Feasible way to go the speed of light?

[s28400]

Hey guys, I was recently thinking about theoretical ways to accelerate objects ( spacecraft ) and I had the idea that seems feasible and could potentially reach the speed of light in a reasonable time period.

In order for this to work, we would need to develop an artificial gravity generator that could produce gravity in one constant direction. If we had that on the front of a ship, no matter the weight, the acceleration would be constant. So let's say that the gravitational acceleration from the generator was tuned at Earth's 9.81m/s^2. I figured that a ship with that constant force would reach the speed of light in just under a year. Now, let's say we tuned up the generator to 5 times the normal gravity here on earth. It is still well within the survivable limits of humans and it would cut the time to the speed of light from just under a year to just over 2 months, (~71 days).

The main problem with accelerating to or near the speed of light, is that your mass gets infinitely larger. With conventional acceleration methods such as rockets or other expulsion based engines you would need an equally infinite amount of particles being accelerated out the nozzle to continue accelerating. This equates to an infinite amount of energy and thus is impossible. However, unless the gravity generator requires more power to effect more mass, the weight of the ship would be irrelevant to the acceleration.

Anyway, I am no expert on this material but it seems like this would work if we had an artificial gravity generator. I know this seems somewhat far fetched, but let me know what you guys think!

 

[Matterwave]

1) You can never reach the speed of light. This is forbidden by special relativity. So I will assume that you mean "approach close to the speed of light" in your post (say 99% of the speed of light).

2) If you could provide a constant acceleration of 1g, then indeed you will approach the speed of light within a reasonable amount of time. The problem is how to provide this constant 1g of acceleration.

3) We have no idea how to create an "artificial gravity generator". As far as the laws of physics goes, mass and energy generate gravity. And you need a lot of mass to generate a little gravity (say, all the mass of the Earth to generate the gravity of 1g at its surface). There's no way around this with any current theories of physics.

 

[m4r35n357]

What you are proposing suggests that we could all go into space just by pulling on our bootstraps.

 

[Dale]

it seems like this would work if we had an artificial gravity generator.

Until we get such a device anything that we can possibly say about it is speculative. If you have some professional scientific papers about possible gravity generators that you would like to discuss then please PM me and I can re-open the thread.

 

[sardar]

I appreciate your curiosity and creative thinking in regards to finding a feasible way to reach the speed of light. However, I must point out that there are several scientific principles and limitations that make this idea unlikely to work.

Firstly, the concept of an "artificial gravity generator" is currently not supported by any known scientific principles. While there are theories about how to create artificial gravity, they are still purely theoretical and have not been successfully tested or implemented. It would require a significant amount of research and technological advancements to even begin to develop such a device.

Furthermore, even if we were able to create an artificial gravity generator, it would not necessarily provide a constant acceleration as you suggest. The strength and direction of gravity is dependent on the mass and distance of objects, and it is not possible to create a gravitational field that would remain constant in one direction regardless of an object's mass. Additionally, the amount of energy required to create and sustain such a strong gravitational field would be immense and likely not feasible.

Lastly, as you mentioned, the issue of mass increasing as an object approaches the speed of light is a major hurdle in achieving this feat. This is a fundamental principle in physics known as mass-energy equivalence, and it means that as an object accelerates, its mass also increases, making it more and more difficult to accelerate further. At the speed of light, an object would have infinite mass, and thus require infinite energy to accelerate it further. As you mentioned, this is impossible to achieve with conventional acceleration methods.

In conclusion, while your idea may seem plausible on the surface, it is unfortunately not currently supported by scientific principles and would require significant advancements in technology and understanding of physics to even begin to consider as a feasible option for reaching the speed of light. However, I appreciate your curiosity and encourage you to continue exploring and learning about the fascinating world of science.