Interstellar travel
Moderator: DustMods
Interstellar travel
How long do you think it will be before we have the technology to travel between star systems relativly quickly?
What means relatively quickly?
Would 840 years one way be considered relatively quickly? It may be a very long time before the dominate life form on this planet will ever travel 400 light years quicker than that.
The best way to travel may also be the way we do it right now. Hold on to our oxygen supply we have and just keep scooting along at 217 km/s orbital speed and 550 km/s galactic velocity towards the Virgo cluster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way#Sun.27s_location
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way#Velocity
My vote is next to never.
The best way to travel may also be the way we do it right now. Hold on to our oxygen supply we have and just keep scooting along at 217 km/s orbital speed and 550 km/s galactic velocity towards the Virgo cluster.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way#Sun.27s_location
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way#Velocity
My vote is next to never.
Relativly quickly.
By relativly quickly I mean about a 10 year journey between here and proxima centauri.
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When will we have interstellar technology?
Well, technically we already have it, which is, I assume why minus 50 yrs is a choice on the poll and why I chose it - as soon as we began manipulating EMS - electricity, radio, television - we began broadcasting to the stars however inefficient and "slow". If we mean how soon will we attempt interstellar flight, then the Voyager missions officially inaugurated interstellar robotic flight in the 1970's. If we mean how soon will humans attempt the first manned flight to the nearest stars, then it will be when the expenditure of such an expedition is justified by a sufficiently compelling reason, such as in the unlikely but not impossible event of intelligent greetings from one or more of our nearest neighbors. Otherwise, enhanced telescopic observations and robotic missions will be the vastly cheaper and more efficient means of interstellar exploration until if and when new discoveries about the laws of nature and the means to manipulate them allow us to reach and exceed the cosmic speed limit of 186,000mi/sec....or until we are visited first (cue Theramin...).
Personally, as much as I want to go out there, I think we have much work yet to do here on Earth before we can justify an all out expenditure of time and resources for a fleet of manned starships...darnit!
Personally, as much as I want to go out there, I think we have much work yet to do here on Earth before we can justify an all out expenditure of time and resources for a fleet of manned starships...darnit!
Everything reminds me of everything else