Brian Cox

[tonea2003]

Regards space travel - around our solar system is quite interesting. But the jump to interstellar space travel is ages away, and even if we crack it there's some fundamental issues which make it all very awkward.

There are 133 stars within 50 light years of us. That's not many to choose from if we are to hope to find an interesting planet to visit, one with a gravity similar to our own, and not so close to the star that we'd melt. One we could land on. Let's suppose the star (and planet) we want to visit is 50 light years away.

If we could accelerate a spaceship to 99.9% the speed of light, we could get there in "only" 2 years elapsed for the crew. Spend say a year on a planet there and return home. So a reasonably manageable 5 year mission for the crew. The problem is 101 years will have passed on earth by the time you get back, so everyone you knew are long dead, the technology you had when you left is antique. And more importantly the results you've got are possibly only mildly interesting since technology has moved on so much. It would also take 100 years for the crew to send back even the first bits of data they pick up on arrival.

There's also the fundamental challenge that this project - assuming we could develop the technology - might cost hundreds of billions, maybe a trillion dollars? With no return for 100 years. Who would fund such a wildly speculative investment with no prospect of any results in their lifetime?

I think we're talking a century or more away before such projects are even imaginable. Maybe even longer than that. Look how much space flight has "improved" over the past 60 years: It really hasn't developed much at all. We can't go much faster, the propulsion technology is identical. The computers are faster, but that's about it.

that is the bit most people find mind blowing, is the sheer vastness of space, i suppose we are waiting for a star trek/star wars type of a propulsion( if indeed that is possible) to take us to the next level

another thing i found amazing(not sure where i read it now) that if you were to fire the sun through the galaxy the chance of it hitting another star is virtually nil, such is the vastness

 

[Chippy_boy]

that is the bit most people find mind blowing, is the sheer vastness of space, i suppose we are waiting for a star trek/star wars type of a propulsion( if indeed that is possible) to take us to the next level

another thing i found amazing(not sure where i read it now) that if you were to fire the sun through the galaxy the chance of it hitting another star is virtually nil, such is the vastness

The clue is in the colour of the night sky. It's pretty dark, right? If it was densely packed with stars it would be like daylight.

In our own solar system, and the sun is a football, then the earth is a peppercorn and Neptune is a peanut orbiting 400 yards away. That's a lot of "nothing" in between! And the gaps between solar systems is much, much, much, much bigger than that!

The problem with your Star Trek propulsion system is that you can't do anything to help the people you leave behind. Travelling at very near light speed, you could traverse the galaxies - going millions or even billions of light years in a matter of a couple of years. (It would take you 1 year to accelerate to light speed and another year to slow down, but whilst at- or very close to - light speed, you could traverse galaxies in seconds).

But billions of years would have passed on earth when you got back. The earth might not even exist any more on your return.

 

[tonea2003]

The clue is in the colour of the night sky. It's pretty dark, right? If it was densely packed with stars it would be like daylight.

The problem with your Star Trek propulsion system is that you can't do anything to help the people you leave behind. Travelling at very near light speed, you could traverse the galaxies - going millions or even billions of light years in a matter of a couple of years. (It would take you 1 year to accelerate to light speed and another year to slow down, but whilst at- or very close to - light speed, you could traverse galaxies in seconds).

But billions of years would have passed on earth when you got back. The earth might not even exist any more on your return.

i get it mate, but in a galaxy of potentially 200 bil plus stars it just show the vastness

again i get that, but mans quest for adventure and discovery will not deter us in trying to achieve these goals, this will be many many generations before anything like this would happen
and to think we have flat earth believers still peddling their nonsense beggars belief

 

[Chippy_boy]

i get it mate, but in a galaxy of potentially 200 bil plus stars it just show the vastness

again i get that, but mans quest for adventure and discovery will not deter us in trying to achieve these goals, this will be many many generations before anything like this would happen
and to think we have flat earth believers still peddling their nonsense beggars belief

Yes indeed.

The challenges (and costs) of space travel are so great that I am not particularly excited by it. Not because it's not exciting per se, but because it's so expensive and there's no political will anywhere in the world to put in the sorts of money needed for any step-changes in development and capability. We'll be lucky if we see a human on Mars in my lifetime I think, and that's not particularly "wow" for me.

