How long Will The First Mission To Proxima Centauri Last?

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🚀►Episde 2: What Will The First Manned Mission To Proxima Centauri Be Like?
• What Will The First Ma...
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Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our solar system. Still, it is so far away that with modern technology, it would take us tens of thousands of years to reach it, but if any space travel technology is capable of building a ship that can get out of the solar system and make our way to the stars. How long would it take us to reach Proxima Centauri? What would that spaceship be like, and who would be on board?
Let's find out!
It is essential to understand some details about Proxima Centauri. This star is 4.24 light-years away from our sun, meaning light takes more than four years to travel from there to Earth. It is a red dwarf star, much smaller and cooler than our sun. Its glow is so dim that it cannot be seen with the naked eye, even from the darkest place on Earth. Despite this, the proximity of Proxima Centauri makes it a desirable target for space exploration.
The answer to how long the mission will last depends on several factors, including the technology available, the speed of travel, and the time astronauts can spend in space before returning. Currently, the fastest speed at which we have sent a spacecraft is around 200,000 km/h, which is only 0.02% of the speed of light. We would need to develop technology capable of much higher speeds to reach Proxima Centauri in a reasonable amount of time.
One of the possible solutions for this is nuclear propulsion. This technology would use nuclear power to generate a large amount of momentum and speed, allowing the spacecraft to travel much faster than today. However, this technology is still in a very early stage of development, and it is not clear if it will be usable for a human-crewed mission shortly.
Another option is laser propulsion, which uses laser beams to propel a spacecraft at incredibly high speeds. This technology has proven effective in laboratory tests and could be a viable option for a future man-crewed mission to Proxima Centauri. However, further testing and development are still needed before it can be used on a real mission.
Once the propulsion technology has been decided, the travel time to Proxima Centauri will depend on the distance the spacecraft has to travel. Although Proxima Centauri is the closest star to us, it is still an enormous distance away. At the current speed of spacecraft, it would take us more than 6,000 years to get there.
GENERATION SHIPS
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00:00 Intro
2:02 laser propulsion
2:40 Generation ships
4:30 Some ideas in fiction
6:00 "Aurora" spaceship
7:40 Most viable technologies ( solar sails)
9:34 How long will the trip take?
#insanecuriosity #proximacentauri #generationship

[@fob3476]

So we want to travel 4.24 light years, while the farthest distance humans have ever traveled is less than 1.5 light second

[@OfficialDenzy]

You just said that we have the technology to travel at lightspeed. 4.2 years of lightspeed is the same speed as 1.5 seconds of lightspeed. Edit: forget what I said you said distance

[@johnaron9819]

Definitely puts it in perspective! (approximately 1/31.5 millionth the distance).

[@paulduncan3214]

Assuming there's anything there to find . See voyage to moon !

[@pedroca37]

Totally freak ambitions. If there are, in fact..

[@bigjermboktown6976]

I think the bigger question is what the hell you going to do when you get there and you're possibly stuck on that ship? Seems like the best thing to do would be to fly halfway there we have some kind of badass telescope to see the solar system and see if it's even worth continuing then maybe you could use the other half of your fuel to fly back home if it ain't worth it

[@kennyfordham6208]

Yes, or maybe the first ship would be an unmanned space probe, to see if it's suitable for habitation.

[@thomascopley9591]

Hopefully we'd know before the ship even left orbit if there was a planet worth going to

[@fernandobernardo6324]

It is extremely unlikely that the closest star to us would be the one with any interesting place to live.

[@Fat12219]

Bye 👋

[@richardbroad2848]

Youd probably get eaten by a Brontaroc.

[@chapinrey]

A robot mission in our life time would be more realistic.

[@rewar5870]

💯

[@NeidalRuekk]

Project Daedalus has potential if all you want to do is study the star system. It accelerates to 4-5% the speed of light, reducing the travel time to about 80 years, and then explores whilst radoing back information that takes 4.25 years to reach us. Sure takes a while, but is a good alternative to a 6000 year trip!

[@sentientflower7891]

You cannot send a radio signal from Proxima Centauri with any technology in existence today, tomorrow or ever.

[@charlessteiner1034]

@@sentientflower7891 or ever?

