Every serious examination I have seen on interstellar travel has revealed that it is not possible without great amounts of time involved. If we can't travel at speeds much faster than the speed of light then we aren't going anywhere which is pretty depressing to think about. Even getting humans to Mars and back is calculated to be impossible.
That’s based on our current understanding of science and technology. Imo it’s silly to think we’ve hit the apex of possible technology that one could use to travel the universe.
Say we’re still here one million years from now, we’ll still be limited by the speed of light? I don’t think so.
I agree that the opinion is based on current understandings but as for now it isn't looking good for us. You need fundamental rewrites of what we supposedly know to get past the problems.
At bare minimum we likely need to be able to advance to the point where we can resource harvest space borne objects besides just Earth. I don't think that is going to be feasible without figuring out how to manipulate gravity on whim. The means that we have now in regards to that are very crude in comparison to what is needed.
Yeah, maybe we will eventually figure out how to make that a reality. I hope we do, it would be incredibly frustrating if we can't get ourselves to other inhabitable planets after fantasizing about the prospect for so long.
We've only had "high technology" for what? 5000 years? 7K? Even in 5000 years our societies, technology & even human beings will be radically different.
IF we survive as a species for that long. The "Dark Ages" were just a blip, a global collapse could set us back centuries, millennia even.
I personally doubt it, AI machines require a high functioning society to create and support which is by my estimation only going to make such things even more rare. I think it more likely to find organic compounds like what has been claimed about findings on Mars and even there I am not so sure that I trust the report.
Not because I think that Mars never produced rudimentary life or better but because I am a bit skeptical about NASA's claims at times. It would make sense to me that if Mars ever held a viable atmosphere for a long enough time that life would develop on it.
The scouts would be machines, for sure. If it takes like 1+ years to travel a light year? Scouting potential planets would be essential before sending life-forms for further study of them.
There could be "potentially viable planets" in a lot of systems, eh? Telescopes can only tell us so much, getting probes into orbit is required. Then getting the data back! That's also needed.
Mars isn't "impossible" it's entirely possible! Just really really expensive. It needs some things in place before it's remotely practical. Space elevator? Legrange spaceports? Moon bases for sure.
Meanwhile the time it takes to travel 1 light-year is critically important to whether aliens will visit us or not.
1 per hour? We'd be crawling with aliens long ago.
1 per day? They'd be here by the ton.
1 per week? Still tons of them.
1 per month? Getting serious. They for sure would be here already, just not a lot of them.
1 per year? Yeah, some would be here but not many. This could be our current situation. The few that arrive have spent a PILE of money & time on it. Whatever they're after must be really valuable to them.
Over 1 per 2 years means they would likely be few & far between.
👍🏼 Based on 30 to 60 light years distance.
Yeah, are sentient beings made of light? They're probably made of, you know, matter! And how long it takes a spaceship of any sort to travel 1 light-year is a critical element here.
Star Trek speeds? (I think they go like 8 light-years an hour?) We'd be crawling with aliens. 10 years to go 1 light year? Not so much.
Time isn't even the biggest problem. It's the radiation. In order to survive beyond the magnetosphere, the walls of the craft need to be thicker than the walls of a nuclear submarine. And then the faster you speed that craft up, they need to become even thicker to protect against higher and higher energy collisions from particle impacts as the velocity increases.
So the larger 'm' gets in F=ma, the larger F needs to be to compensate. To increase the force means increasing the mass by adding fuel, which requires more force to accelerate the added weight of the fuel, which needs more fuel...
With the shielding mass requirements and fuel mass requirements both scaling with velocity, interstellar travel is and always will be impossible. Anyone telling you otherwise is trying to scam you.
Every serious examination I have seen on interstellar travel has revealed that it is not possible without great amounts of time involved. If we can't travel at speeds much faster than the speed of light then we aren't going anywhere which is pretty depressing to think about. Even getting humans to Mars and back is calculated to be impossible.
That’s based on our current understanding of science and technology. Imo it’s silly to think we’ve hit the apex of possible technology that one could use to travel the universe.
Say we’re still here one million years from now, we’ll still be limited by the speed of light? I don’t think so.
