• Log in with Facebook Log in with Twitter Log In with Google      Sign In    
  • Create Account
  LongeCity
              Advocacy & Research for Unlimited Lifespans


Adverts help to support the work of this non-profit organisation. To go ad-free join as a Member.


Photo
* * * * * 2 votes

Interstellar Travel Poll


  • Please log in to reply
33 replies to this topic

Poll: when will a manned spaceship reach our nearest star? (52 member(s) have cast votes)

when do you think a manned spaceship will reach Proxima Centauri?

  1. Year 2020-2040 (1 votes [1.92%])

    Percentage of vote: 1.92%

  2. Year 2040-2060 (3 votes [5.77%])

    Percentage of vote: 5.77%

  3. Year 2060-2100 (9 votes [17.31%])

    Percentage of vote: 17.31%

  4. 22th century (13 votes [25.00%])

    Percentage of vote: 25.00%

  5. 23th century (8 votes [15.38%])

    Percentage of vote: 15.38%

  6. 24th century (3 votes [5.77%])

    Percentage of vote: 5.77%

  7. 25th century (4 votes [7.69%])

    Percentage of vote: 7.69%

  8. 26th century (0 votes [0.00%])

    Percentage of vote: 0.00%

  9. About year 3000 (4 votes [7.69%])

    Percentage of vote: 7.69%

  10. in 5000 years (4 votes [7.69%])

    Percentage of vote: 7.69%

  11. in millions of years (1 votes [1.92%])

    Percentage of vote: 1.92%

  12. It is never going to happen because it's too difficult! (1 votes [1.92%])

    Percentage of vote: 1.92%

  13. we shouldn't do that because god may punish us if we try (0 votes [0.00%])

    Percentage of vote: 0.00%

  14. it has already occur, there are civilisations before us who have done that but now moved into another galaxy. (1 votes [1.92%])

    Percentage of vote: 1.92%

Vote Guests cannot vote

#1 VictorBjoerk

  • Member, Life Member
  • 1,763 posts
  • 91
  • Location:Sweden

Posted 02 July 2009 - 10:36 PM


So when do you think a manned spaceship will reach our nearest star Proxima Centauri? (or passing it within a distance of only a few million kilometres)

(this is a serious poll.)

motivate your answer and opinions about the feasibility of interstellar travel please!

#2 forever freedom

  • Guest
  • 2,362 posts
  • 67

Posted 03 July 2009 - 02:20 AM

I voted 23rd century (although it can easily by only after the 24th century), assuming the singularity does happen in the next several decades. From 2100 to 2200 i believe we'll colonize our solar system and then after 2300 we may start looking out for other stars/solar systems.

I've read that this star is 4.2 light years away, and i hope we may reach a speed relatively close to light speed (this may not be possible so soon, in the next centuries, thus greatly delaying our reach for other stars) in the 23rd or 24th century. After that, just send AIs in ships in every direction and colonize the whole universe like in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

#3 niner

  • Guest
  • 16,276 posts
  • 2,000
  • Location:Philadelphia

Posted 03 July 2009 - 02:36 AM

The poll is missing some options, like "never because there's no point to it." I think we might send a robot some time in the next century or two. If a robotic probe found something really super interesting anywhere remotely close, we would probably send people there eventually. I doubt that there is anything very interesting outside our solar system but closer than a handful of lightyears. I think there might be some very interesting things on the moons of the gas giants.

sponsored ad

  • Advert

#4 eternaltraveler

  • Guest, Guardian
  • 6,471 posts
  • 155
  • Location:Silicon Valley, CA

Posted 03 July 2009 - 03:12 AM

Never.

humans will be extinct or pets before someone from earth travels to another star.

#5 Cyberbrain

  • Guest, F@H
  • 1,755 posts
  • 2
  • Location:Thessaloniki, Greece

Posted 03 July 2009 - 03:59 AM

First contact would surely speed the process. But I would say near the end of the millennium.

