5 ms·

Using the moon for the farthest distance humans have traveled… Voyager has traveled 60,000 times further (14 billion miles). 1 cm x 60,000 = 600 meters Which

Using the moon for the farthest distance humans have traveled… Voyager has traveled 60,000 times further (14 billion miles). 1 cm x 60,000 = 600 meters Which is less than 0.5% of the distance to Alpha Centauri (“200 km” in the analogy, 25 trillion miles in real units) Edit: a neighboring comment pointed out that on this scale of distance to moon ~= 1 cm, the Alpha Centauri system is more like 1000 km away. So voyager is less than 0.1% of the way.

londons_explore 3y ago
And voyager is going so fast because it used a clever gravitational slingshot technique, for which such a good opportunity hasn't yet arisen again. Without that natural assistance, humans don't have the ability to leave the solar system - we just can't build a rocket powerful enough.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  Of course we can, we just choose not to. We've had designs for nuclear rockets for many decades now.
- GolfPopper 3y ago
  Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager I and II, and New Horizons are all on solar escape trajectories. If you just want to get out of the solar system, existing tech plus a Jupiter gravity assist gets you there easily.
- roberttod 3y ago
  Thanks for mentioning this. I did a bit of reading about the special alignment - very interesting stuff! It seems like the alignment you refer to inspired the launch of Voyager 1 and 2 because they could visit so many planets at one time, and indeed it did slingshot them at quite some speed. However newer launches have reached similar speeds, and will escape the solar system due to improvements in launch technology.
- vikingerik 3y ago
  Those gravitational slingshots are easy. It all comes from Jupiter, that's all you need. Saturn has 30% of the mass and two-thirds the orbital velocity, so that's a marginal gain on top of Jupiter, and the ice giants are smaller and slower yet. The Jupiter launch window opportunity comes every 13 months so we can do that whenever we want. And we can launch rockets directly out of the solar system if we want; New Horizons had a backup plan of launching direct to Pluto if it had been delayed and missed the Jupiter-Pluto alignment. That all said, the planetary slingshots aren't nearly enough to cross interstellar distances in a timespan measurable in human generations. We want something like 5% of the speed of light for that, where Voyager is going 0.005%.
- raxxorraxor 3y ago
  We probably could assemble some giant space hulk and put so much fuel into it that the rocket equation starts blushing. It would be insanely expensive and not at all too constructive, but we should be able to beat the speed record at least.
- adrianN 3y ago
  We could if we really wanted to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...

londons_explore 3y ago

And voyager is going so fast because it used a clever gravitational slingshot technique, for which such a good opportunity hasn't yet arisen again. Without that natural assistance, humans don't have the ability to leave the solar system - we just can't build a rocket powerful enough.

shiroiuma 3y ago
Of course we can, we just choose not to. We've had designs for nuclear rockets for many decades now.
GolfPopper 3y ago
Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager I and II, and New Horizons are all on solar escape trajectories. If you just want to get out of the solar system, existing tech plus a Jupiter gravity assist gets you there easily.
roberttod 3y ago
Thanks for mentioning this. I did a bit of reading about the special alignment - very interesting stuff! It seems like the alignment you refer to inspired the launch of Voyager 1 and 2 because they could visit so many planets at one time, and indeed it did slingshot them at quite some speed. However newer launches have reached similar speeds, and will escape the solar system due to improvements in launch technology.
vikingerik 3y ago
Those gravitational slingshots are easy. It all comes from Jupiter, that's all you need. Saturn has 30% of the mass and two-thirds the orbital velocity, so that's a marginal gain on top of Jupiter, and the ice giants are smaller and slower yet. The Jupiter launch window opportunity comes every 13 months so we can do that whenever we want. And we can launch rockets directly out of the solar system if we want; New Horizons had a backup plan of launching direct to Pluto if it had been delayed and missed the Jupiter-Pluto alignment. That all said, the planetary slingshots aren't nearly enough to cross interstellar distances in a timespan measurable in human generations. We want something like 5% of the speed of light for that, where Voyager is going 0.005%.
raxxorraxor 3y ago
We probably could assemble some giant space hulk and put so much fuel into it that the rocket equation starts blushing. It would be insanely expensive and not at all too constructive, but we should be able to beat the speed record at least.
adrianN 3y ago
We could if we really wanted to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...