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The following article is inspired by Hevangel's July 20th article "One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind" [1]. It also serves as a "Captain's Log Supplementary" to my previous two articles on the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's lunar landing in 1969 [2]. So, hold on to your seat. ENGAGE !!!
I too have been fascinated by space travel, so much so that I bought the "technical manual" of the Starship Enterprise and read it from cover to cover (hey, what do you expect from an engineer, eh?) !! Unfortunately, at the time of writing, our generation has not encountered any pointy-ear visitor from the future to help us invent warp technology, there are no wormholes in the neighbourhood, and nobody knows how to "fold" our universe like a blanket (for heaven's sake, our male engineers are still learning how to fold their own shirts). So let's forget abt intergalactic travel, and focus on interstellar and interplanetary trips.
According to Wikipedia [3]: "... Five spacecraft are currently leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories. The one farthest from the Sun is Voyager 1, which is more than 100 AU distant and is moving at 3.6 AU per year (1 AU = approx 150,000,000 km, the mean distance btwn earth and sun [4]). In comparison Proxima Centauri, the closest star other than the Sun, is 267,000 AU distant. It will take Voyager 1 over 74,000 years to reach this distance ..." That is roughly equivalent to going back to the time when our ancestors decided to move out of Africa some 70 millennia ago (the first "Out of Africa" movie before Redford and Streep) [5]. So don't expect to crack open your champagne to celebrate any time soon.
As to interplanetary travel, I agree with Hevangel that conventional chemical rocket is too slow. It will take an astronaut six to nine months to make the once-in-a-life-time, one-way trip to Mars with no hope of coming back to Earth again [6]. There will not be enough fuel for a return trip. The good news is that scientists are developing nuclear rocket (with a higher energy-generation to fuel-mass ratio) that can potentially cut the trip to two weeks and perhaps save some spare fuel for flying home [7]. There are also other spacecraft propulsion technologies being researched that might bear fruit to interplanetary and interstellar travels [8].
As to intergalactic travel, your best bet is still at a cinema near you.
I too have been fascinated by space travel, so much so that I bought the "technical manual" of the Starship Enterprise and read it from cover to cover (hey, what do you expect from an engineer, eh?) !! Unfortunately, at the time of writing, our generation has not encountered any pointy-ear visitor from the future to help us invent warp technology, there are no wormholes in the neighbourhood, and nobody knows how to "fold" our universe like a blanket (for heaven's sake, our male engineers are still learning how to fold their own shirts). So let's forget abt intergalactic travel, and focus on interstellar and interplanetary trips.
According to Wikipedia [3]: "... Five spacecraft are currently leaving the Solar System on escape trajectories. The one farthest from the Sun is Voyager 1, which is more than 100 AU distant and is moving at 3.6 AU per year (1 AU = approx 150,000,000 km, the mean distance btwn earth and sun [4]). In comparison Proxima Centauri, the closest star other than the Sun, is 267,000 AU distant. It will take Voyager 1 over 74,000 years to reach this distance ..." That is roughly equivalent to going back to the time when our ancestors decided to move out of Africa some 70 millennia ago (the first "Out of Africa" movie before Redford and Streep) [5]. So don't expect to crack open your champagne to celebrate any time soon.
As to interplanetary travel, I agree with Hevangel that conventional chemical rocket is too slow. It will take an astronaut six to nine months to make the once-in-a-life-time, one-way trip to Mars with no hope of coming back to Earth again [6]. There will not be enough fuel for a return trip. The good news is that scientists are developing nuclear rocket (with a higher energy-generation to fuel-mass ratio) that can potentially cut the trip to two weeks and perhaps save some spare fuel for flying home [7]. There are also other spacecraft propulsion technologies being researched that might bear fruit to interplanetary and interstellar travels [8].
As to intergalactic travel, your best bet is still at a cinema near you.
References:
[1] One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind http://www.horace.org/blog/2009/07/20/one-small-step-for-a-man-one-giant-leap-for-mankind/
[2] 太空人登陸月球40週年紀念 ∕40th Anniversary of Astronauts Landing on the Moon (Apollo 11 launching July 16; lunar landing July 20, 1969) http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2009/07/40-40th-anniversary-of-astronauts.html; 人類登陸月球40週年紀念感想 ∕ My Thoughts on the 40th Anniversary of Man's lunar landing July 20, 1969 http://lotusandcedar.blogspot.com/2009/07/40-my-thoughts-on-40th-anniversary-of.html
[3] Space Travel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_travel
[4] Astronomical unit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit
[5] Recent African origin of modern humans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recent_African_origin_of_modern_humans
[6] Hohmann Transfer Orbit "... A Hohmann transfer orbit will take a spacecraft ... from the Earth to Mars in abt 259 days ..." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hohmann_transfer_orbit
[7] Nuclear pulse propulsion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_pulse_propulsion
[8] Spacecraft Propulsion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_propulsion
Related Links
* NASA spectacular photos and texts http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/
* Mars - Travelling There http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars
* Colonization of Mars http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Mars
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
4 comments:
I remember one of the remade Star Trek Movies was about "voyager" returning to earth after HE was educated by a world of machines.
HE became a more advanced machine or a grown up voyager and came back to earth to look for HIS parents.
The name voyager was partially damaged and HE called HIMSELF V-ger. HE saw the humans were slaving the machines so HE thought HE should liberate the machines from the humans hands.
I forgot the ending but guessed it was Captain James T Kirk again saving the earth and human race.
The above was purely from the memory of a STAR TREK fans.
Space
There is a free article on IEEE Spectrum talks about alternative to chemical rockets. The best bet is called plasma propulsion. We can go to Mars in a few weeks instead of half a year.
Space:
Oh, I remember seeing that show long time ago. Here is a summary from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V'ger
(from another Trekkie on the other side of Planet Earth)
Hevangel:
I also find an article on the subject of plasma propulsion in Wikipedia (not that it is always the most reliable source of info) ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_propulsion
Thx !!!
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