your posterity could reach another planet in our galaxy. The nearest star is 4.3 light years away. In miles, that's about 25,277,570,047,418 miles that's over twenty-five trillion miles. Even at 25,000 miles per hour it would take 115,422 years to make the trip.

Answer 5

For galactic travel you would need a completely new way of transit. Even at the speed of light it would take thousands of years to reach another galaxy.

Answer 6

a great shield to protects the travelers from the cosmic rays
an unbelievable engine which can rich to the light speed
a freezer which can frizz the humans (to sleep)
an patient computer which can be stand by for a long long period of time
an special farm which grows all kind of foods

Answer 7

All u would need to live 7 years to get there and if nothing is there there would be the 7 years back. traveling at the speed of light which is impossible as we know it.

Answer 8

You would need a ship that would carry a large multi generational population and could feed it's passengers for a few million years. The propulsion seems trivial compared to that problem