How long did it take from blast off to touch down on the moon? They are talking about humans going to Mars, how long will the trip take, 6 months? Our earliest robotic exploration vehicles (launched in the mid-70's) are now just crossing the outer reaches of the solar system. Our nearest neighboring star is 4.2 light years away. Obviously, we aren't going anywhere with our current means of propulsion. So, what can we do and how soon will it take to do it?
2007-11-01 15:36:14 · 5 answers · asked by primalclaws1974 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
leaving the known solar system technically isnt that much of a leap, at least for robots. the voyagers of the 70s have left the known solar system , entering the kuiper belt. humans though, would need a pretty darn good reason to spend the remainder of their lives on a spaceship. there are probably a great number of massive and interesting objects in the oort cloud that are just not bright enough to be detected with current technology. as far as reaching the nearest star, that really is a stretch, but think back only one lifetime ago. the wright brothers had just lifted off on the first airplane. look what has happened in the lifetime of the average human. the wright flyer to voyager, 73 years. think about it, incredible!!
as far as propulsion is concerned, a lot can happen between now and the day that we seriously consider interstellar travel. currently the favored technologies are high specific impulse combined with long duration thrust. what that means using low reaction mass and high energy. currently VASIMIR engines offer the higest known specific impulse but have extremely high energy requirements. the other option is an externally powered craft, such as a solar sail(good around the solar system), a magnetic sail(good around massive objects and solar wind), and the most promising, a ground based beam rider. such a craft would ride like a solar sail on the photons of a massive earth based energy beam. its pretty hard to imagine but did wilbur and orville, flying thier rickety contraption at 12 mph imagine voyager flying past jupiter,saturn, uranus and neptune at 35000mph? (all within a lifetime!!)
2007-11-01 17:29:39 · answer #1 · answered by mikedelta 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
To get out of the solar system is no big deal once you put a fission or fusion reactor on a ship with ion engines.
The only thing is... where would you want to go? With ion drive it takes about a millennium to get to the next star.
Add anti-matter to the equation and it takes close to a century.
The real solution to the problem is not to go faster, but to live longer. Humanity is never going to leave the solar system. But the beings humanity will evolve into probably will. I would give accelerated evolution, by which I mean the combination of genetically altered humans and machine components, something on the order of 500-1000 years before we reach a state of development where interstellar spaceflight will start making sense. By then THEY will also know exactly where to go. But WE will only be the barely remembered incubator stage for THEM.
I can see it pretty clearly... it can all be found in the equations for physics.
:-)
2007-11-01 15:50:49 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
for my area, convinced. i don't think of i will stay to ensure it. i imagine vacationing to the celebs is a objective for the NASA of the twenty third or twenty fourth century, yet i imagine it will be executed. Even immediately our area application is waaay in the back of. 40 years in the back of really. We had a guy on the moon by technique of 1969. the unique plan changed into Mars by technique of 1981, manned missions to Saturn perhaps late ninety's early 2000's. Manned missions to Neptune circa 2015. Oort cloud by technique of the 2020's. If each and every thing had lengthy previous to plot, the first little ones born on Mars will be placing out college about now. The apollo application changed into meant to be the first toddler steps of humanities colonisation of area. yet really we've pissed about in low Earth orbit for just about 1/2 a century. i imagine we are merely the era that dropped the ball, yet i do not doubt that destiny generations will be triumphant the position we failed.
2016-10-23 06:11:16 · answer #3 · answered by novielli 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wish I could tell you that we will, but this is a subjective question. What’s more important to me is that will humans be around that long to, “make it so”.
2007-11-01 16:02:34 · answer #4 · answered by TicToc.... 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
i certainly hope so. they're sucking up all the good marf!
2007-11-01 18:29:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