#6 brokenportal

  • Life Member, Moderator
  • 7,046 posts
  • 589
  • Location:Stevens Point, WI

Posted 03 July 2009 - 04:36 AM

Anything is possible, any of these choices and then some are possible, but my guess is the 5th option.

Things like this are important to think about because its part of the reason we do this. Ultimately, I think the whole big picture of the why for why we do this is condensed in some version of what I call the requisite 8.

#7 Forever21

  • Guest
  • 1,918 posts
  • 122

Posted 03 July 2009 - 08:25 AM

So when do you think a manned spaceship will reach our nearest star Proxima Centauri? (or passing it within a distance of only a few million kilometres)


If by "manned spaceship" you mean homo sapiens, then never. Homo evolutis might or whatever replace them.

#8 Esoparagon

  • Guest
  • 227 posts
  • 32
  • Location:Australia

Posted 03 July 2009 - 11:05 AM

I would have liked a 10,000 and 50,000 year option. I don't think it'll take 1 million years but I think it'll take a bit longer than the year 5000. I would guess 50,000 is a safe estimate and 10,000 is possible. It really depends. I can't really comprehend or intellectualize the rate of technological growth.

And I don't understand these people who say 'we won't be here'. We have been here for 100,000 years so why would you believe we won't be around for another 100,000 years. Especially given our advanced technology. We are a species with many problem but we are a stubbornly determined survivor.

Edited by Esoparagon, 03 July 2009 - 11:07 AM.


#9 brokenportal

  • Life Member, Moderator
  • 7,046 posts
  • 589
  • Location:Stevens Point, WI

Posted 03 July 2009 - 04:42 PM

The poll is missing some options, like "never because there's no point to it." I think we might send a robot some time in the next century or two. If a robotic probe found something really super interesting anywhere remotely close, we would probably send people there eventually. I doubt that there is anything very interesting outside our solar system but closer than a handful of lightyears. I think there might be some very interesting things on the moons of the gas giants.


No point to it? That would be one of the most fascinating, worth while, incredible, mystery explicating, enlightening, interesting, dynamic, enormous types of things we could do.

And I don't understand these people who say 'we won't be here'. We have been here for 100,000 years so why would you believe we won't be around for another 100,000 years. Especially given our advanced technology. We are a species with many problem but we are a stubbornly determined survivor.


Exactly, human will is innovative, creative, ingenuous, pioneering, powerful. Im pretty sure the wind alone didnt blow us here to this point in the evolution of humanity.

#10 Cyberbrain

  • Guest, F@H
  • 1,755 posts
  • 2
  • Location:Thessaloniki, Greece

Posted 03 July 2009 - 05:05 PM

And I don't understand these people who say 'we won't be here'. We have been here for 100,000 years so why would you believe we won't be around for another 100,000 years. Especially given our advanced technology. We are a species with many problem but we are a stubbornly determined survivor.

Maybe they're refering to the fact that we may become post-human? :)

#11 JediMasterLucia

  • Guest
  • 708 posts
  • 221
  • Location:Everywhere and Nowhere on the WWW, The Netherlands

Posted 03 July 2009 - 10:36 PM

I don't know when this will be possible, but mabey in the 25th century if the technology is developed enough and the human race had learned how to colonize other planets (Mars first I think)

#12 niner

  • Guest
  • 16,276 posts
  • 2,000
  • Location:Philadelphia

Posted 04 July 2009 - 05:46 AM

The poll is missing some options, like "never because there's no point to it." I think we might send a robot some time in the next century or two. If a robotic probe found something really super interesting anywhere remotely close, we would probably send people there eventually. I doubt that there is anything very interesting outside our solar system but closer than a handful of lightyears. I think there might be some very interesting things on the moons of the gas giants.


No point to it? That would be one of the most fascinating, worth while, incredible, mystery explicating, enlightening, interesting, dynamic, enormous types of things we could do.

What's the point of sending humans to a place with no chance of supporting life? Why not send robots first? (If at all.) I think that finding life on Europa would be fascinating, worthwhile, incredible, etc. Going to what is probably a sterile star, not so much. Even exploring Europa should be done by robots, at least at first.

