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Voyager 1 is traveling at about 57,000 kph. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Voyager_1 http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MC

by dm2 13y ago

Voyager 1 is traveling at about 57,000 kph. http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Voyager_1 http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/profile.cfm?MCode=Voyag... The 250k being fast enough remark was just a joke. Yeah, space is inconceivably massive, that's why my main recommendation was that we focus on staying in our solar system for now. Autonomous robots can mine and build huge structures in space for us to expand to, or I guess we could build them on Mars, either way. Many NASA scientists don't think that a warp drive is impossible http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-possible-interstellar-spaceflight.html http://www.space.com/17628-warp-drive-possible-interstellar-... http://www.space.com/9882-warp-drives-wormholes.html http://www.space.com/9882-warp-drives-wormholes.html We can make antimatter, we can see trillions of miles away, we can talk to people on the other side of the planet instantly, we have computers that can simulate nuclear weapons, we have nuclear weapons, we can connect and talk to the human brain, and we can even theorize with pretty good certainty what happened to start the universe, a warp-drive or worm-hole isn't completely impossible in the near future. Humans are not too far off from becoming gods. We can create life, we can put life on other planets, we can even improve ourselves by fusing with machines, shits crazy these days. [0]

ufmace 13y ago
That site is awfully vague about exactly when it was travelling at that speed. Every link I can find says that the speed of Voyager 1 right now, having left the solar system, is 17kph. It was travelling faster earlier, but getting away from the sun eats up velocity. That is an interesting link about Alcubierre drive work, but as far as I know, we still don't have any idea how to get the exotic matter required for it.
- dm2 13y ago
  17 km per SECOND, not hour, if any site says hour then it's wrong. Here is Voyager 1 and 2s official website, you can see the distance being updated live, you'll notice that it increases very fast. http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ Make sure you are looking at distance from the sun, not Earth, the earth travels faster than Voyager 1 so sometimes it will actually be getting closer to earth. We do know how to create antimatter, just not how to create amounts large enough to be used (the LHC generates it I think). I'm not optimistic about traveling faster than light anytime soon, but it isn't 100% out of the question. And if an alien civilization captures one of our spacecraft: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec_more.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec_more.html
  - ufmace 13y ago
    Ah, looks like I misread things. 17kps makes a lot more sense - 17kph is like bicycle speed. We can create anti-matter all right, but AFAIK, that isn't the exotic matter required by an Alcubierre drive. Anti-matter could in theory be used to create the most efficient rocket drive possible, but apparently even that isn't all that great. According to this http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84509main_warp06.gif http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84509main_w... sobering chart, even a theoretical anti-matter rocket would require 1 million kg of propellant to send a small capsule past the Centauri cluster in 900 years, without counting stopping. Going back to chemical rockets, there is apparently not enough mass in the entire universe for that rather underwhelming plan! I don't know that FTL is out of the question, but apparently it is impossible to have it without time travel. I'm not looking for any of that to happen tomorrow, and I don't think anybody alive now has a clue when anything like that might be ruled in or out for sure, but with the right theoretical breakthrough, a lot of interesting stuff could potentially happen very fast.

by dm2 13y ago

ufmace 13y ago

That site is awfully vague about exactly when it was travelling at that speed. Every link I can find says that the speed of Voyager 1 right now, having left the solar system, is 17kph. It was travelling faster earlier, but getting away from the sun eats up velocity. That is an interesting link about Alcubierre drive work, but as far as I know, we still don't have any idea how to get the exotic matter required for it.

dm2 13y ago
17 km per SECOND, not hour, if any site says hour then it's wrong. Here is Voyager 1 and 2s official website, you can see the distance being updated live, you'll notice that it increases very fast. http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/ Make sure you are looking at distance from the sun, not Earth, the earth travels faster than Voyager 1 so sometimes it will actually be getting closer to earth. We do know how to create antimatter, just not how to create amounts large enough to be used (the LHC generates it I think). I'm not optimistic about traveling faster than light anytime soon, but it isn't 100% out of the question. And if an alien civilization captures one of our spacecraft: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec_more.html http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/goldenrec_more.html
- ufmace 13y ago
  Ah, looks like I misread things. 17kps makes a lot more sense - 17kph is like bicycle speed. We can create anti-matter all right, but AFAIK, that isn't the exotic matter required by an Alcubierre drive. Anti-matter could in theory be used to create the most efficient rocket drive possible, but apparently even that isn't all that great. According to this http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84509main_warp06.gif http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/images/content/84509main_w... sobering chart, even a theoretical anti-matter rocket would require 1 million kg of propellant to send a small capsule past the Centauri cluster in 900 years, without counting stopping. Going back to chemical rockets, there is apparently not enough mass in the entire universe for that rather underwhelming plan! I don't know that FTL is out of the question, but apparently it is impossible to have it without time travel. I'm not looking for any of that to happen tomorrow, and I don't think anybody alive now has a clue when anything like that might be ruled in or out for sure, but with the right theoretical breakthrough, a lot of interesting stuff could potentially happen very fast.