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Space Travel Isn't Happening

🕑 Added 2022-02-24 17:01:02 +0000 UTC

Comments

Fremmedehenvendelser

Humans won't colonize diddly + squat. Good job on the episode, Paul!

Breonna Rice

If humans were more virtuous, I think we could own the stars. Alas, we are poooop.

Sean McNulty

I've got a bachelor's in Astronomy and I agree with Paul here. Most all models I've seen which would make interstellar travel remotely feasible rely on something like the negative mass in the Alcubierre drive which has never been experimentally verified. Yeah sure, it would be feasible given exotic matter like that, but you're starting from a totally imaginary premise. Imo it's a lot like saying "If we had the death star, Ukraine could win in a day!" It's pretty much just an interesting thought experiment. I do agree that scientific progress has been astouding, but it's also really hard to predict. In the 60s people thought we'd be living on the Moon and Mars now, but nobody saw the internet. Flying cars have been a staple of sci-fi for decades, even centuries, now and it's still just as infeasible of a technology.

Gavin

*past people to figure it out.

Gavin

In 1994, the theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre proved that it's theoretically possible within the confines of the theory of general relativity to compress spacetime in front of a craft and expand it behind the craft to circumvent the speed of light barrier. In theory, in the reference frame of the craft, the craft wouldn't experience an acceleration and hence wouldn't need an extraordinary structural integrity to survive faster than light speed. However, I believe the model requires the use of negative energy which according to my knowledge has not been produced by humans yet. I'm just getting a minor in physics and so have only a rudimentary understanding of the theory, but given our scientifc progress in only the last century I would not put it past