Relativity Expert on Startalk Podcast: Interstellar & Near Light Travel

[SBNY444]

I really hate, and also not fully understand it, when people talk about near light travel and they only mention about the stationary observers (people on earth). I forget her name but the relativity expert on the Startalk podcast about the movie interstellar, along with Neil, said that if you travel near the speed of light to a distant location say 1,000 light years away from earth, it's not feasible because it will take you 1,000 years. This is true only relative to the observers and is only half the story! The person or people on the spaceship going near the speed of light will get there significantly sooner than 1,000 years travel time. So if you can imagine a far fetch scenario where we all needed to leave Earth and somehow NASA got funding for 1 million spacecraft that could hold 6,000 people (which is a seat for all on Earth give or take) and the spacecraft all go near the speed of light and we all left at the same time then the 1,000 light year value is not relevant to the journey. I didn't do the math but we would get to our "1,000 light year away" location in say a few years if that, right? Please help! this is making me loose sleep :)

 

[A.T.]

I didn't do the math but we would get to our "1,000 light year away" location in say a few years if that, right?

Yes. If you don't care about coming back to meet old friends, the time passed on Earth becomes irrelevant to you.

 

[SBNY444]

Yes, i don't care about going back to earth. It's in ruins and everyone on Earth has launched with me. Any idea how long it would actually take for the people on the rocket?

 

[Mentz114]

That depends on how fast you go. Have you got inertial dampers so you could survive high-g accelerations for a long time ( like 20 minutes) ?

 

[SBNY444]

let's not get technical and stray from the actual question. Assume a uniform 1 G acceleration to 0.99c.

 

[Mentz114]

let's not get technical and stray from the actual question. Assume a uniform 1 G acceleration to 0.99c.

At that speed it will take about $1000/7$ years. If you can get to $0.9999999c$ quickly it would take about 6 months.

See here http://www.orionsarm.com/fm_store/RTTCalc.htm or here

http://www.convertalot.com/relativistic_star_ship_calculator.html

http://nathangeffen.webfactional.com/spacetravel/spacetravel.php

 

[QuantumPion]

Handy dandy relativistic space travel calculator: http://nathangeffen.webfactional.com/spacetravel/spacetravel.php

For a 1000 LY journey accelerating at 1 g, it would take the crew 13 years.

 

[SBNY444]

wow, these tools are sweet. Thanks all!