For my last checkpoint I had to answer my driving question, which was "Is it possible for humans to go interstellar?" After research and talking to some different people I came up with my verdict;
It is currently impossible for humans to travel outside of our solar system.
I learned many things as I did research and talked to knowledgeable people, and all of these resources had the same answer. The technology that we currently have just isn't good enough to get anyone to another potentially habitable exo-planet. There are theories as to how we could go interstellar, and maybe it will happen within our lifetimes, because who knows? maybe the advancement of technology will happen quick enough that we are able to build a spacecraft that meet the required needs. The most important technological requirements to eventually colonizing another habitable solar system include;
Those are just the main ones. An interstellar trip would take many years to plan out perfectly so that there are as little complications a possible, and it would take many more years to build all the necessary segments. It's not like we are going to wake up one day with a big grin on our faces and say "Okay guys, we can fly into the stars now! We have the necessary technology!"
Obtaining the necessary requirements to send humans, and even probes, etc., interstellar, will take many decades, and maybe even centuries. Even when the technology is there, it will be a long, drawn out project. We will have to;
And this is if everything were to go right. There would most likely be setbacks, such as an exo-planet that we sent rovers to not ending up being as livable as we thought, and need to start all over on another potentially habitable planet. It sounds like I'm being pessimistic, but this is the reality of it. Unless some major event were to take place that is beyond our knowledge, experience, or being, going interstellar is a long way off. The only thing I could think of that would advance our placement among the stars would be an alien invasion of some sort, in which we manage to fight off our extinction and use advanced alien technology to get into other solar systems.
I did mention some current or less far off possibilities of going interstellar, but these are all just straight up bad ideas or unrealistic. I mean, like I said earlier, if you wanted to go interstellar according to the definition, you could just rocket some dudes out of our solar system but that would just be wasted lives and wasted money. There are other ides like sending huge ships full of people in track to space, but again, thats still far off as we would need to research the planet so we aren't just sending thousands of people to their deaths, and we would need to build the ship and create life support systems. No matter how you think of it, going interstellar is a long way off. That is just the truth of it.
It is currently impossible for humans to travel outside of our solar system.
I learned many things as I did research and talked to knowledgeable people, and all of these resources had the same answer. The technology that we currently have just isn't good enough to get anyone to another potentially habitable exo-planet. There are theories as to how we could go interstellar, and maybe it will happen within our lifetimes, because who knows? maybe the advancement of technology will happen quick enough that we are able to build a spacecraft that meet the required needs. The most important technological requirements to eventually colonizing another habitable solar system include;
- High Speed Travel; A fraction of the speed of light, if not the speed of light.
- Artificial Gravity; Or things to counter the long-term and short-term effects of space travel on the human body.
- Probes, satellites, rovers, etc.; To ensure we are able to safely send at least a few humans into another solar system and land them safely on a potentially habitable exo-planet.
- Massive colony ships; With enough fuel to get large quantities of humans to another solar system.
- Some sort of Force Field; To protect spacecraft from effects of travelling at high speeds.
Those are just the main ones. An interstellar trip would take many years to plan out perfectly so that there are as little complications a possible, and it would take many more years to build all the necessary segments. It's not like we are going to wake up one day with a big grin on our faces and say "Okay guys, we can fly into the stars now! We have the necessary technology!"
Obtaining the necessary requirements to send humans, and even probes, etc., interstellar, will take many decades, and maybe even centuries. Even when the technology is there, it will be a long, drawn out project. We will have to;
- First of all, find our destination. We can't just fly into space at random and hope all goes well. I mean, going interstellar does only mean to be among the stars, but just sending a few men at a high speed into space isn't the best idea.
- Send all sorts of observatory machines (satellites, probes, land rovers) to the destination to ensure our destination is fit for human life. It will take many years (even with high speed travels) to send these things and get results back.
- Fly some men to this potential home of ours, to "try it out" so to speak. This takes precise and accurate planning. After all, flying such long distances would have more possibilities for failure.
- Spend years upon years working on colony ships to take us to this exo-planet. These ships need to be able to hold massive amounts of people, and there either needs to be holding places (stasis), or artificial gravity on the ship and enough food to last the trip.
And this is if everything were to go right. There would most likely be setbacks, such as an exo-planet that we sent rovers to not ending up being as livable as we thought, and need to start all over on another potentially habitable planet. It sounds like I'm being pessimistic, but this is the reality of it. Unless some major event were to take place that is beyond our knowledge, experience, or being, going interstellar is a long way off. The only thing I could think of that would advance our placement among the stars would be an alien invasion of some sort, in which we manage to fight off our extinction and use advanced alien technology to get into other solar systems.
I did mention some current or less far off possibilities of going interstellar, but these are all just straight up bad ideas or unrealistic. I mean, like I said earlier, if you wanted to go interstellar according to the definition, you could just rocket some dudes out of our solar system but that would just be wasted lives and wasted money. There are other ides like sending huge ships full of people in track to space, but again, thats still far off as we would need to research the planet so we aren't just sending thousands of people to their deaths, and we would need to build the ship and create life support systems. No matter how you think of it, going interstellar is a long way off. That is just the truth of it.