5 ms·

Migration to millions of star systems in 10,000 years? Speed of light says NO.

by foxylad 13y ago

quink 13y ago
You don't seem to get what the speed of light is. The speed of light isn't the problem. Acceleration, time dilation and deceleration are. But barring the g-forces and enough of an engine we could travel to Alpha Centauri in less than 4 years, which may surprise you. Although that would be less than 4 spaceship years, not less than 4 Earth years.
- tlb 13y ago
  At 1G acceleration, you can accelerate to a large fraction of the speed of light in about a year. A suitable rocket engine does not yet exist, but g-forces and human lifespans don't prevent travel to nearby stars.
- babesh 13y ago
  If you could transmit sentience via light you won't have any issues at all.
gojomo 13y ago
Math says YES, assuming out-migration at some fraction of the speed of light (c). This NASA page estimates a star density of 0.120 stars per cubic parsec (CP), where a parsec is 3.26 light years. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980123d.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980123d.... Thus that page's estimate of the number of stars within a 100 light year radius of Earth is: = 0.120 stars/CP * 4/3 * π * ((100 LY)/(3.26 parsecs/LY))^3 = around 14,600 stars Recalculating for 1,000 light year diameter: = 0.120 stars/CP * 4/3 * π * ((1000 LY)/(3.26 parsecs/LY))^3 = around 14.5 million stars So given 10,000 years, and out-migration by Hansonian 'ems' (mental-simulations) at just 0.2c, and even starting more than a thousand years from now, many tens of millions of stars would be reachable. Of course, there are many other challenges with that prediction, but the speed of light is not an absolute barrier, as you suggest.
ncallaway 13y ago
Whose 10,000 years are we talking about? From an earth perspective we can't get there in 10,000 years. From a colony ship's perspective it could be within a human lifetime.
wikiburner 13y ago
NASA says (possibly) YES: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warpstat_prt.htm http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warpstat_p... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/science/faster-than-the-speed-of-light.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/science/faster-than-the-sp... http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/nasa-actually-working-on-faster-than-light-warp-drive/ http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/nasa-actually-working-on... http://news.msn.com/science-technology/nasa-warp-drive-not-science-fiction http://news.msn.com/science-technology/nasa-warp-drive-not-s... http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-wa...

Migration to millions of star systems in 10,000 years? Speed of light says NO.

by foxylad 13y ago

Migration to millions of star systems in 10,000 years? Speed of light says NO.

quink 13y ago

You don't seem to get what the speed of light is. The speed of light isn't the problem. Acceleration, time dilation and deceleration are. But barring the g-forces and enough of an engine we could travel to Alpha Centauri in less than 4 years, which may surprise you. Although that would be less than 4 spaceship years, not less than 4 Earth years.

tlb 13y ago
At 1G acceleration, you can accelerate to a large fraction of the speed of light in about a year. A suitable rocket engine does not yet exist, but g-forces and human lifespans don't prevent travel to nearby stars.
babesh 13y ago
If you could transmit sentience via light you won't have any issues at all.

gojomo 13y ago

Math says YES, assuming out-migration at some fraction of the speed of light (c). This NASA page estimates a star density of 0.120 stars per cubic parsec (CP), where a parsec is 3.26 light years. http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980123d.html http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/980123d.... Thus that page's estimate of the number of stars within a 100 light year radius of Earth is: = 0.120 stars/CP * 4/3 * π * ((100 LY)/(3.26 parsecs/LY))^3 = around 14,600 stars Recalculating for 1,000 light year diameter: = 0.120 stars/CP * 4/3 * π * ((1000 LY)/(3.26 parsecs/LY))^3 = around 14.5 million stars So given 10,000 years, and out-migration by Hansonian 'ems' (mental-simulations) at just 0.2c, and even starting more than a thousand years from now, many tens of millions of stars would be reachable. Of course, there are many other challenges with that prediction, but the speed of light is not an absolute barrier, as you suggest.

ncallaway 13y ago

Whose 10,000 years are we talking about? From an earth perspective we can't get there in 10,000 years. From a colony ship's perspective it could be within a human lifetime.

wikiburner 13y ago

NASA says (possibly) YES: http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warpstat_prt.htm http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/technology/warp/warpstat_p... http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/science/faster-than-the-speed-of-light.html http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/science/faster-than-the-sp... http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/nasa-actually-working-on-faster-than-light-warp-drive/ http://techland.time.com/2012/09/19/nasa-actually-working-on... http://news.msn.com/science-technology/nasa-warp-drive-not-science-fiction http://news.msn.com/science-technology/nasa-warp-drive-not-s... http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-warp-drive http://io9.com/5963263/how-nasa-will-build-its-very-first-wa...