3 ms·
There needs to be a new unit that describes "a speed equal to the fastest humans have been able to travel in space" instead of "light years". Let's call it an "
by russellbeattie 10y ago
There needs to be a new unit that describes "a speed equal to the fastest humans have been able to travel in space" instead of "light years". Let's call it an "Apollo", since that record is held by the Apollo missions to the moon at 11,080 m/s. Speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s. So humans can travel at ~0.0000367 x light speed, or 349,418,880,000 m/year.
So instead of saying 40 light years, we'd say 27,076 Apollo years.
- random3 10y agoCan that speed be adjusted to a theoretical value based on latest propulsion systems? What would that be now and how would it likely evolve over then next decades?
- nhf 10y agoYou could use it like economists use the consumer price index - all relative to year. So you could have the Apollo, or human space year, or something and reference HSY_{1969}, or HSY_{ion thruster}, etc.
- russellbeattie 10y agoVarious probes have gone faster - with the cruising speeds depending whether they headed towards the sun or away. After New Horizons got a gravity boost from Jupiter, it sailed out to pluto at 23k/s and arrived going 15k/s. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/the-fastest-spacecraft-ever/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/life-unbounded/the-fast... I'll have to look and see what they have planned for the Mars missions. I'm sure we've jumped ahead a bit in practical engineering terms, but just haven't had a mission to show it yet.