I don't think very many people grasp the huge distance between the planets and other solar sytems...?

Question

...given how far even the nearest star is...do you think we'll ever figure out a way to cross that vast ocean of space in a reasonable amount of time...not having to use "generational" or "sleeper" ships...?

Answer 1

I will give you a star, because you are so correct. People have no concept of the distances. They seem to think the stars are right next door to the Solar System, when the nearest stars are 10,000 times as far as Neptune.

personally, I don't think it ever possible. We carry too much baggage. We are water based, soft-bodies creatures that need protecting from radiation, heat and cold, lonliness, micro-meteorites, g forces, etc etc.

The paraphenalia we need just to go to the moon is collosal.

It will be done robotically.

Also people don;t realise that if you spend 10,000 years going to a near star, and there's no suitable place to land, where do you go then?

Answer 2

I agree. Most people think that the interstellar travels is like the movies... I like more the idea of Fred Hoyle [the universe intelligent]: Those travels are just a myth.

To initiate a colony in a far star (20-400LY) we need a spaceship as a city+Noah Ark (hundred people and plant and animals, in a close ecologic system). We need energy+energy+energy, to travel, and to have all running for many thousand years. The ship requires an armor to protect it (the high speed isn't free)
Before the travel we must explore a vast area (many LY) with fast robotic probes. Maybe we have to prepare the planet's atmosphere, sending there algae and bacteria. This phase includes the selection of stars, the sending of probes, and the terraformation of the targets. Some thousand years, and huge resources.

Answer 3

What a vast space it is out there! In a scale model of our Solar System, the Sun is a bowling ball. Pluto is about 1/2 mile away and the next nearest star is 1000 MILES away!!!! I don't know how we can cross that distance unless we figure out the warp speed or worm holes. Hopefully however, we ought to be able to communicate with others at those far reaches of space so maybe we'll find some "pen pals" out there!

Answer 4

Yes I think we'll have interstellar travel some time this century, given that the pace of technological change increases exponentially; Moore's Law and all that. Even if we can't figure a way around the speed-of-light limitation. The other limitation is that unless we can find a way to control gravity, it takes about a year to reach near-light speed and another year to come to a stop again at accelerations the human body can tolerate. But time dilation will work in our favour. Back in about 1956, Dr. Eugene Sanger showed that you could circumnavigate the Cosmos in about 42 years, according to the clocks on your spacecraft, at relativistic speed. In principle both nuclear fission and fusion can provide enough energy for interstellar flight in a human lifetime.

Answer 5

Advances in interstellar propulsions need to be made before any serious consideration could be made to attempt a manned or unmanned journey to the Rigil Kentaurus system (4.36 light years).

Voyagers 1 and 2 are currently our only interstellar craft and they have not even made it to interstellar space yet. Light travels 16,094,800,000 miles in one day and Voyager 1 is travelling at 1,000,000 miles in one day. A craft such as this would take over 64,000 years to travel to the Rigil Kentauris system.

It appears as though we will be stuck exploring our own solar system for a while whether we want to or not.

I don't give out many stars but I will add mine to Nick's for a question exhibiting good common sense.

The speed of thought- During the thought process, neurons carrying electro-chemical impulses travel 290 mph across synapses. They are processed by interneurons in the brain and spinal cord.

Speeds cannot occur faster than this due to sensory gating. This prevents sensory overload. Any increase, called sensory flooding, would allow too much data to get through causing brain disorders. An example would be autism.

Tens of billions of messages travel as electro-chemical impulses every few seconds of every day. But never faster than 290 mph.

This is by far slower than the speed of light.

Answer 6

I have to remind people of that all the time when they ask questions about UFOs an aliens visiting Earth. Voyager 1 is just about to leave the solar system and it's been traveling at 35,000 mph since 1977. For aliens to travel those vast distances involved in interstellar travel just to give a few humans an enema against their will is absurd.

Answer 7

umm there is 2 ways that might be possible in maybe a thousand years.

1. u cant travel at the speed of light, so it would take more than 4.3 years to get to the nearest star, so about that to get to the planets. so if we could rip space and make a bubble where the laws of physics dont apply, its possible to travel at or over the speed of light, with that technology we could move 13 billion lightyears to the edge of the galaxy and witness the big bang all over again.

2. think of space as a piece of paper. if ur trying to get to the other edge it would be faster told fold the paper so that the edges are touching. theoretically u could warp space over onto itself and create an einstein-rosenberg bridge, or a worm hole, linking the 2 sides of space together, thuse making the trip faster.

Answer 8

Carl Sagan suggested a nuclear powered star ship "which he called "Orion" that we could build today if we wanted. It uses nuclear bombs against an intertial plate that could concievably accellerate it to a tenth the speed of light. It's in his book Cosmos. That would make a trip to Alpha Centauri possible in 43 years.

Answer 9

Radar will do exact, in case you realize the place to show the antenna. yet as quickly as you realize the orbit, you could calculate the distances. As to the actual values in in spite of units you care to apply, you will could desire to grant a particular time to calculate the area. The form differences from 2nd to 2nd, on account that all the planets are shifting at different speeds in different orbits and in different instructions.

Answer 10

Sure. We'll just send robotic probes first. Then we'll use those probes and quantum entanglement "spooky action" to build a wormhole. We could make the jump instantly.