Travelling to the stars
Created | Updated Apr 19, 2002
Ok, let's face it. We have a bit of a problem hitchhiking around the galaxy. The nearest star alone is 3.5 light-years away (which is 21 trillion miles to me and you), and even stars 200 light years away are still considered our next door neighbours. Nobody has a figs idea how to travel close to the speed of light, and even if we were able to go that fast, all sorts of horrible things would happen to our weight, our size and our perception of time. Also, correct me if I am wrong but accelerating to light speed would take a year if you didn't want to be squashed to a pulp while getting to cruising speed. Then you have the problems of food and oxygen storage (millions of tons required), energy (you would need loads of it when applying the brakes at your destination, and you might want to keep yourself alive as well during your travels). If the journey is going to take longer than 60 years, you will need to start planning for the next generation to continue on the journey. And heaven forbid if you crashed into anything bigger than a carbon atom at close to the speed of light!
So lets stop all this nonsense about light travel and concentrate on the only real way we are going to get to the stars. You take the slow train.
You see, us humans are completely locked into thinking about time in terms of 70 years or so. Also, with electronic communication we need everything to happen immediately. The best solution for our generation (and our species) is always the fastest one.
However the universe has been around a lot longer than 70 years.
And, it will be around for many many years to come....
So what are we worrying about? Let's start concentrating on taking the slow train to the stars! We freeze ourselves up nice and tight, take a 5000 year journey to one of the neighbouring stars and planets, wake up, spend a year or two getting to know the place, freeze ourselves up again. Go on a 10,000 year journey somewhere else, until we finally die many light years away from good ol' planet earth. So in effect we would still live 70 human years but it all takes place over many millenia.
I think what holds us back from this thought is that we want to be able to call home when things go wrong. We want a good cry and a cuddle if life doesn't turn out the way we expect. We also want to be able to link in with a network of friends, and to be able to communicate with them instantly. Clearly this is not an option if we take the slow train. Communications over light years distances is a bit frustrating if you have to wait a couple of years to get a response!
Anyway its just a thought but I think it makes some sort of sense, and when you think about it, it puts our perception of time and of the way we communicate with each other in a new context.
What happens for instance, if one group of travellers (group A) set off in 2100 on a trip to Alpha Centauri, arriving there in the year 7100, and another group of travellers (group B) set off in 2200 after 100 years of technological advances on Earth, and develop the capability to reach Alpha Centauri in 5100? The great-grandchildren of group A would have arrived 2,000 years before group A themselves arrived! What would that be like!
I could go on for ages, but that's my thesis on space travel. One can dream....
So lets stop all this nonsense about light travel and concentrate on the only real way we are going to get to the stars. You take the slow train.
You see, us humans are completely locked into thinking about time in terms of 70 years or so. Also, with electronic communication we need everything to happen immediately. The best solution for our generation (and our species) is always the fastest one.
However the universe has been around a lot longer than 70 years.
And, it will be around for many many years to come....
So what are we worrying about? Let's start concentrating on taking the slow train to the stars! We freeze ourselves up nice and tight, take a 5000 year journey to one of the neighbouring stars and planets, wake up, spend a year or two getting to know the place, freeze ourselves up again. Go on a 10,000 year journey somewhere else, until we finally die many light years away from good ol' planet earth. So in effect we would still live 70 human years but it all takes place over many millenia.
I think what holds us back from this thought is that we want to be able to call home when things go wrong. We want a good cry and a cuddle if life doesn't turn out the way we expect. We also want to be able to link in with a network of friends, and to be able to communicate with them instantly. Clearly this is not an option if we take the slow train. Communications over light years distances is a bit frustrating if you have to wait a couple of years to get a response!
Anyway its just a thought but I think it makes some sort of sense, and when you think about it, it puts our perception of time and of the way we communicate with each other in a new context.
What happens for instance, if one group of travellers (group A) set off in 2100 on a trip to Alpha Centauri, arriving there in the year 7100, and another group of travellers (group B) set off in 2200 after 100 years of technological advances on Earth, and develop the capability to reach Alpha Centauri in 5100? The great-grandchildren of group A would have arrived 2,000 years before group A themselves arrived! What would that be like!
I could go on for ages, but that's my thesis on space travel. One can dream....
