Why haven't we sent a spaceship filled with people to possible habitable planets??

[TripleThreat]

I don't understand why this isn't or hasn't been discussed or talked about among our multiple civilizations across the globe??

My answer is because there is no profit from it, but what is your guys' theories??

I would assume there are plenty of people who would be willing to go on this journey and die in space to allow their children's children to be possible "aliens" on a new planet???

I know personally, if the spaceship was something like the movie "passengers" with a lot of vacation vibe built in with drinking, along with restaurants like a cruise ship, I may very well be interested in signing myself up if future conditions permit...

So why do you guys think this hasn't become a thing??? Wouldn't we as a planet be interested in seeing what they find, or what they find along the journey if we can develop a transmission that can sustain the journey??

[BWillie]

I've said it once and I'll say it again. If we ever do encounter aliens first hand they will not be biological but AI. There is no other way to succeed at it through interstellar travel. I'm not sold on the idea that humans could survive through a wormhole.

The only way would have a space vessel so large it could encompass your civilization. And then you won't have the power to operate it and in now way could you achieve a speed needed for travel.

[Pennywise]

Originally Posted by BWillie

I've said it once and I'll say it again. If we ever do encounter aliens first hand they will not be biological but AI. There is no other way to succeed at it through interstellar travel. I'm not sold on the idea that humans could survive through a wormhole.

The only way would have a space vessel so large it could encompass your civilization. And then you won't have the power to operate it and in now way could you achieve a speed needed for travel.

Yeah me either. You go first.

[philfree]

If mankind doesn't implode I could see it figuring it out someday. Right now I'd just like to see huge space stations where 100s of people could live. Maybe put in a Casino with a Jetsons theme. Let people do some space walks. Sit in the bar/oxygen bar having a cocktail and staring at our beautiful planet.

[srvy]

Originally Posted by TripleThreat

I don't understand why this isn't or hasn't been discussed or talked about among our multiple civilizations across the globe??

My answer is because there is no profit from it, but what is your guys' theories??

I would assume there are plenty of people who would be willing to go on this journey and die in space to allow their children's children to be possible "aliens" on a new planet???

I know personally, if the spaceship was something like the movie "passengers" with a lot of vacation vibe built in with drinking, along with restaurants like a cruise ship, I may very well be interested in signing myself up if future conditions permit...

So why do you guys think this hasn't become a thing??? Wouldn't we as a planet be interested in seeing what they find, or what they find along the journey if we can develop a transmission that can sustain the journey??

Spaceship Orion awaits you to board!

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Mephistopheles Janx

The fastest humans have ever travelled is 24,791 MPH.

The nearest planet we believe to be habitable is Proxima Centauri which is 4.24 Light Years away.

At 24,791 MPH it would take 114,500 years to reach it.

That is why we aren't launching Generational Ships.

I wondered how long it would take someone to provide the math.

And the math provides the answer.

Now the belief is that ion drives may be able to handle this sort of thing at a much faster speed with the infinite patience it would take for them to accelerate. They are very low thrust vehicles but without drag, it doesn't matter. They just continue to maintain that low thrust (improving efficiency) and in so doing they veeeeeeery slowly build up speed that should theoretically never sluff off. And it should just continue to build and build.

While nearer to earth, you could use a solar sail with it to pick up speed/save energy earlier in the journey but it would lose effectiveness pretty quickly. Probably not even out past the asteroid belt.

The other issue is simple reliability. We have no idea what might break. When, where, why or how to repair it. And you can't exactly call for a delivery if it's something unexpected. And the more eventualities you try to prepare for, the more storage you'll need (to say nothing of the supplies you already need to have on hand).

We're just nowhere near ready from a technology standpoint. Even if we could get that speed, you're not talking 3-4 generations. You're talking a dozen or more. And even then, the odds are still overwhelming that you're just sending people out there to die in the vacuum of space.

[big nasty kcnut]

Three thing first propulsion system need one to get to the other planet two shielding from astroids and other space anomaly three where to store supplies when landing.

[ROYC75]

Why invite more aliens?

Don't we have enough illegal aliens now?

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by big nasty kcnut

Three thing first propulsion system need one to get to the other planet two shielding from astroids and other space anomaly three where to store supplies when landing.

And how are you guaranteeing political stability on your little mini colony traveling through space?

I'm not looking to get booted from the thread, but nobody seems to worry much about this either.

I don't see humans leaving the solar system. At most, maybe some type of AI descendant gets launched, but even that seems a long shot.

