How far are we from reaching the speed of ligth?

Question

About in how many years do you think we are going to reach the speed of light???

Answer 1

Mach 5 is probably the fastest speed human beings can withstand, even then there might be major health repercussions. But why even bother traveling to another galaxy when astronomers have in the past 2 decades discovered 235 moons/planets in our own backyard. Check this out:

In our Milky Way Galaxy there are 235 planetary bodies, of which 169 moons are in our Solar System. These 169 moons are the well documented satellite moons of the 9 planets. Jupiter alone has 63 moons. The challenge lies in how we can build atmospheres on them to support human life and all other living things. Also, we have to weed out the ones that are inhospitable.

Venus=0, Earth=1, Mars=2, Jupiter=63, Saturn=60, Uranus=27, Neptune=13, Pluto=3

The trick is to categorize them into planets/moons that either spin on their axis, or don't. Then, increase the surface gravity by inserting a Superconducting Magnet into the core. The magnet would range from 2 Tesla to 15 Tesla, depending on the amount of iron/nickel that is present in the core.

Finally, to introduce atmospheric gases (nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide) into the man made electromagnetic bubble.

This website gives the exact location of each of the moons of Jupiter: http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~sheppard/satellites

and this site tells us how to make an ATMOSPHERE on all the moons: http://www.atmospheres.5u.com/index.html

while this site tells you how to build a Fischer Tropsch reactor to make fuel and water:
http://www.xybex.50megs.com/custom2.html

Answer 2

OK, so I'm coming in a little late, but I wanted to answer your question. Several other people here have already mentioned that the official distance max is 100 meters or 327 feet. (Well, 300 feet but with a couple patch cords.) There have been three times that I have had to break this rule. I had no choice but break it or the client would be out of luck. Two cables were both around 450 feet. (The other was a little shorter.) Amazingly, they both worked... it's true. They both had networking and I could not perceive any showdown. But I'm sure there was some if you look at it on a meter or Fluke tester. It just comes down to this: if you have no other option, run the cable. It should work. If it doesn't work or seems pretty lousy, find a location in the middle of the cable near a power outlet and split the cable, terminate it and stick a switch/router between the two ends. That will take care of any problems that you have. (I'd bet you that you will not have any problem though. Use a decent Cat5e cable and jacks.) Jeff

Answer 3

Never; according to Special Relativity, it can't be done. Electrons in the Stanford Linear Accelerator reach 99.9999% of the speed of light -- at a huge cost in energy. As for humans in spacecraft, there are some fundamental issues of physics which will keep ultimate speeds far below the speed of light: as long as a vessel must be accelerated by dumping mass overboard, we're screwed: what you need is momentum, which goes up linearly with exhaust velocity, but what you have to pay to get it is energy, which goes up as the square of the exhaust velocity. And this is seriously bad news.

Answer 4

Ive been reading the posted Answers to your question,.and on average,.they are dismally negative,.most responders sight Einsteins Relativity Theory,. as the basis for their opinion. I would tell you that there is On going research one in particular was sponsored by NASA,.it was called Breakthrough Propulsion,.a consortium of various physicists,.Scientists etc,.given the task of developing theories to try to come up with exotic or unthought of ways in which to travel in space at or beyond the Speed of Light,..it is not a question of "can we travel at the speed of light" or close to the speed of light ,. it is more the question of "Do we really need to"? One particularly interesting Theory submitted by a Physicist Named Albucuriie,.speaks of "Warping Space itself,.to get from point A to point B,.in essence what is called a "Wormhole",.that is just one Theory about Future Space Propulsion options,.that may be available,, once the technology to warp Space is developed,. When such a Technology will arrive is Anyone's guess,.but to suppose that we being as inventive a species as we are,,will not find ways to overcome "Theorized impossibilities "such as those raised by Einstein and others is to say the least "Defeatist",.I would say,.the Future is wide open,.no matter how the "Negativity Theorists" paint the Universe.

Answer 5

Well, the speed of light is pretty fast - about 670,320,000 mph.

The record for the fastest spacecraft to leave Earth is currently held by the New Horizons spacecraft on the way to Pluto. At launch it was traveling 35,800 mph away from Earth. That is 0.00534% of the speed of light.

Voyager 1 is travelling the fastest away from the Sun at 38,600 mph, which is 0.00575% of the speed of light.

We have a long way to go to get close to light speed. Chemical rockets will never get us there. They just aren't efficient enough. It would take a rocket that could fire continuously for weeks or months to get anywhere close to light speed.

Answer 6

Nope. Can't do it. C is forbidden. Approaching C is harder to do than pointing a camera at Jack Nicholson.

If any really fast travel is ever to occur, we have to 'cheat'. I won't tell you what will work, read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light


Ever watched Star Trek? They have a 'impulse' drive, that's sub-light. Even with all the advanced tech played at by the writers, impulse should never be taken above .9 c.

As to when? Unless we make a breakthrough that is totally unexpected, FTL is hundreds of years away, if ever.

Answer 7

Reaching the speed of light is not a matter of improving technology. According to what we currently know about physics, it is fundamentally (and forever) imposssible to reach the speed of light. This is because of the way space and time are built.

It may be that we will discover new laws of physics some day that will change this understanding. But according to what we know now, there is no conceivable sort of space ship, particle accelerator, etc. that can boost us to the speed of light.

Answer 8

As for building Star Wars/Star Trek type lightspeed capable spaceships we are very far away. No matter can travel at the speed of light. There is that little stumbling block to deal with... But who´s to say we need to travel as matter at all? Photons travel at the speed of light all the time.

Answer 9

We can NEVER reach the speed of light.
Einsteins work shows that the faster an object goes the bigger its mass gets.
To get to C you would have to keep accelerating, but the mass is increasing so you need more power which makes the object go a little faster and get heavier so you need more power (Catch 22)
Also as an object speeds up, its length along the axis of travel decreases.
So to get to the speed of light you need infinite power to accelerate an infinite mass which is only 2 dimensional.
The Universe doesn't work that way.

Answer 10

Its impossible to reach the speed of light since you would need an infinite amount of energy to reach it. however, scientists do believe that by using a very minute object and it being powered by antimatter the object could reach about 99% the speed of light