#13 thestuffjunky

  • Guest
  • 94 posts
  • -1
  • Location:kent ohio

Posted 30 July 2009 - 11:20 PM

So when do you think a manned spaceship will reach our nearest star Proxima Centauri? (or passing it within a distance of only a few million kilometres)

(this is a serious poll.)

motivate your answer and opinions about the feasibility of interstellar travel please!


well, i voted 2060-2100. if so much of what was science fiction is now science fact and the r&d that was influenced by star trek, then my money after april 2063. thats when we are to meet vulcans(really smart species). just after that, we can refine our space travel techniques and hit interstellar space....... am i the only trekike here???
not to say it will happen then, but technologies and ambition can stretch beyond the imagination... like serendipity

#14 Lazarus Long

  • Life Member, Guardian
  • 8,116 posts
  • 242
  • Location:Northern, Western Hemisphere of Earth, Usually of late, New York

Posted 31 July 2009 - 02:19 AM

In my writing I postulate the end of the 22nd Century as the most likely arrival time for a number of reasons but one being overlooked in the poll and most discussions about this subject is Special Relativity.

Assuming for a moment that we solved the issue of antimatter drive tomorrow or better yet had access to ZPG we are still stuck with C as a max velocity, and with it the problem of relative temporal experience. Time may appear normal on a ship approaching the speed of light to go even the relatively short distance to the nearest star system but the passage of time to us observers on Earth would be many times greater, the faster the ship could accelerate to light speed and decelerate to arrival. And that assumes some form of gravitational manipulation to maintain tolerable inertia for those onboard. Gravitational drive would be even better but still subject to C for travel time.

The point is that if they left tomorrow in order to achieve sufficient velocity to get there in a matter of subjective ship board decades we would likely experience the passage of centuries here on Earth. Maintaining a one G acceleration rate to support life on board would certainly result in centuries of relative time.


Now I think we will be experimenting with hyper-ballistic near C probes making that trip before the end of this century but they will be launched in space and use unconventional propulsion methods currently only hypothesized. Those robot probes will be manned by the best AI available when launched and they will accelerate at velocities initially that no living tissue could survive but they will still get to Proxima-Centuri trinary star system after many decades, however once there they will explore that system for centuries relaying data back to Earth and Sol system that arrives 4 to 5 years after it is sent.

#15 Lazarus Long

  • Life Member, Guardian
  • 8,116 posts
  • 242
  • Location:Northern, Western Hemisphere of Earth, Usually of late, New York

Posted 31 July 2009 - 02:37 AM

BTW there are some models that suggest there could be habitable planets in that triple star system and by the end of this century I full expect Deep space based telescopes to provide significant detail for nearer star systems before we send any probes.

http://www.space.com...ther-earth.html

And what is with option 13?

I think is a little late to be worrying about that. The Voyager Sats will be officially leaving the solar system for interstellar space in the next couple of decades. Those "little engines that could" still are transmitting data back and might still be doing so after being officially outside the solar system.

#16 VictorBjoerk

  • Topic Starter
  • Member, Life Member
  • 1,763 posts
  • 91
  • Location:Sweden

Posted 31 July 2009 - 09:46 PM

well if sending a ship to let's say proxima centauri it would take just a little more than 4.24 years assuming moving close to the speed of light. and then they may stay there and explore for a couple of years. in total the trip may take about 10-12 years for us on earth. (yes the astronaut's will feel time dilation so the travel time towards the star and back will feel like eg a few months or less depending to what factor near the speed of light we are able to have.) accelerating to the speed of light and decelerating with 9.81 m/s2 would take about a year.(making the astronauts feel 1 g like on earth)

but C is the problem, interstellar travel with expection for a few trips to our closest star appear as something unfeasible. one should not even mention intergalactic travel... C doesn't care about technology and how good AI/energy we have etc.. and worm holes are hypothetical. Of course one could send astronauts to other galaxies, but they returning back to the earth? well we would have to wait millions of years regardless of how short the trip may feel for them.

