Traveling anywhere in the galaxy in your life time

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    Galaxy Life Time
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the feasibility of traveling to distant stars within a human lifetime, particularly focusing on relativistic effects when traveling near the speed of light. Participants explore theoretical implications, energy requirements, and proposed methods for achieving such travel.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant describes how, from an Earth observer's perspective, a journey to a star 1000 light years away would take 1000 years, while for someone traveling at near-light speed, the journey could feel much shorter due to time dilation.
  • Another participant expresses skepticism about the practicality of achieving such speeds, noting the enormous energy requirements involved.
  • A third participant references a resource discussing relativistic travel issues, suggesting it may provide further insights.
  • A later reply reiterates the energy challenge and introduces two proposed methods for interstellar travel: an antimatter rocket and the concept of black hole starships, providing links to relevant papers.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally agree on the theoretical implications of relativistic travel but express differing views on the practicality and energy requirements of achieving such speeds. The discussion remains unresolved regarding the feasibility of the proposed methods.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the dependence on theoretical models of physics, assumptions about energy availability, and the unresolved nature of the proposed travel methods.

mihaiv
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If we pick a target star 1000 light years away, from the point of view of an observer on Earth we will need at least 1000 years to send a ship there even with the ship traveling near the speed of light.
But, from the point of view of someone on that ship that travels with near the speed of light the trip may be just a few hours long. That is because they see that star and Earth moving relative to them near the speed of light, and the distance between Earth and that star contracts from their point of view on a scale dependent on the speed.
Someone on Earth who sees them traveling for years will see that their clocks go much slower and they hardly age at all.
This opens the possibility for humans to explore the entire universe in the lifetime of the explorers. But, of course they can't report their findings to the people that sent them as those don't exist anymore.
Am I right here?
 
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mihaiv said:
Am I right here?
Sure. Lots of luck getting your ship going that fast though. (It would take an enormous amount of energy.)
 
The http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/Relativity/SR/rocket.html has a good discussion of these issues.
 
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Doc Al said:
Lots of luck getting your ship going that fast though. (It would take an enormous amount of energy.)

Two of the methods that have been proposed:

Frisbee: How to build an antimatter rocket for interstellar missions
http://www.aiaa.org/Participate/Uploads/2003-4676.pdf

Crane & Westmoreland: Are black hole starships possible?
http://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1803v1
 
Last edited by a moderator:

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