Interstellar Travel

[Synt4x]

What do people think about interstellar travel, realistically? Would it be a realistic goal for the human race? No? Why or why not? Please, I'd appreciate it if people kept to realistic possibilities (nothing sci-fi).

I have my own ideas, but I'll wait until I hear yours first before I post them.

 

[OffTheChain]

What do people think about interstellar travel, realistically? Would it be a realistic goal for the human race? No? Why or why not? Please, I'd appreciate it if people kept to realistic possibilities (nothing sci-fi).

I have my own ideas, but I'll wait until I hear yours first before I post them.

I know what your up to.

However I'll bite, the vast distances involved are too great, in reality I could never see this being reached, at least not in terms of where we are in technology today.

 

[orintemple]

Once I figure out how to go Super Saiyan I will fly to other galazies and tell you what is there.

For serious, no not while the human race is alive, cause that won't be more than another couple hundred years the way we are going.

 

[~Krystal~]

Homework help? This question just seemed to come out of NOWHERE and it reads like something you'd find on a handout. Sorry.

Long distances will make for extremely long waiting periods. We would need to find a way to extend the passenger's life span and any gains from interstellar travel would not be immediate which would be a main obstacle in securing funding for such a project. As of right now we have very few feasible plans that would allow us to have any sort of shot at achieving interstellar travel with today's technology. None of them have been implemented and most of the stuff is theoretical. Any meaningful discussion regarding interstellar travel has yet to take place. Its a realistic goal, but its just not a very beneficial one for the time being.

Once I figure out how to go Super Saiyan I will fly to other galazies and tell you what is there.

Super Saiyans can't breathe in space. You'd better use instant transmission instead of just flying to and from if you know whats good for you.

 

[Virgilijus]

I'm a major in aerospace engineering and while I am taking propulsion next semester, I still have some opinions on the matter. The main thing that is holding us back is fuel. Rockets are incredibly fuel inefficient because they rely (as they must) on the conservation of momentum to propel them through Space. I mean, look at the shuttle; the fuel it requires to propel itself into orbit is practically the size of the shuttle itself if not more (volumetrically).

Irregardless of that, people tend to have no real perspective of how large the solar system is; it takes a long time to get to Mars...long time. And as much fun as it would be to send ships to far moons and planets...there really isn't much there that will benefit us. The best things there are to explore are the closest (relatively) to us.

Essentially, space travel will almost never be convenient and will always be costly and a hastle.

 

[Synt4x]

Homework help? This question just seemed to come out of NOWHERE and it reads like something you'd find on a handout. Sorry.

Wow, I didn't even realize that. It really does, doesn't it? That wasn't my intent--it's just something I've been thinking about. It has nothing to do with homework. Actually, the 'End of the Solar System' thread gave me the idea to bring it up here.

On topic: I never thought we could reach other solar systems in even one generation. I was thinking we could ship people off on virtually self-sufficient starships. They would have to grow their own food and be equipped with some sort of largely renewable energy, which would have to be able to power (not fuel--fuel is a different issue) the ship for centuries. There would also have to be great emphasis on preventing conflict within the starship, and it would have to be constructed in orbit, like the ISS, to eliminate the rather large obstacle of getting the thing out of the atmosphere.

That's all my thoughts.

 

[Royblazer]

The way I see it, if humans can't travel planets and systems, it'll be better. Cause if we can, humans will only rely on hopping planets to survive, and just wind up destroying each one slowly.

 

[Zero Beat]

I'm a major in aerospace engineering and while I am taking propulsion next semester, I still have some opinions on the matter. The main thing that is holding us back is fuel. Rockets are incredibly fuel inefficient because they rely (as they must) on the conservation of momentum to propel them through Space. I mean, look at the shuttle; the fuel it requires to propel itself into orbit is practically the size of the shuttle itself if not more (volumetrically).

Irregardless of that, people tend to have no real perspective of how large the solar system is; it takes a long time to get to Mars...long time. And as much fun as it would be to send ships to far moons and planets...there really isn't much there that will benefit us. The best things there are to explore are the closest (relatively) to us.

Essentially, space travel will almost never be convenient and will always be costly and a hastle.