Lazarus Long=voyager will run out of batteries in the 2020's and stop transmitting data. so not much more interesting there. :(

so it seems we are stuck in the solar system. If we don't manage to accelerate the whole solar system to near the speed of light and navigate ourselves out in the unknown from our local galaxy area. (well that's very futuristic)

Edited by VictorBjoerk, 31 July 2009 - 10:22 PM.


#17 VictorBjoerk

  • Topic Starter
  • Member, Life Member
  • 1,763 posts
  • 91
  • Location:Sweden

Posted 31 July 2009 - 10:21 PM

here goes an idea of human interstellar travel.

so the plan in the distant future would be to build a gigantic biosphere with some kind of gravitional field similar to earth. fill it with plants, animals etc like in Biosphere 2. A true independent ecosystem. Make sure there are doctors/AI there capable of performing thorough rejuvenation therapies to prevent people from getting "old". Antimatter doesn't sound that unfeasible in a distant future and 10 tons annihilation could easily accelerate a spaceship mass of many thousands of ton to a speed of 90-95 percent the speed of light.(if my rough calculations are right) however this could be a lot more due to the long acceleration time....

could some speculate about the energy required to the gravitional field that is necessary when the ship stand still and isn't moving at 1 g?

small pieces of rock in space hitting the ship is probably not going to be a problem due to the anti-gravity effects that occurs when travelling faster than 0.577 c....

then maybe several thousands of humans could jump into that ship and say goodbye to earth and begin to explore/colonize the galaxy. Navigation within the closest 1000 lightyears may not be that unfeasible based on what we know/will know.....

the thing is however that communication with earth will be an impossibility, they will be completely cut-off.....

and what about the erratic emotions of people that may occur over time on such a closed biosphere ... what if they start killing each other, burning "witches" or something, who knows......

what do you think?

Edited by VictorBjoerk, 31 July 2009 - 10:23 PM.


#18 Lazarus Long

  • Life Member, Guardian
  • 8,116 posts
  • 242
  • Location:Northern, Western Hemisphere of Earth, Usually of late, New York

Posted 01 August 2009 - 12:33 PM

...


Victor you have made the same subjective observer mistake that is so common when discussing Special Relativity, you focused on the outside observer, when the subjective ship board observer is what matters.

The distance and C as a limit do not change, in other words the trip to Alpha Centauri takes roughly 5 years each way assuming we overcome the problem of hyper-acceleration, inertial dampening and an energy supply, that makes possible getting to near light speed so quickly. The inhabitants of the ship cannot perceive themselves as exceeding the speed of light, which means that they are the ones that take 5 years (actually much more with acceleration and deceleration as well as the fact that under the best of circumstances we are talking about .99 C, not C itself or some very strange things happen in the transition from matter to what constitutes a soliton energy particle/wave problem.

The perspective of outside observers is still many times greater than the minimal decade for a round trip because of the Paradox of Simultaneity and Time Dilation effect begins at the moment of acceleration and is protracting the observers time scale of the relative perspective to the trip at a rate the increases the faster the velocity of the ship. One of those weird effects predicted by the math of what happens as the ship would actually achieve light speed is that its density would become infinite and on board relative time would stop with respect to the outside observer.

Sound familiar?

This is essentially an event horizon phenomenon similar in principle to what happens around a Black Hole. That is why CERN is able to create mini black holes with its proposed use of the Particle Accelerator.

I understand the principle of 1 G acceleration AND deceleration but those two combined transition years alone, at each book-end of the trip would be observed on Earth as multiple decades at the very least and the math describing the acceleration/deceleration period of a one year experience on board the ship is not a trip distance of 1 L/Y but considerably less. In other words total on board trip time is even more than 5 years and closer to a decade.

...


It has long been argued that a mini biosphere generational ship, preferably with a viable cryonic or other form of suspended animation, is the only practical initial approach to this endeavor. Rejuvenation tech would only be an added advantage, as well as a few other tricks I am saving for a novel.


...