[@sentientflower7891]

@@charlessteiner1034 yes, indeed.

[@sammer28]

​@@sentientflower7891 that's simply not true

[@Mobscene_CDN]

@@sentientflower7891 Or ever, lol? You know all future technologies that will exist?

[@Mobscene_CDN]

I don't recall there being a Generation Ship in Interstellar. Cooper Station was basically just an O'Neill Cylinder around Saturn, it wasn't designed to travel to other stars. And the station designed on Earth definitely didn't look big enough to be Cooper Station or a different one similar in size to Cooper Station.

[@JimiSurvivor]

Traversing that distance, giving a whole lifetime to view different constellations and in the end another star...what use is it??

[@johnaron9819]

I see the story of "Interstellar" as a human space traveler who receives assistance from alien species much in the same way that Ellie Arroway does in Carl Sagan's "Contact". Cooper Station is a figment of the imagination, like Ellie's encounter on the alien beach with her "father".

[@JanLarson]

At any significant fraction of the speed of light, the crew onboard a traveling spaceship would experience time dilation whereby time does not pass as rapidly for them as it does for those remaining on Earth. Be that as it may, human travel to the Proxima Centauri system is something that none of us will ever see.

[@arkvsi8142]

I will see it

[@jssomewhere6740]

You are probably correct we are a couple generations or more away from humans leaving the Solar System. I'm hoping to see boots on Mars but I'm 56 so it might be touch and go. There are people being born now that will build the first large habit, and others that will live permanently off Earth. I think we will build our way to Proxima. Getting more distant from Earth all the time space truck stops. They will have huge lasers on them to give ships a speed boost or help them slow. We slowly build our way out of our own system and begin looking at new systems. It's my belief that other than Mars and Earth we will not live on any other planets. Building our own habitats gives us a better chance of living in places other than Earth and surviving. They can be moved if they mine out an asteroid and build in the hollowed out rock that gives protection from radiation and space debris. Yet none of the aforementioned will gapped any time soon it will take hundreds of years before we are set like that. I sure wish I could see all that. I think however I'm going to need to be happy seeing those boots on Mars.

[@aliensoup2420]

NERRRRD!

[@KeyBordWarrior]

lol humans are not built for that kind of speed,it will literally crush us.

[@jssomewhere6740]

@@KeyBordWarrior You don't go from zero to 20-30% TSOL in a instant. You build up to it. That way everything around you gets brought up to that speed slowly also. By doing it this way you don't get crushed. If a ship was to accelerate at 1 G it would only take a month or so and that ship would be going in excess of 50% the speed of light. Another month or 2 at a constant one G acceleration and that ship would be going 99% the speed of light. Yet those on board would have experienced only the equivalent of Earth's gravity the entire time. Not a crushing force.

[@amangogna68]

Great video and information !

[@ABBADiego]

So, you blast off on your journey knowing you won’t get to see proxima yourself but your kids might. Then decades later your kids see a strange spaceship overtake you. It is inevitable that the 1st spaceship probably will be the last to arrive as many new versions will have been invented since you left in the original ship.

[@johnlux6635]

That is paradoxical if you always are waiting to send the next spaceship because you know the first one won't be as fast.

[@charlesbaldo]

Unless, aliens capable of traveling warp speed see you blast off and give your descendants a lift.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Your kids? Your remotest conceivable descendants! As distant from you as the people who built the pyramids!

[@mikekoch4151]

We can't safely handle a manned mission to Mars yet. Our fastest space ships can't go as fast as the earth goes around the sun (19 miles/sec.). That is why it takes years to get to the planets, and we have to use the gravity of planets as a slingshot. The speed of light is 10k times faster than that. My guess is that it will be a century before we are ready to make a journey to Proxima Centauri, if not longer.

[@GamingTranceSeer]

Lol. That's how long it'll be before we start considering going to Titan or something much closer. Pretty sure this video's idea is beyond 100 years.

[@leecowell8165]

A lot longer. LOT! first thing we gotta do is figure out how to stop KILLING one another. That's gonna take at least another million years of evolution, if ever. even our females kill one another with reckless abandon much less the males! Sure. in My town (West Palm Beach) there's a murder just about every day. How about yours? Well that frequency hasta drop to zero.. like Orcas (which do not kill like kind).