I wouldn't use the words "always" and "never," mate. But yes, for now, fuel's a *****.

Earth's escape velocity is a *****. However, in terms of not so expensive investigation, science balloons are doing great. 12,000 feet is good.

 

[the melon!!!!!]

To be honest, I don't believe so unless one of these occurs:

1) An alien ship is analyzed and we discover how they can go fast enough to span between solar systems in a matter of days
2)We discover this **** ourselves, which will take at least far past anybody on Smashboards' lifetime.



Either way I think this generation is never going to see the day of efficient space travel, let alone interstellar space travel.

 

[~Krystal~]

To be honest, I don't believe so unless one of these occurs:

1) An alien ship is analyzed and we discover how they can go fast enough to span between solar systems in a matter of days
2)We discover this **** ourselves, which will take at least far past anybody on Smashboards' lifetime.



Either way I think this generation is never going to see the day of efficient space travel, let alone interstellar space travel.

Continuing to reverse engineer alien spacecrafts is our best bet imo. Realistically, we could never hope to develop the sophisticated technology extraterrestrials use to travel to Earth within a reasonable time frame on our own and even if we did, theres no guarantee we would survive it. Traveling faster than the speed of light is not something humans were designed to do. Theortically, our bodies would explode if we were to travel that fast and its considered virtually impossible. By traveling faster than the speed of light, we could actually travel in time. Light takes several years to travel to the nearest star other than the Sun. Placed in a universal context, light speed is not very impressive. Aliens would have needed to find a way to surpass light speed and travel back in time. They could have folded space, they could have utilized parallel universes with separate laws of physics, or they could have actually altered light speed in order to travel quickly without breaching the light speed barrier.

This generation may not see efficient space travel, but it has a good chance at achieving a major breakthrough. Baby steps! Lets not get ahead of ourselves and start making serious errors.

 

[M-80]

Lets see..... to travel to other galaxies i believe we need to travel at the speed of light because the closest galaxy is a couple of light years away and if we dont travel at the speed of light then we will never make so.....i dont see us making it to other galaxys unless we can create worm holes and those things are very.....very confusing but who knows we might be able to do it

 

[Jam Stunna]

I'm a major in aerospace engineering and while I am taking propulsion next semester, I still have some opinions on the matter. The main thing that is holding us back is fuel. Rockets are incredibly fuel inefficient because they rely (as they must) on the conservation of momentum to propel them through Space. I mean, look at the shuttle; the fuel it requires to propel itself into orbit is practically the size of the shuttle itself if not more (volumetrically).

Irregardless of that, people tend to have no real perspective of how large the solar system is; it takes a long time to get to Mars...long time. And as much fun as it would be to send ships to far moons and planets...there really isn't much there that will benefit us. The best things there are to explore are the closest (relatively) to us.

Essentially, space travel will almost never be convenient and will always be costly and a hastle.

I used to want to be an engineer when I was little, until I got older and realized that engineers don't fly starships.

As for space travel, I agree with Virg as well. Unless something dramatic occurs in the realm of physics, it just seems that space is too big to ever be explored effectively by humans.

 

[Gamer4Fire]

I'm a major in aerospace engineering and while I am taking propulsion next semester, I still have some opinions on the matter. The main thing that is holding us back is fuel. Rockets are incredibly fuel inefficient because they rely (as they must) on the conservation of momentum to propel them through Space. I mean, look at the shuttle; the fuel it requires to propel itself into orbit is practically the size of the shuttle itself if not more (volumetrically).

Irregardless of that, people tend to have no real perspective of how large the solar system is; it takes a long time to get to Mars...long time. And as much fun as it would be to send ships to far moons and planets...there really isn't much there that will benefit us. The best things there are to explore are the closest (relatively) to us.

Essentially, space travel will almost never be convenient and will always be costly and a hastle.

Orion project. Proven cheap space travel.

For FTL space travel, it would require a whole different set of technologies. Probably quantum disentanglement, instantaneous transmission between any two points in space without traveling between the intervening space. We have only been able to accomplish this with photons, so far. But in the future we may be able to move matter in the same way, and then maybe even people.