Is Tau Zero the Ultimate Space Travel Concept?

[anorlunda]

I just finished this book. Bravo. Paul Anderson is one of the masters. In this book, he tells the story of a spaceship traveling so close to light speed that it can traverse a galaxy in only a second shipboard perceived time.

Of course, space travel and time travel are bountifully explored in sci-fi, but Anderson invented a completely new form of travel "tau travel". It is not often that an author can invent a truly new concept. I say bravo.

A review on Amazon says:

The plot, unheard of prior to this seminal work, is a starship that - powered by a Bussard ramjet using the tenuous hydrogen of interstellar space for fuel - accelerates to a significant fraction of c, so that shipboard time runs billions of times slower than time in the outside universe. Thus the title "Tau Zero", the Greek letter tau being assigned to the variable representing the Special Relativity time dilation factor $(\frac{1 - v^2}{c^2 })^{\frac{1}{2}}$ . For v that approaches c, tau becomes vanishingly small.

These concepts were later used by authors such as Larry Niven and Greg Bear.

 

[jedishrfu]

Nice sadly though for the starship occupants they will lose touch with all their family and relatives long gone when they return from a mission.

 

[Hornbein]

Nice sadly though for the starship occupants they will lose touch with all their family and relatives long gone when they return from a mission.

Tau travel is strictly for loners, malcontents, and those drastically on the run from the law.

 

[jbriggs444]

Tau travel is strictly for loners, malcontents, and those drastically on the run from the law.

"A niche in time saves Stein" - Ferdinand Feghoot.

 

[Algr]

Nice sadly though for the starship occupants they will lose touch with all their family and relatives long gone when they return from a mission.

What would be the point of returning? The Earth would be unrecognizable and humanity might not even exist at that point. Also, what is the point of moving that fast? Are there so few places in a galaxy worth visiting?

 

[jedishrfu]

I think the point of returning would be economics. No business would fund a one way trip unless it led to some sort of interplanetary commerce.

 

[anorlunda]

What would be the point of returning? The Earth would be unrecognizable and humanity might not even exist at that point. Also, what is the point of moving that fast? Are there so few places in a galaxy worth visiting?

Spoiler: The Tau Zero Plot outline

The ship is heading toward a habitable planet to start a colony. An accident makes it impossible to decelerate, or coast. They can only accelerate.

In the end, they travel so long (Earth proper time) that heat death of the universe begins. The oscillating universe collapses, and the story continues beyond the next big bang event.

 

[phyzguy]

What would be the point of returning? The Earth would be unrecognizable and humanity might not even exist at that point. Also, what is the point of moving that fast? Are there so few places in a galaxy worth visiting?

I read this book many years ago and loved it. You need to read the book to answer these questions - they didn't intend to go so fast.

 

[BWV]

I think the point of returning would be economics. No business would fund a one way trip unless it led to some sort of interplanetary commerce.

Investment firms could sell this - let us make you a billionaire by managing your portfolio while you take a 10y round trip that will compound your money for 100+ years

 

[jbriggs444]

Investment firms could sell this - let us make you a billionaire by managing your portfolio while you take a 10y round trip that will compound your money for 100+ years

Heinlein had a good quote for this:
"$100 invested at 7% interest for 100 years will become $100,000, at which time it will be worth absolutely nothing."

 

[Hornbein]

Investment firms could sell this - let us make you a billionaire by managing your portfolio while you take a 10y round trip that will compound your money for 100+ years

The perfect setup for absconding with the funds.