Space travel, how close are we?

Question

I was wondering how close we are to developing the means to travel to another star system.

In terms of engines, power sources and other information.

Just a note, this is an academic discussion, I do not expect anything to be available now, and I do have a basic knowledge of space, and how vast it is.

I would like your opinions on this.

Things like speed, time, resources and stuff like that is what I'm looking for.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Id say quite close. NASA has recently devoted into a second space program specializing in FTL travel. we need 3 things to do this. Antimatter, some way of magnetizing antimatter and matter and something to dampen the intense inursa caused by the jump to warp witch would literally turn you into jam. yer see gravity is made up of sub atomic particles called gravitons they are what gives you your mass. " no object of relative mass can travel faster than the speed of light" so take away the relative mass. by using an intense energy Field on gravitons and repelling them we can push away our mass and exceed the speed of light. kind of like pouting iron filings on a table and drooping a magnet on them. its simple but it would require alto of power to do. warp one is equal to the speed of light so to get to proxima cen quickly we need to go at least warp 5 witch is about 300x the speed of light.

Answer 2

Not close at all.  We'd need faster then light travel or something like a wormhole - FTL travel is I believe currently scientifically impossible and I'm not quite sure wormholes have been proven to exist either.

Traveling to other solar systems is really still for the realms of science fiction and something we won't be doing any time soon.

Answer 3

The nearest Star is 1 light-year away.  Once we figure out how to travel the speed of light, options to different solar systems will surface.  I'm not sure how close we are, we've broken the speed of sound and the SoL is theoretically possible.  I doubt if anyone had the capabilities or even allow the research of an engine that powerful to be released to the Public. - EVER.  We got a ways to go bro.

Answer 4

Do you mean human beings? There is no known way to do this in any reasonable amount of time. This would require technology not even thought of, so there's no real way to measure how close we are. The closest star to ours is about 25,284,000,000,000 (25.3 trillion) miles away. The fastest ship we have yet to create (which actually hasn't even been tested) can go approximately 29,000mph. Even if a manned spacecraft could go that speed, it would take 871,862,069 hours or 36,327,586 days (99,460 years).  Of course, we have yet to witness a human living for 100 thousand years. Also, the amount of fuel would be unreasonable as well as that speed with any craft that can be manned. Also, that's the highest speed for an unmanned craft, which cannot possibly carry the fuel for such a trip. Communication with the craft at that distance would take an incredibly long time (4-5 years just to receive/send a signal) if it is even possible.

Basically, we would need something completely unheard of, such as the sci-fi hyperspace type travel, in order to even make this a remote possibility. If any such travel is possible, we have no leads as to how. Most likely, it is not. I guess turning ourselves into light and beaming ourselves there (K-PAX style) would be our best option. Really, without leads there is no way to know. It could be exciting to find out, if we manage to, but our money is probably better spent elsewhere. It is unlikely any country would have the funds to do something like this if it was possible. However, if it became apparent that it could be done, I'm sure someone would manage to.

Answer 5

Far.  The main thing is energy.  We could build an arc that could get to the nearest star in 30,000 years, but what kind of powerplant could you build to make 30,000 years worth of energy for the crew?  I think once we have colonies near most of the planets, we'll build an arc and just beam it energy continuously with LASER.  

Answer 6

we're not.

the nearest star is 4 1/2 light years away.

if you were to take the space shuttle to go there, at 18,000 mph, it would take you 175,000 years.

we're not going anywhere.

and aliens are not coming here for a visit.

it just ain't happening.

no matter what you've seen on startrek.

"Well what if we go faster?"

the fastest thing we've ever launched into space made it to about 40,000 mph.

you're still talking 70,000 years.

10 times faster than that  == 7,000

100 times faster  ==  700

1000 times faster  ==  70.

it just ain't happening.

Answer 7

Last time I checked, the most advanced technological engines would have to be anti-gravity. I know it's like something out of a sci-fi novel but its true.The engine is based on the macro quantum effect "momentum order" of superconductivity.

Since the superconductive electromagnetic engine changes electromagnetic power into driving force and cancels the reaction without using propellant and reaction mass, it is far more excellent than conventional engines.

It is an almighty propulsion engine which can replace a rocket engine, a jet engine, an internal combustion engine and so on. It is a dream technology by which we can make star ships, ships to fly in the air, cars to fly in the air, flying bodies like UFO's , airplanes which are far more highly efficient than airplanes which use conventional engines, wheelchairs which can freely move in the air and so on possible.

It is a type of machinery not to make anti-gravity fields but to make propulsive force which has the nature of anti-gravity.

