by qwerty » Thu 21 Sep 2006, 15:11:45
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jogger', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ingenuity_Gap', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jogger', 'I')s it possible that a group of people will be exploring our galaxy in the near future while everyone else is suffering on Earth from corporate slavery, a possible nuclear war, Peak Oil, natural disasters, etc.?
They would be exploring a galaxy with billions of stars and possibly thousands of habitable planets, only a small percentage of the entire universe. They may find worlds similar to Earth. They may find other intelligent life forms, maybe more intelligent than humans.
You probably watched way too much Star Trek. I was thinking like you when I was 15 (probably you are around that age if you think like that, or if you’re older then you missed a lot of reading on the subject).
a. The cosmic distances are immense, mind boggling, insurmountable, vast, massive, enormous, colossal, monumental, monstrous, mammoth, titanic. AKA 1 light year is no walk in the park.
b. The energy required to travel those distances is huge, humongous, gigantic, gargantuan, astronomical. The means to cram that energy into a practical spaceship are inexistent. Even the most efficient energy source (antimatter-matter annihilation which is 100% efficient) is no match for the distance to other star systems.
c. The technology to achieve space travel even to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri - 4.2 light years) in a reasonable timeframe is way beyond our reach.
To allow for practical space travel we need to discover a means to:
1. exceed light speed
2. propel a vehicle without propellant
3. power such a vehicle.
Every technological advance goes through a few phases:
1. Conjecture
2. Speculation
3. Science
4. Technology
5. Application
Where are we regarding space travel? At the level of speculation for the most part.
At the present level of technology to produce 1 gram of antimatter, CERN would need to spend 100 million trillion dollars and run the antimatter factory for 100 billion years.
1 gram of antimatter won't take you very far though.
So you can forget about the majority of people suffering here on Earth while a bunch of enthusiasts will travel the galaxy. That won’t happen soon. Everybody will suffer here on Earth.
Space Travel Star Trek is not the reason why I posted this topic. As you are probably aware, physicist Stephen Hawking recently said that in order for humans to survive in the future they must colonize space. You are essentially telling me and everyone else that it will be impossible. Should we not have any children then?