Much more interesting for me is the development of AI and robotics. When you think of just how sensible a conversation you can have with Google Home *today*, and what the robots from people like Boston Dynamics look like *today*, I think it's only a matter of a few years before we see robots walking down the street, conversing, delivering things, knocking at your door.

I was in a hotel in Singapore a few weeks ago and a robot delivered the burger and fries to my colleagues' room. Called the lift on its own, went up in the lift on its own, navigated the corridors etc all by itself and rang the door bell and there it was with his meal.

 

[aguero93:20]

Regards space travel - around our solar system is quite interesting. But the jump to interstellar space travel is ages away, and even if we crack it there's some fundamental issues which make it all very awkward.

There are 133 stars within 50 light years of us. That's not many to choose from if we are to hope to find an interesting planet to visit, one with a gravity similar to our own, and not so close to the star that we'd melt. One we could land on. Let's suppose the star (and planet) we want to visit is 50 light years away.

If we could accelerate a spaceship to 99.9% the speed of light, we could get there in "only" 2 years elapsed for the crew. Spend say a year on a planet there and return home. So a reasonably manageable 5 year mission for the crew. The problem is 101 years will have passed on earth by the time you get back, so everyone you knew are long dead, the technology you had when you left is antique. And more importantly the results you've got are possibly only mildly interesting since technology has moved on so much. It would also take 100 years for the crew to send back even the first bits of data they pick up on arrival.

There's also the fundamental challenge that this project - assuming we could develop the technology - might cost hundreds of billions, maybe a trillion dollars? With no return for 100 years. Who would fund such a wildly speculative investment with no prospect of any results in their lifetime?

I think we're talking a century or more away before such projects are even imaginable. Maybe even longer than that. Look how much space flight has "improved" over the past 60 years: It really hasn't developed much at all. We can't go much faster, the propulsion technology is identical. The computers are faster, but that's about it.

I think if we ever leave this solar system it'll be colonies leaving on a one way trip.

 

[Chippy_boy]

I think if we ever leave this solar system it'll be colonies leaving on a one way trip.

Fair point. That might very well be the case.

 

[tonea2003]

I think if we ever leave this solar system it'll be colonies leaving on a one way trip.

and that will only be when we have to and have the necessary means to do so and to do this without recky mission first, to find a suitable unhabited planet seems unlikely

 

[aguero93:20]

and that will only be when we have to and have the necessary means to do so and to do this without recky mission first, to find a suitable unhabited planet seems unlikely

You think too highly of mankind if you think we'd care about whether a planet we could colonize was inhabited or not.

Besides, I think we'd be more likely to terraform a planet it was possible to survive on, than to try and reach an ideal one. At least at first. Red Mars is a good read if you haven't read it.

 

[tonea2003]

You think too highly of mankind if you think we'd care about whether a planet we could colonize was inhabited or not.

Besides, I think we'd be more likely to terraform a planet it was possible to survive on, than to try and reach an ideal one. At least at first. Red Mars is a good read if you haven't read it.

we may have no choice but i would think if there was, you would go for an non habited habitable planet, by that i mean avoiding possible intelligent lifeforms, who knows what odd wildlife we would encounter though

i haven't read red mars but to terraform wouldn't you need the whole kit and kaboodle of an eco-system to survive e.g bees to pollinate plants etc

i may be way off beam just thinking out aloud

 

[aguero93:20]

we may have no choice but i would think if there was, you would go for an non habited habitable planet, by that i mean avoiding possible intelligent lifeforms, who knows what odd wildlife we would encounter though

i haven't read red mars but to terraform wouldn't you need the whole kit and kaboodle of an eco-system to survive e.g bees to pollinate plants etc

i may be way off beam just thinking out aloud

You wouldn't need the whole kit, just some genetic samples and a means of introducing an atmosphere that humans can survive in, but any long distance spacecraft would probably be a closed ecosystem anyway. Any life you brought with you would certainly alter to due differences in minerals and gravity amongst other things.