[@heatherharger9709]

How do they know that Proxima Centauri's planet is not like VENUS, and how would they get a manned ship past all of the asteroid fields that are in this system?😮

[@Hyltran]

I believe that people don’t get on a generationship because of the distant arrival. But because they are offered a job opportunity that will give them, their families and their descendants a good future and a good life onboard the starship.

[@jssomewhere6740]

Realistically attaining speeds up to 20 or 30% SOL will be easier to do than shielding the ship. At least as of now humans seem to have focused on how to go ever faster. All that speed will be pointless when that tiny space rock shreds the front 3rd of the ship or worse. Developing the shielding will need as much focus as the propulsion to get human traveller's any where in reasonable spans of time.

[@84Canaan]

Space is still very “empty” though, none of the crafts we’ve sent out into space have crashed into anything thus far. The voyager crafts for example are traveling around 38,000 MPH and they have not hit anything. With that being said, scientists should send smaller probes that can travel at the speeds you mentioned to several nearby exoplanets to search which ones could host life before sending humans.

[@jssomewhere6740]

@@84Canaan Taking the chance on a ship going 20-30%SOL its just scary. We for sure don't want our first trip out of the solar system to turn bad. I'm sure as soon as I say this you will remember. JWT was hit in one of the 18 gold mirror pieces. The tiny rock did pretty significant damage to that mirror piece. They have had to adjust the other 17 to refocus the telescope. Now it was in its Lagrange position so all the energy came from the Stone itself. You are correct in that space is mostly empty. It's the stray little rock and wicked unbelievable speeds that make ugly messes. There are a few simple ideas that would offer some protection. It was suggested that huge water tanks be mounted on the front of the ship. Another thought large tanks of Hydrogen. Eventually we are going to need to chase star trek once again and figure out a deflector shield that can surround the entire ship. Until then we will discover or invent really, new alloys new heat protection. Some day that I won't get to see they will develop deflector shields. It will be cool when it happens. I'm 56 I hope to see boots on Mars. I'd love to see humans head to proxma Century. Maybe a tiny probe. I'll be good with boots on mars

[@doctajay376]

A trip to Mars is a suicide mission... Sorry to tell you my friend. But you may see some cool stuff on the moon, dron exploration of Saturn's moons, confirmation of life outside of Earth, the data from Webb telescope, etc.

[@jssomewhere6740]

@@doctajay376 so why do you see a manned mission to Mars as a suicide mission? Note: I'm curious I don't want to fight.

[@thomascopley9591]

If you've ever read Arthur C Clark's Songs of Distant Earth, you'll see that icebergs would make a great sheild in front of the ship

[@mpetersen6]

Likely the first mission to Alpha Centari will last long enough that the second passes it.

[@willemvandeursen3105]

Yes, as a child, I read an old scifi story dealing with that subject, don't remember the writer. A journey of 40 or 6000 years? That's quite a difference. There are a few interesting novels about Generation ships around, but the one I never forgot was Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky (1941), a not well written novel debut - plot holes, a hurried ending - but it's certainly a dramatic book. I found the voyage of the Vanguard tot Alpha Centauri actually quite tragic, and felt for the characters, no matter how stereotype and 1940s' misogynical they are. The Vanguard is fully automated, has internal gravity from rotating around it's axis, (a quite new idea, in pre-WW2 days) and hydroponic gardens and live stock. But early on in the trip, a mutiny breaks out because many got 'homesick' and want to return to Earth. In the civil war that develops onboard, the captain and officers and engineers were executed. Stupid, of course-- within a few generations the surviving colonists forget all technique and don't understand the few journals and manuals there are left, until they don't even remember where the command center with its computer brain is, from where they could have seen outer space.... They are 'blind', and the nature of the journey through space is forgotten and their society regresses to a feudal state of superstitions. They believe that the ship is the universe, and that beyond the hull there is literally Nothing. Eventually the protagonist, a rebel - "I know for certain that our world MOVES and is going somewhere!" unravels the true nature of their little cosmos, and discovers the bridge with its manuals and instruments, and they are finally able to see the stars outside. And an approaching sun: the ship's destiny. The story ends with the ship launching landing sloops and the humans standing on the surface of a planet. Despite its shortcomings, it was the first real Generation Ship novel, and it impressed me mightily. But having reached Alpha Centauri makes the survivors in the story already doubt that they will have a future outside the ship... And that's what I wonder about too. Even when Mankind can shorten the journey considerably, the question is: does the Alpha Centauri system have livable worlds? Planet-scaping will take generations. And what if the AC region is so 'bad' that they have to return to Earth? Where more than just a few decades have passed since?... I think star travel is still for a long time unfeasible. But regarding the shape Homo sapiens and our Earth are in now, we cannot wait too long. We better concentrate on creating habitats on moons and inside asteroids (Psyche-16?) first. (lots of water ice and minerals in asteroids and comets, "Catch us if you can!") And that's where we will house-move our forever compulsive war faring to. We will take our "hate thy neighbor" and other messes with us. Our own local star wars. The chance of a future for Homo sap seems quite slim to me. Because our species won't change.