As for particle impacts I agree that is essentially a moot point because of the combined ability to generate a magnetic bottle field effect as well as for the need to shape the bow wave effect a hyper ballistic ship would generate to improve its efficiency. The bow wave front the ship generates simply as a consequence of velocity would then become akin to the prow of a ship slicing through a sea of star dust.

As for the amount of energy required for this kind of endeavor it still exceeds even our current ventures into fusion technology but might be possible with an antimatter drive or through a still unrecognized manipulation of gravity, which may be become more apparent as we resolve the physics of gravity more precisely over the coming decades.

(Victor I quoted you multiple times and I apologize for leaving them blank but as it was the result of a glitch and I want the engineers to see what happened before I repair the quoted text)

#19 bgwowk

  • Guest
  • 1,715 posts
  • 125

Posted 17 August 2009 - 06:34 PM

Laz, you've got time dilation backwards. When a spaceship travels near the speed of light, non-accelerated observers will see the ship take about four years to travel four light years. Neglecting acceleration time, observers staying on Earth would measure a round trip taking about eight years. Time passes slower for people on the ship. Travel time on a relativistic ship after acceleration and before deceleration would be years, months, or days depending on how close to the speed of light they accelerated. It's theoretically possible to travel thousands of light years within a natural human lifetime if you have a large enough fuel/payload ratio to reach the requisite speeds.

What about acceleration forces? They are not that bad. The time to approach the speed of light while accelerating at 1 G is about one year. Water immersion can easily permit tolerance of 10 G for unmodified humans, allowing speeds close to light speed to be reached in only a month if you are in a hurry.

The spaceships are the hard part. Building them would require some kind of self-replicating technology able to utilize matter and energy resources on planetary or solar-system scales.

Edit:

For those who may wonder how a spaceship can perceive itself as moving faster than light, the answer is that it doesn't. A spaceship traveling so close to the speed of light that it travels to a star 4 light years away in only 0.4 years on the ship clock does so because the star will have moved ten times closer to the ship by Lorentz contraction during initial acceleration of the ship. By accelerating enough, you can use Lorentz contraction to "squish" the universe along your direction of travel to bring destinations as close as you desire, fuel permitting.

Edited by bgwowk, 17 August 2009 - 07:16 PM.


#20 valkyrie_ice

  • Guest
  • 837 posts
  • 142
  • Location:Monteagle, TN

Posted 18 August 2009 - 12:14 AM

based on my own readings of various I have a rather different view towards the likelihood of reaching other stars. I rather think we'll have the ability to reach Centauri by the end of the century, and as for why we would send a manned ship? Easy. Because WE CAN.

Why else did we climb mount everest?

It's just like sending men to the moon, or Mars. Yeah, in practical terms robots are way more cost efficient, can stay longer, and provide more real data, but all of that overlooks the human element.

Why will will we send PEOPLE to these places? Because people can't EMPATHIZE with a data collecting robot. They can't get the vicarious thrill of being there.

So until we can make a robot capable of real time communication for telepresence, people and politician are going to want to send REAL HUMAN BEINGS to these places.

We're just insane that way, get used to it.

#21 VictorBjoerk

  • Topic Starter
  • Member, Life Member
  • 1,763 posts
  • 91
  • Location:Sweden

Posted 01 September 2009 - 10:11 PM

I'm sure we eventually will reach other solar systems despite the incredible difficulties.. There are several stars in which there could be habitable planets 10-20 lightyears away and curiosity will drive us to them.

But as for now the focus should be to end aging and dramatically cut down existential risks instead of spending resources on things like space exploration. I'm always disturbed when I see sci-fi programs where the characters are aging! so illogical to have such a technologically advanced civilisations without having control of aging.

as for intergalactic travel it won't occur in the next coming 2 500 000 years regardless of progress....

#22 VictorBjoerk

  • Topic Starter
  • Member, Life Member
  • 1,763 posts
  • 91
  • Location:Sweden

Posted 04 September 2009 - 08:46 PM

there seems to be a bit of optimism here.

but not in general.........

http://www.wired.com...08/space_limits

Many believe that humanity's destiny lies with the stars. Sadly for us, rocket propulsion experts now say we may never even get out of the Solar System.