[Deberg_1990]

I’ve seen Interstellar. Hell no!’

[Dunerdr]

Because no one wants to miss Mahomes Super Bowl window.

[Megatron96]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I wondered how long it would take someone to provide the math.

And the math provides the answer.

Now the belief is that ion drives may be able to handle this sort of thing at a much faster speed with the infinite patience it would take for them to accelerate. They are very low thrust vehicles but without drag, it doesn't matter. They just continue to maintain that low thrust (improving efficiency) and in so doing they veeeeeeery slowly build up speed that should theoretically never sluff off. And it should just continue to build and build.

While nearer to earth, you could use a solar sail with it to pick up speed/save energy earlier in the journey but it would lose effectiveness pretty quickly. Probably not even out past the asteroid belt.

The other issue is simple reliability. We have no idea what might break. When, where, why or how to repair it. And you can't exactly call for a delivery if it's something unexpected. And the more eventualities you try to prepare for, the more storage you'll need (to say nothing of the supplies you already need to have on hand).

We're just nowhere near ready from a technology standpoint. Even if we could get that speed, you're not talking 3-4 generations. You're talking a dozen or more. And even then, the odds are still overwhelming that you're just sending people out there to die in the vacuum of space.

Theoretically, a lightsail craft could make the trip in a little over 20 years . Assuming the tech is available, a lightsail ship could reach 20% of lightspeed, or right about 60,000 km/sec. Of course, it would have to accelerate up to that speed, and then we'd need huge laser cannons (likely stationed in the asteroid belt if not farther out along the edges of our solar system) to provide the necessary thrust to achieve such speeds during the interstellar phase of the flight.

The problem would be slowing down. there wouldn't be laser cannons in the target solar system for braking after turnover and there's no tacking in space, so you'd be relying entirely on the radiant energy of the target star, which wouldn't be enough in time, so our ship would fly by the target planet at what would still be a significant fraction of lightspeed.

Also, the ship itself would be very small. The entire craft would probably have to mass less than 100 tons, and most of that would be dedicated to life support/water/food, so living quarters might be smaller than the inside of a chevy suburban.


of course, we could visit the alien solar system for longer if we didn't send people. Just fill the mothership with drones, and once they arrive outside the target system, deploy them and with their lighter mass lightsail 'parachutes' could slow these drones enough to hopefully establish a parking orbit around the target planet, and conduct 'normal' recon/observations from orbit or even send down small robots to the surface.

Downside would be that we're almost certainly going to lose the multi-billion dollar mothership to deep space, there being just no way to get it to slow down enough to get it back.

[Kiimo]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

so our ship would fly by the target planet at what would still be a significant fraction of lightspeed.

[Rainbarrel]

I don't see the appeal at any angle. Unless it was this or lethal injection

[crayzkirk]

Considering the fastest thing man has created, the Voyager probes, have not left the influence of the sun in 50 years, we don't have the capability. There's problems with time dilation and considering the generations it would take to get there, the issue of sentencing people to a life on a ship where they did not have a choice to be there.

The faster you go, the power required to go faster climbs exponentially. Once you reach the speed of light, your mass becomes infinite, volume becomes zero and power becomes infinite. Reaching 10% of the speed of light requires technology that only exists in science fiction.

We're going nowhere anytime soon. Perhaps never.

[Raiderhater]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

I wondered how long it would take someone to provide the math.

And the math provides the answer.

Now the belief is that ion drives may be able to handle this sort of thing at a much faster speed with the infinite patience it would take for them to accelerate. They are very low thrust vehicles but without drag, it doesn't matter. They just continue to maintain that low thrust (improving efficiency) and in so doing they veeeeeeery slowly build up speed that should theoretically never sluff off. And it should just continue to build and build.

While nearer to earth, you could use a solar sail with it to pick up speed/save energy earlier in the journey but it would lose effectiveness pretty quickly. Probably not even out past the asteroid belt.

The other issue is simple reliability. We have no idea what might break. When, where, why or how to repair it. And you can't exactly call for a delivery if it's something unexpected. And the more eventualities you try to prepare for, the more storage you'll need (to say nothing of the supplies you already need to have on hand).

We're just nowhere near ready from a technology standpoint. Even if we could get that speed, you're not talking 3-4 generations. You're talking a dozen or more. And even then, the odds are still overwhelming that you're just sending people out there to die in the vacuum of space.

Can you imagine the level of inbred creatures that final generation would end up being?