[@mpetersen6]

@@willemvandeursen3105 By the time humans launch any interstellar missions we will have done pretty thorough optical surveys

[@willemvandeursen3105]

@@mpetersen6 Most likely, yes. But still AC is a bridge too far. Our own solar system is so enormously rich. And closer to home.

[@queensapphire7717]

@@willemvandeursen3105 yes, Jupiter and Saturn are their own “non solar systems” by the many moons each have. Other than Mars, not many hospitable planets, with Mars barely that, we need Weyland Yutani to develop those Terra Forming units.

[@willemvandeursen3105]

@@queensapphire7717 Weyland Yutani; I had to look it up...o yes: "Weyland-Yutani consistently exhibits the worst aspects of corporate profiteering, seeming willing to sacrifice decency and human life in pursuit of profit. The corporation has consistently ordered its employees and agents to attempt to obtain living Xenomorphs so that they can be exploited as a biological weapon, without regard for their obtainers' lives." Nice guys! 🥴

[@morcheba2184]

The elephant in the room just my opinion but the faster you go the further ahead you have to see ,the smallest rock could wipe out the entire mission manned or not Atb

[@Mobscene_CDN]

One of the Ender's Game books has a ship that deals with this in some way. Sort of like a Ramjet, but different. It projects a shield that converts object collisions into energy which helps propel the ship. Obviously not something we have available, but would be viable if we had some technology like that.

[@hawaiihikerguy3152]

Sari, "veer right, space rock ahead," lol

[@Fat12219]

U can't land on it😮

[@Rocky-xx2zg]

The Crew and passengers will be at each others throats long before it ever gets there.

[@Madosatoshist]

lol @ Subnautica's Aurora in thumbnail.

[@kennyfordham6208]

In a generational spaceship, what if the people, in the later generations, don't want to live cooped-up? They didn't volunteer, for this mission. They might be pissed-off that they're condemned to live in space.

[@leecowell8165]

First thing before that is we gotta evolve out killing one another. Even our females kill one another much less the male counterpart. I mean think about it. Look at just the USA. How many years since we were invented were we NOT at war with somebody? I mean just this nation kills MILLIONS every year INTENTIONALLY! well that number hasta drop to zero. you know like Orca? yeah Orca do not kill like kind... but US? We're barbarians. So before we can even think about a generational ship we gotta EVOLVE.. that's at least a million years out we'll be gone as a species long before then.

[@martinoconnor4314]

What about the astronauts themselves, what would give them the right to decide that their children would spend the rest of their lives in space? I know that I would not decide to do that to my children.

[@paganphil100]

Kenny Fordham: They wouldn't know any difference so living in space would be normal as far as they're concerned.....it would be the only way of life they've known.

[@kennyfordham6208]

@@paganphil100 Yes, they would notice the difference. Surely, the generational ship would have an extensive library, of life, back on Earth. They would see people hiking, in the woods, climbing mountains, water skiing, running through green grass, etc. It would be very depressing to know that they will live, grow old, and die, on that ship. Would you want to be forced to live that way? Especially, if you didn't volunteer for it?