At a recent conference, rocket scientists from NASA, the U.S. Air Force and academia doused humanity's interstellar dreams in cold reality. The scientists, presenting at the Joint Propulsion Conference in Hartford, Connecticut, analyzed many of the designs for advanced propulsion that others have proposed for interstellar travel. The calculations show that, even using the most theoretical of technologies, reaching the nearest star in a human lifetime is nearly impossible.

#23 bgwowk

  • Guest
  • 1,715 posts
  • 125

Posted 04 September 2009 - 11:49 PM

http://www.wired.com...08/space_limits
Many believe that humanity's destiny lies with the stars. Sadly for us, rocket propulsion experts now say we may never even get out of the Solar System.

That's a ridiculous assertion. In the 1970s we built probes that left the solar system. They will reach the distance of the nearest stars within a few millennia.

The statement that reaching the stars within a human lifetime is nearly impossible is based on two assumptions that are quaint in the overall scheme of things. The first is that the length of a human lifetime will never change. The second is that humans will never control matter and energy on scales much larger than we do now. With self-replicating technological systems the extraterrestrial material and energy resources that humans (transhumans?) control could in future centuries grow as exponentially as computing power does today.

Flesh-and-blood humans may not be the first of Earth's progeny to set foot on extrasolar worlds, but I think humans will eventually get there. As Valkyrie_ice said, we're just insane that way.

Edited by bgwowk, 04 September 2009 - 11:53 PM.


#24 MLDave

  • Guest
  • 1 posts
  • 0

Posted 16 September 2009 - 06:52 PM

I theorise that interstellar travel is impossible, I base this on the fact that we have not received any 'visitors' from other planets or at least we have no evidence of such a visit. I believe life is pretty abundant in the Universe, probably at least 10,000 civilisations in our galaxy alone, and since many of these civilisations will be up to millions of years ahead of us technologically it seems ridiculous to me that there has been no recorded visits to Earth in the last 2000 years and it also seems implausible to me that any alien civilisation which has visited Earth over a longer time-frame would have left no recording/transmitting devices behind for scientific research.

You might argue that the galaxy is such a vast place that the gaps between visits to Earth from other civilisations would be too infrequent for us to have had a visit in recorded history. But when I take in to consideration the probable population levels of civilisations millions of years older than us, which could easily be over 100 billion for each civilisation spread over various planets, and theorising half the population of each of these civilisations would have the desire to visit many far off worlds during their lifetime, then I calculate these visits should be pretty frequent especially considering other theories that there are only 30 billion habitable planets in our galaxy and probably around 10,000 intelligent-enough species. Would it not be in the nature of just about all advanced life-forms to 'get out there' and see the universe?

I suppose this theory also depends on interstellar travel not being an overly demanding on resources after advanced nanotechnology has been developed meaning that needed resources can be easily obtained, so that each alien individual who wanted to travel would be able to afford such a trip.

Edited by MLDave, 16 September 2009 - 06:55 PM.


#25 shifter

  • Guest
  • 716 posts
  • 5

Posted 29 September 2009 - 05:54 AM

Perhaps there are other methods of travelling that will be easier and more plausible in the future no matter how inplausible they seem today.

However, as our thinking goes currently, accelerating an object with a mass to the speed of light is not possible due to the infinite energy requirement and the fact that object's mass will be infinite. And even if it were the time dilation would make it unpopular (unless you wanted to travel to the future). Also, considering how vast our universe (or just our own galaxy) is, even a speed as fast as light is incredibly slow.

And to me, the only realistic way would be through 'folding' space to arrive at a destination instantaniously, either natural or man made wormholes. Is there any bigshot scientist researching these theories of travel or is it strictly science fiction? Who knows. It might even be easier to do.

Edited by shifter, 29 September 2009 - 05:55 AM.