Answer 8

We are VERY far away from traveling to the closest star system. The closest star system is 4.2 light years away. In order for us to get a probe out there in our lifetime, we would need a space ship that could travel at very close to, or at light speed. And even at that, it would take 4.2 years to get there. And when we did get there, and we did land, the radio waves being sent back won't reach Earth until 4.2 years after it lands. This presents a huge problem. If something goes wrong no the flight, it will be a LONG time before we get the signal, and by the time we do get it, it might be too late to fix it.

I really doubt we are going to even *attempt* to travel to the nearest star system for a LONG time. I'm usually not a very skeptical person, but this is going to be very hard to accomplish. And we won't really know where the planet is at the time. There are a lot of calculations involved, and in order for it to land, its going to have to be pre-programmed extensively.

It is going to be a hard project. It will be a huge milestone in space travel, and in science, period, but it is far away from being done unfortunately. Really at this point, we should worry more about colonization over launching a probe at light speed to another solar system.

Time: No one can tell, but it will be far from now. That's the best estimation we can get.

Resources: Components capable of transporting this probe at light speed.

Answer 9

Well, as far as traveling to other star systems, we are pretty far from that point. Traveling at or faster than the speed of light is the biggest issue.  The theories of wormholes will allow us to get to another part in space faster, but generating a wormhole is far to complex to be achieved at this present time.  Propulsion, speed, distance, and how we as humans will react to such a journey is a great factor that just hasn't been achieved yet.  Although theories have been made about interplanetary and interstellar travel have been made, these theories haven't been put to the test. Antimatter is a fuel source made for such journeys, but it's far to expensive to make, and our technology is to underdeveloped to use this as a use of propulsion.  Basically, our technology and knowledge of space is to limited to achieve such advanced space travel.

Answer 10

We can do it no... so long as you don't mind waiting a few hundred years and that you are not actually sending people but a probe.

An ion drive makes efficient use of the propellant it is burdened with and by using a nuclear powered ion drive it is no unimaginable that we could get a probe to another solar system with a few hundred years using today's technology. However, NASA doesn't usually plan on the centennial scale and any probe we sent would need to think for itself as any kind of remote control that we use for in system probes would take too long to bounce back and forth between even our nearest stellar neighbor.

Manned extra-solar space travel is far far off. We do not have the technology, willingness to use sufficient resources, nor the space construction infrastructure to produce a ship of sufficient size and it will take hundreds of billions of dollars to even get close to such an undertaking... it would not be unfair to estimate the cost of such an endeavor to exceed $1 trillion. The journey would be very very long by human standards taking hundreds of years to reach the nearest star even with forseeable engines far greater in energy output than anything we have today and any ship of sufficient size to house generations of people would also need much bigger engines... far to big for any practical exploration not to mention the moral dilemma of forcing astronauts to procreate in space and forcing their children to explore another solar system long after the deaths of the original crew. Cryogenics could slow the aging of the crew so the journey could be made with fewer supplies and within the extended lifetime of the crew, but current cryogenic technology is far from this stage and will most likely not be there for many more decades or centuries.

Faster than light travel is still deemed impossible by the physics community so it should not even be considered as a foreseeable technology.

Best case scenario for getting people to another solar system:

The world pours more than a trillion dollars into the development of a ion drive ship fueled by a large nuclear reactor or a ship propelled by nuclear explosions from behind the ship which will accelerate the ship out of our solar system before using a massive solar sail to decelerate using the destination star's solar winds instead of precious fuel. The crew are frozen en route and are awakened in the new system to do their studies before freezing themselves to make the return journey. Cosmic radiation will still be a big issue, but if the crew were frozen they would be less susceptible to said radiation. I see this happening at the very soonest just around 100 years from now if all of mankind works toward it... in reality it will probably be closer to 1000 years.

Answer 11

solar sails are becoming big these days, like first sailing across the water, with the ships we have now its impossible i think anyways, apprently using the ships we have now you need an incredible amount of fuel thats alot of weight isnt the speed at which we travel equalled by the amount of force put against the ship?

Answer 12

in term of going to other plants is decade while star system millennium. current technology only allow us to see not go to.

current speed to moon is 4days and 1B USD over. so other going to other star system is probly going to suck a nation money dry high.

safety, engines and power sources are the 3 main thing must achive in onder to go to other system.

safety- no use sending a Billion equpment or people just to know they kaBOOM on the way. lol

engines- need something like from sci-fi.

power sources- petrol? heck no~! solar? hm....mian source power but slow to ganerate. other? u know other?