[@willemvandeursen3105]

That's what fascinated me in Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky. They had a disastrous mutiny problem and the descendants of the survivors forgot all about their voyage through space in a ship. "....We're sitting in a WHAT? Über Priest! Switch on the holy de-atomizer, we have a heretic in our universe and need to get rid of him before the almighty Outerspace in Heaven punishes us!" Man and Religion, sigh...

[@travisbragg1792]

Imagine if we sent a Generational ship just for to discover faster than light speed after and when the first ship gets there there's already city's on the planet

[@willemvandeursen3105]

@Travis, Nothing changes faster than fashion and science.

[@russellgilson3536]

In the honor Harrington series her home world did this, the company who sent the first slo ship was still in business when ftl was discovered and sent a second mission to establish a proto colony for when the slo ship got there.

[@travisbragg1792]

@russellgilson3536 I would feel terrible about my decision after like all that you and your whole family possibly went thru would be for literally nothing

[@johnlux6635]

I read that book.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Imagine what you like!

[@PortmanRd]

Is it 100% guaranteed that they'll be a planet fit for human habitation when they get there?

[@Reladan187]

No, little is known about proxima b's habitability. It is to my knowledge, the only exoplanet there.

[@davidlancaster4476]

and don't forget when we get there there are no ready made buildings, so machinery to excavate the raw materials will be needed to build the buildings to manufacture the equipment needed to build the equipment and plants for manufactoring housing and industrial sites, hospitals, roads and everything needed to live a half decent life just to start with - and,, again don't forget it's taken us 2 thousand years to get this far on our own planet, imagine having to do all that on a hostile planet, and when you get there it isn't habitable so you can't go to the next one beause it is probably twice as far away again. guess what !!! we aren't going nowhere.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Not anything like one per cent "guarantee"! This idea is a fair pile of bad or unlikely ideas, one on top of the other. People have seen it in movies, they want it to be true! So judging by internet comments... people kind of lose their minds when this topic comes up. In practice, it seems that we are going nowhere, it's a long way to LUNA, much less Mars, talking about colonizing the Galaxy seems ridiculous! I do in fact ridicule it. Even though I want it to be true as much as anyone else! I think ROBOTS are the only serious candidates for colonizing the Galaxy, and we don't seriously have THOSE either!

[@Texas240]

I recall the generation ship in an episode of "The Orville" where the people didn't know they were on a ship because, at some point, traveling outside of the habitation area became prohibited. Iirc, they may have even lost the records of where they were supposed to be going in the first place.

[@luthermcgee3767]

That's from Alien Landscapes ( EROS) A hollowed out asteroid made to look like a world from inside. That's the original idea from a collection of sci fi stories that ever hit the pike.

[@wilhelmmeyer89]

At 4:34 - "... we might be able to achieve this goal in the future." - Well, noew and in the past would be impossible, would it?! The most important question in this matter is this: Why at all traveling to another star? Yes, it is an interesting indea to find out everything about the star from close by. But why not sending probes? Building some acceleration tubes to accelerate probes to really high speed. Yes, it would be a huge machine and the probe would be rather small. But it would be a tested technology and no human would be in any danger.

[@YoungGandalf2325]

How long will the first mission take? A long ass time. How long will it last? Probably not long enough. A lot could go wrong during that time that would end the mission in failure.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

What? What could possibly FAIL to go wrong, in seven thousand years?

[@Texas240]

10:38 Once no longer a useful part of the crew, there's a very real risk of being spaced!

[@briansmyth5291]

It's worth mentioning that it's very unlikely there's any habitable planets anywhere in the Alpha Centauri system. Looks like our astronauts will have to spend another few thousand generations imprisoned in their space ship. Provided it holds up that long.

[@Hyltran]

I don’t think speed really is an issue because the vast majority of the crew will spend their entire lifespan on the starship. So it doesn’t really matter for the crew if it takes 5000 our 30000 years to find a habitable planet. If they ever do and if they don’t it should not matter for them that much because they are on an self sufficient artificial little planet already.

[@jynx3978]

Ok we will go there but what if there is no life there, then what next ?

[@GamingTranceSeer]

Probably try to colonize a nearby planet such as Proxima B in the habitable zone. Assuming its locals are welcoming; teaching us how to grow maize or some other strange native plant, wait why does this sound familiar? Something tells me we'd be fine.