#26 Brain_Ischemia

  • Guest
  • 139 posts
  • 23
  • Location:Massachusetts, USA
  • NO

Posted 03 October 2009 - 02:35 AM

So when do you think a manned spaceship will reach our nearest star Proxima Centauri?


Not this century, probably not the next, and *maybe* never.

I'm not convinced that there's really any specific benefit to a *manned* exploration of the Proxima Centauri system, and I find it difficult to imagine that governments would be too enthusiastic about the risks and financial investments involved when an unmanned probe can do the job just fine.

There are other priorities in space to be fulfilled in this century and the next (thorough search for extraterrestrial life on Mars, Europa, Titan, building a permanent installation on the Moon, etc).

I think we *WILL* send an interstellar unmanned probe to Proxima Centauri and there's a fair chance it will happen by the end of this century, but it's difficult to say how mankind's priorities and dreams will change in the coming decades.

#27 shifter

  • Guest
  • 716 posts
  • 5

Posted 07 October 2009 - 11:32 AM

What is the formula to workout the energy required to reach say 50% the speed of light?

Say we had a spaceship that weighed 1 million tonnes. What sort of energy is required to accelerate that to 150,000 km/s?

I guess the only other issue would be slamming into dust at that speed.

Given all the challenges and energy requirements, I would think we would rather find a new method of travel.











So when do you think a manned spaceship will reach our nearest star Proxima Centauri?


Not this century, probably not the next, and *maybe* never.

I'm not convinced that there's really any specific benefit to a *manned* exploration of the Proxima Centauri system, and I find it difficult to imagine that governments would be too enthusiastic about the risks and financial investments involved when an unmanned probe can do the job just fine.

There are other priorities in space to be fulfilled in this century and the next (thorough search for extraterrestrial life on Mars, Europa, Titan, building a permanent installation on the Moon, etc).

I think we *WILL* send an interstellar unmanned probe to Proxima Centauri and there's a fair chance it will happen by the end of this century, but it's difficult to say how mankind's priorities and dreams will change in the coming decades.



#28 Dream

  • Guest
  • 47 posts
  • 0
  • Location:Annapolis, Maryland, USA

Posted 05 November 2009 - 05:51 AM

I think that "we" have already done this. However, when I say "we" I mean those on this planet who have access to the "black" world of superexpiallidocious high technology; not you and I. I would also include many other species that reside in THIS galaxy.

Unfortunately, though I would have liked to cast my vote, none of the selections matched my opinion in this matter. :)

#29 Reno

  • Guest
  • 584 posts
  • 37
  • Location:Somewhere

Posted 03 March 2010 - 12:34 AM

I hate to say it, but any real means to travel through space in FTL is going to be dangerous. It's going to be dangerous to build, test, and use. Anything that has the power to throw itself through such vast distances is going to require a huge amount of power, which chances are we won't be able to harness anytime in the near future.

#30 hotamali

  • Guest
  • 49 posts
  • 2

Posted 03 March 2010 - 11:30 PM

The main obstacle is of course the speed of light. Judging by todays physics, the closest we can get a manned craft up to is less than half the speed of light, maybe less. That would still mean that the time to the closest star is on the order of thousands of years. If we want to get there this century, well have to get alot closer to the speed of light. Unfortunaltey, as by E=mc^2 The amount of energy to propell a massive object increases to infinity as you reach the speed of light, and to get a manned spacecraft up to 90% the speed of light (which would make the travel time less than a decade) the energy would render this engineeringly impossible.



However, the key here is manned spacecraft. What about a von neumann probe, only weighing a few grams with a human level or better AI made of quamtum computers. It could have on board a universal replicator to convert raw plantetary mass to a human colony. All it would need is the human genome on its AI. That is engineeringly possible in this century, as a ship weighing a few grams can get to near light speed with relative ease. You could use a solar sail that has a huge diameter but extremely thin, thus a negligable mass. The problem would be colliding with stuff at 90% the speed of light.

Edited by hotamali, 03 March 2010 - 11:33 PM.





1 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users