Probably a kind of geeky post but, the next time you look into the night sky, consider the following: Voyager 1. Is travelling out bound from Earth at appx. 38,600MPH. It is 12.8 billion miles from Earth. Although it is not heading for any particular star, it will take 40,000 years to come within 1.6 light years of the constellation Camelopardalis. Voyager 2. Is travelling out bound from earth at appx. 35,900MPH. It is 10 billion miles from Earth. In 296,000 years it will pass within 25 million miles of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. More amazing is that these space probes were launched in 1977 which is long before the age of super computers. One of the JPL engineers figured the mathematical solution to allow the vehicles to "sling shot" past a visited planet and be put on a trajectory for the next planet. More info is available on the Internet if you are interested. It makes for some fascinating reading. Voyagers 1 and 2 Facts The Voyagers are a pair of unmanned US space probes, launched to explore the outer planets. Voyager 1 was launched on 5 September 1977. It flew past Jupiter in March 1979 and Saturn in November 1980, and then headed onwards on a curved path that will take it out of the Solar System altogether. Voyager 2 travels more slowly. Although launched two weeks earlier than Voyager 1, it did not reach Jupiter until July 1979 and Saturn until August 1981. The Voyagers used the ‘slingshot’ of Jupiter’s gravity to hurl them on towards Saturn. While Voyager 1 headed out of the Solar System, Voyager 2 flew past Uranus in January 1986 and Neptune on 24 August 1989. It took the first close-up photographs of the two planets. The Voyagers revealed volcanoes on Io, one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons. Voyager 2 found ten unknown moons around Uranus. Voyager 2 found six unknown moons and three rings around Neptune. Voyager 2 discovered sulphur volcanoes on Jupiter, in 1979. Voyager 2 reached Neptune in 1989, revealing a wealth of new information about this distant planet. Space travel Voyager 2 will beam back data until 2020 as it travels beyond the edges of the Solar System.
Fascinating. I remember as a youngster going backpacking in the high country and you felt as though you could touch the stars.
I used to have a piece of land in Brewster County, in West Texas. Brewster county is 6,000 some-odd square miles of Chihuahuan Desert; my place was 54 miles south of Alpine, and 22 miles north of Terlingua (of Chili Cook-off fame), and about a half-mile off SH118 (turn west at the VFW Hall). No lights except the Milky Way. Middle of the night, when the coyotes started singing, you could see every star ever made.
My fascination is the vast distances. Twelve years to arrive in the vicinity of Neptune? Neptune is galactically speaking, two or three houses away, let alone out of the neighborhood. If we as a race are to ever visit these places, we're going to need to get on the science train and figure out how to propel craft faster. Mind boggling.
"Voyager, Exploration, Space, and the Third Great Age of Discovery" by Stephen J. Pyne. A great book about the Voyager program and how it ties into past explorations from Magellan to Lewis & Clark and beyond. If you can find it, it's a great read.
I was going to include this in my OP but am not sure if it is allowed: Psalm 103:12 King James Version (KJV) 12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Just shows the vastness of the universe when compared to man.
Long distance travel will never be accomplished in white SUVS cutting off Klingon Bikers at warp 9 because Kirk was either texting on his communicator or hitting on a crewmember and complaining about the high price of Dylithium crystals . We need to look at the second part of the 'Time-Space Continuum' for a solution. We need to figure out how to move or compress space. Matter as we perceive it is a minute percentile of this universe ( possibly only one in a pluraverse.) If we study this 'emptyness' and learn it's unknown properties it could be done. We have all experienced this; starting with lots of space in the bathroom and compressing it with 100s of soaps and other items. Klaatu Barada Nikto and do not fret. I have a list of you all for berths on the mother ship when we leave.
I remember when they were launched. The earlier space missions going back to the first manned space flights sparked an insatiable interest in astronomy that I still have inside me. And yet for all we have learned about the planets and beyond it is a mere drop in the bucket. I was always fascinated by the "record" that was placed in Voyager that my be found by some alien life form.
It is my fondest hope that, within my lifetime, human beings will set foot on another planet. This inspires awe for me.
The problem is we can't get enough energy in one place at one time. We are reaching the end of chemical rocketry advances. It may not be possible for a long while, given that we currently don't have craft capable of placing humans back on the moon.
Chris, The most modern rockets still use a propellant and an oxidizer which provides the thrust. Propellants are liquefied gases, most frequently liquid hydrogen as the fuel and liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. This dates all the way back to the V2 rocket. Also, it takes a tremendous amount of propellant to lift-off the rocket and then propel the pay load in to space. The Apollo/Lunar Lander used the Saturn V rocket. The Saturn V weighed 6.2 million pounds at lift-off and about 90% of the weight was propellant. It is an enormously bad fuel/to weight ration. Your statement, "We are reaching the end of chemical rocketry advances. It may not be possible for a long while, given that we currently don't have craft capable of placing humans back on the moon.", clearly defines the predicament our space program is in. The largest rocket in the U.S. inventory is the Delta IV Heavy. It can place about 63,000 pounds in to a low earth orbit and about 31,000 pounds in to a geostationary orbit. Not nearly enough to get us back to the Moon. We gotta figure a way to replace the chemicals.
I look into the sky near Denver often, and even have a favorite star, Rigel. Rigel is the left foot of Orion. On average it is the seventh brightest star in the sky, and is probably about ~860 light-years away, making it about 200 times brighter than our sun. That kinda blows me away a little bit when I ponder a light that bright. My eyes have been drawn to it since I was a child. Being a winter constellation, I've spent countless hours in the Colorado cold enjoying the glory of Orion and nearby Sirius and pondering the distances between all the objects in the night sky, and also the speeds and orbital mechanics that become so apparent if one makes observations on a nightly basis. Someday.... Build your advanced craft at a port placed at L5 or L7, and upon completion, maybe cast off toward the sun or Jupiter for a massive boost plus whatever ion/microwave/plasma fusion/RF/voodoo drive we have at the time?
Not entirely true. We just need to figure out how to compress hydrogen enough to get it to form metal. Metallic hydrogen will offer a huge increase in power for the space program. It will also allow for resistanceless (not sure that's a word?) energy and information transfer, which would revolutionize both the power grid and computing. A team has claimed to have made metallic hydrogen a few days ago. Read it on the BBC.