[@jynx3978]

@@GamingTranceSeer There is probably no life there

[@johnrumpf6014]

Can't see from the darkest place on earth? How would you even be able to fit inside my heart?

[@luthermcgee3767]

Interstellar didnt use advance propulsion technology, a small rotating ship journeyed to saturn, then was transported megeparsecs from where they were to another galaxy.

[@rbm7101]

If the ship is traveling for hundreds of years, it would probably take a ship the size of a Babylon station to be able to incorporate the rotating artificial earth and supplies needed. That might seem large but only a quarter of the vessel would contain living spaces. A large part of the ship would contain fields for crops, water production, and possibly livestock. Living areas, storage areas and so on, would be in multiple rings for safety and redundancy. An option would be to build a few scaled down ships instead of on large one for redundancy. The bigger the ship, the better chance of surviving an impact incident internal or external.

[@TheMurfdurf88]

Harnessing gravity will be the answer some day!

[@toni_airos4568]

Around 2006 I used to see alpha centuri A n B at night in the skies they appear twin like stars n appeared brighter n bigger!!!

[@barrywhite8747]

If you're going through the effort to build a generational ship then you ought to go all out. Build a ship that at the minimum holds 5000 and I probably would aim for 10,000. Design the ship to have places like that of a mall or shopping center so that while you have the important areas like control, hydroponics, maintenance, engineering, manufacturing, and food processing, you also have a setup that has a similar feel to a mall or resort with stores, restaurants, bars, areas with things for children to do as this besides being away for the people to have things to do to support their mental health. It also creates opportunities for the community aboard to have jobs and make money and thus create a ship economy that can be carried over to their destination world so they wouldn’t be starting from scratch. Another thing they could do as this type of ship would have a shuttle bay for when they get to their destination is to depending on how fast the ship is moving and if they have the ability to slow down or even stop, is to have the ability to explore away from the ship and do scientific research as the opportunity presents itself and more importantly, if they pass an asteroids fields or other places that would have water ice that they can collect and process it to supplement their water supply. I look at it as if you're building a city in space and as such would make it more easily self-sufficient and also less likely to have issues with the passengers developing mental health issues.

[@jamesbarry1673]

Only the future knows how long it will take. We unfortunately will never know

[@fernandobernardo6324]

This journey makes no sense on our time. It will take much longer than our lifetimes for such an adventure to be seriously considered.

[@chessdavis2548]

The speed of light is not enoght for space travel.. We well need to be able to bend the space to be able to achieve space travel to other starts or galaxies

[@Freedom2111]

Better to try to travel to some of the nearby stars that might have planets with life: Chara, 82 Eridani, 61 Virginis or Alpha Mensae.

[@johnfox9169]

Correct!!

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Ah... are we ready for a ten millenia mission? Or is that just more crazy talk? We're talking about a very very very very unlikely attempt to reach the CLOSEST star! It's not chosen for it's deliciousness it's chosen because it's the closest!

[@Freedom2111]

@@leonardpearlman4017 But it will be a waste of time and money, because we will only find that the planets orbiting red dwarf flare stars like Barnard's Star and Proxima Centauri are not very interesting. Better to travel for 10000 years and finding life, than 1000 years and finding tidally-locked dead planets like Mercury orbiting flare stars.

[@user-lc9wx9pe1c]

Fusion reactors will be used. 2 Fusion reactors will propell the ship to 20% lyt speed 1 more Fusion reactor will be for a debris shield. The 4th reactor will be for internal power. Mike.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Well, we'll have them any day now.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

"Decades, or even CENTURIES"! Now for MILLENIA! This is asking a lot! We are locally impressed with buildings that are a few hundred years old, and they don't have to fly! Tools and other artifacts that are a thousand years old are also pretty novel. I have precision tools that I use that are roughly a hundred years old, and they are a real curiosity. A hundred years is a LOT for governments and organizations, aside from churches.... I'm saying that this looks like a big pile of very unlikely stuff!

[@user-zm8ov6hc7s]

Should take a packed lunch! 😂😂

[@user-zm8ov6hc7s]

At the moment it’s going to take 63,000 years to get there.

