this would be travelling in a space shuttle.
2007-11-21 03:27:10 · 12 answers · asked by angeldust 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Never. The space shuttle wasn't designed to leave Earth's orbit.
At the speed of light? Approximately 8 minutes.
*Alright. Who's the ignorant douche who gave me the thumbs down?
2007-11-21 03:30:07 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 6⤋
The amount of time it takes to "reach" the Sun depends on how fast you travel.
Assuming that you don't care about little details, like the motion of the Earth in its orbit, the tendency of things to vaporize before reaching the surface of the Sun, and other such piddling details--you just want to know how long it would take to go that far--then the math isn't so bad.
Let's start with the distance from the Earth to the Sun: approximately 96 million miles.
If we assume the Space Shuttle burns all its fuel to achieve escape velocity, it will be traveling about seven miles a second.
96 million miles, divided by 7 miles a second, works out to about 22 days and 16 hours.
A -slightly- more detailed answer takes into account the gravity of the Sun! While the Shuttle would be traveling at 7 miles/second, it would also be -falling- into the Sun. With a gravitational force about 27.9 times that of Earth, it makes things fall very fast, indeed!
After doing the math for a straight-line course, and ignoring little things like orbital velocity and such, an object traveling at 7 miles a second toward the Sun will accelerate constantly due to gravity and reach the surface of the sun in about nine hours and twenty minutes.
In practice, it would take longer--the Shuttle would be moving sideways with the Earth when it launches, so it would travel in a spiral toward the Sun, not a straight line.
2007-11-21 03:47:39 · answer #2 · answered by Garon Whited 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Well, the shuttle can't leave orbit; but let's go with the Orion space capsule, currently under development. It can reach the moon in 4 days, which is 1/4 million miles away.
The sun is 93 million miles away, or about 372 *times* further - if the math is right, that means it'd be 1488 days...
however, that's not exactly true. The Apollo astronauts took 4 days to get to the moon, because when they left Earth, they were moving at 25,000 MPH - but the Earth's gravity slowed them down until they entered the moon's gravitational pull - and then they were only moving about 2,000 MPH. If we were to send people to the sun, after they left Earth they'd be accelerating all the way - I'd bet instead of 1488 days, it would be about 3 to 4 months - 90 to 120 days, because they'd be accelerating all the way there.
2007-11-21 03:38:44 · answer #3 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
You'd melt before you reached it, and it would take a very long time anyways b/c the sun's so far away. On the other hand, if you were travelling at the speed of light in some odd sort of 'melt-proof' shuttle, you'd get there in about 8 minutes.
2007-11-21 04:07:47 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
0 years, 0 days, 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.
this is because the space shuttle cannot leave Low Earth Orbit (LEO). if NASA or the European Space Agency (ESA) were to develop a space rocket capable of traveling to the sun at 25,000 mph it would take 0.424 years or 154.866 days.
at the speed of light, the suns rays are able to reach us in 8 and a third minutes or 8 minutes 20 seconds.
2007-11-21 08:24:53 · answer #5 · answered by mcdonaldcj 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Traveling in the space shuttle you could never get there. It is not designed to go beyond Earth orbit.
2007-11-21 03:32:25 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Never, you wouldn't be able to get within a few million miles of the sun. If you could build a ship that had the capabilities of deflecting the Sun's harmful radiation for long enough and could travel at light speed, it would take eight minutes.
2007-11-22 05:35:00 · answer #7 · answered by elflaeda 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The question is not how long would it take to get there, but what exactly you plan on doing once there!!
Reminds me of the old Russian Joke which I present here gratis:
Nixon to Kruschev: Our space program is better than yours. Why we beat you Russkies to the Moon. How do you plan to top that?
Kruschev: Oh, that's easy. We are going to be the first country on Earth to have a manned landing on the Sun!
Nixon: Uh, wouldn't it be rather hot?
Kruschev: What? You think we are stupid or something? We got it all planned! The landing will take place at NIGHT!
:)
2007-11-21 03:37:26 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Traveling at the speed of an airliner would take 12 years.
2007-11-21 03:39:51 · answer #9 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's impossible to reach the Sun. You and your vehicle would burn up before you get near.
2007-11-21 03:57:46 · answer #10 · answered by ? 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