4 ms·
The limit to space travel is the Rocket Equation, which says that you require exponential fuel to reach higher speeds. Alpha Centauri isn't going anywhere, but
by jfengel 1y ago
The limit to space travel is the Rocket Equation, which says that you require exponential fuel to reach higher speeds. Alpha Centauri isn't going anywhere, but it will take millennia of travel even with wildly optimistic assumptions.
Also note that there isn't any "container" to fill up. It could well be infinite. It's just that we will be forever limited to a finite subset, even in theory.
- floxy 1y agoRoundtrip Interstellar Travel Using Laser-Pushed Lightsails https://ia800108.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/24/items/wikipedia-scholarly-sources-corpus/10.2514.zip&file=10.2514%252F3.8632.pdf https://ia800108.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/24... "The third mission uses a three-stage sail for a roundtrip manned exploration of Eridani at 10.8 light years distance."
- mr_toad 1y agoThere are theoretical designs using antimatter (pion rockets, or beam core engines) that could reach 0.4c - 0.7c, which puts Alpha Centauri at decades away, not millennia. https://arxiv.org/pdf/1205.2281 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1205.2281 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20200001904/downloads/20200001904.pdf https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20200001904/downloads/20...