I agree that the opinion is based on current understandings but as for now it isn't looking good for us. You need fundamental rewrites of what we supposedly know to get past the problems.
At bare minimum we likely need to be able to advance to the point where we can resource harvest space borne objects besides just Earth. I don't think that is going to be feasible without figuring out how to manipulate gravity on whim. The means that we have now in regards to that are very crude in comparison to what is needed.
But like if you fold a piece of paper and poke a hole into it with a pencil and stuff
Yeah, maybe we will eventually figure out how to make that a reality. I hope we do, it would be incredibly frustrating if we can't get ourselves to other inhabitable planets after fantasizing about the prospect for so long.
Actually it's only based on the rocket equation.
If we find any way to push against the 'aether' instead of carrying fuel then we can get to other stars in years instead of millennia.
We've only had "high technology" for what? 5000 years? 7K? Even in 5000 years our societies, technology & even human beings will be radically different.
IF we survive as a species for that long. The "Dark Ages" were just a blip, a global collapse could set us back centuries, millennia even.
Sure, as soon as we find out how to harness more energy than exists in the universe to move infinite mass, we're laughing...
Wouldn't we be much more likely to encounter AI machines than anything else?
I personally doubt it, AI machines require a high functioning society to create and support which is by my estimation only going to make such things even more rare. I think it more likely to find organic compounds like what has been claimed about findings on Mars and even there I am not so sure that I trust the report.
Not because I think that Mars never produced rudimentary life or better but because I am a bit skeptical about NASA's claims at times. It would make sense to me that if Mars ever held a viable atmosphere for a long enough time that life would develop on it.
https://www.nasa.gov/missions/mars-science-laboratory/curiosity-rover/nasas-curiosity-finds-organic-molecules-never-seen-before-on-mars/
Just so everyone is clear "organic" molecules and compounds aren't even close to "life".
They're hydrocarbons; at least, everything but the most basic of basic hydrocarbons.
Methane, for example, which occurs all over the place without anything resembling life, is an organic molecule.
The scouts would be machines, for sure. If it takes like 1+ years to travel a light year? Scouting potential planets would be essential before sending life-forms for further study of them.
There could be "potentially viable planets" in a lot of systems, eh? Telescopes can only tell us so much, getting probes into orbit is required. Then getting the data back! That's also needed.
Mars isn't "impossible" it's entirely possible! Just really really expensive. It needs some things in place before it's remotely practical. Space elevator? Legrange spaceports? Moon bases for sure.
Meanwhile the time it takes to travel 1 light-year is critically important to whether aliens will visit us or not.
1 per hour? We'd be crawling with aliens long ago.
1 per day? They'd be here by the ton.
1 per week? Still tons of them.
1 per month? Getting serious. They for sure would be here already, just not a lot of them.
1 per year? Yeah, some would be here but not many. This could be our current situation. The few that arrive have spent a PILE of money & time on it. Whatever they're after must be really valuable to them.
Over 1 per 2 years means they would likely be few & far between.
👍🏼 Based on 30 to 60 light years distance.
Wut?
It takes light one year to travel one light-year, this is by definition what a light-year is.
Yeah, are sentient beings made of light? They're probably made of, you know, matter! And how long it takes a spaceship of any sort to travel 1 light-year is a critical element here.
Star Trek speeds? (I think they go like 8 light-years an hour?) We'd be crawling with aliens. 10 years to go 1 light year? Not so much.
The speed of light is the hard cap; we will never go faster.
All your estimates are way optimistic. It's more like 3-5 years for every lightyear, once everything is "perfected".
Time isn't even the biggest problem. It's the radiation. In order to survive beyond the magnetosphere, the walls of the craft need to be thicker than the walls of a nuclear submarine. And then the faster you speed that craft up, they need to become even thicker to protect against higher and higher energy collisions from particle impacts as the velocity increases.
So the larger 'm' gets in F=ma, the larger F needs to be to compensate. To increase the force means increasing the mass by adding fuel, which requires more force to accelerate the added weight of the fuel, which needs more fuel...
With the shielding mass requirements and fuel mass requirements both scaling with velocity, interstellar travel is and always will be impossible. Anyone telling you otherwise is trying to scam you.