[@Ophidicus]

imagine a generational ship leaving earth on it's journey then getting passed by a ship technically more advanced with 100x faster propulsion 10 years later LOL that would be embarrassing for the first ship.

[@leonardpearlman4017]

Wacka wacka! Ah, this is a very common idea you know? Beaten to death back in the 20th century... and we still aren't really any closer to doing ANY of it!

[@calvinmasters6159]

Send machines first to make sure there's a destination. We don't wanna go 4 light years to live in bunkers or lava tubes.

[@oldconspiracydude236]

An asteroid the size of a pea hitting you at 10% light speed could pass through 2 feet of solid steel. To quantify that - a tiny 1 gram object traveling at 10% light speed would have the kinetic energy of 125,000 Kwh or about the same amount energy your house will consume in 12 years. This would be enough to instantly convert the ship into a flying ball of plasma. A ship would encounter many such objects on a 50 year journey to our closest star. Unfortunateley, any plan with a vehicle traveling over 200,000 MPH is a nonstarter.

[@TheSwanlake2009]

We're gonna need some paste food like from the movie 2001 and we're gonna need some of cryogenic freezers

[@dogwithwigwamz.7320]

Well, given the current state of technology it would take about 70 thousand years to reach P.Centuri. I have a friend who has been so since the mid 1980`s. He`s not daft, but reckoned then and still reckons now that we shall one day be able to travel at light speed. He`s not entirely unfamiliar with Physics. So I have no idea what gives him the idea that we shall one day be able to travel at light speed. Everybody knows that light propagates through a vacuum at about 186,000 miles per second : 669,600,000 mph. Most people that take an interest know that the furthest observable objects to be seen are more than 10 billion light years away from us.... but let us settle for 10 billion years. Many people know that as an object approaches light speed the space in front of them ( in the direction of travel ) shortens. It happens at all speeds, but becomes noticable as light speed is approached. At light speed itself the distance between two objects both on the line of the trajectory of the object in motion becomes zero. Ignoring Mercater Projections New York City is not as far away from London for someone in a flight over London than it is for someone having a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. This means that if you are able to travel at 99.99999999999999% of the speed of light it will take you 10 thousand million years to reach the furthest objects in the model universe I chose to be 10bn light years in length. But at Light Speed itself you`d reach any point in space nomatter how large a volume space is in no time at all. Ie, instantly. This is why I disagree with all Mathematicians and Physicists ( which approaches practically every single one of them ) that think that time is continuous / seamless. I don`t think anything within n` dimensional space is seamless. But I`m a Taxi - Driver, not a Physicist still less a Mathematician.

[@neridega]

how many fast will accelerate spaceship if all energy of nuclear explosion transfer in acceleration? would it be enought to accelerate spaceship in 10% of speed of light?

[@SpaceBoiYT]

it sucks how i won't be able to see how interstellar travel works :(

[@louismiller7]

Are we there yet ???

[@raosohail3506]

It might b possible after one thousand years or so

[@SleepyRowlett]

I wonder if there are civilization on proxima centauri who look at our solar system from over there and wonder if life exists on it

[@Quinn37]

We are a long long way away from the tech and knowledge to send humans further than Mars.

[@haidarkinoo3220]

what if the Earth itself is already a Generational Ship!!!!!!!?

[@GadreelAdvocat]

Find a large slow rotating icy asteroid. Tidally lock one side to the sun. Send lots of unmanned supply craft. Then send two basic rotatational artificial gravity with am occasional rotator craft to land on the asteroid. Then send a crew to mine underneath the landed craft. Reinforce the exterior of the asteroid for space travel with resources mined inside the asteroid. Build an engine(s). If a better engine design is possible it could be built enroute.

[@caractacusbrittania7442]

You just described omuamua.

[@arcadealchemist]

time speeds up as you move away from the mass of a star

[@fernandochaves9665]

I think the main problems with generation ships are ethical ones. Imagine sending someone (even at their own will) to spend half or their entire life on a ship on a research mission. That person has to face big psychological/existential problems. Not to mention about sending embryos, future people who did not even have the possibility of choosing, making their lives far from everything known. I think a lot of people are going to oppose this, and it won't be possible, except in a situation of imminent extinction, where there is no other alternative. Generation ships for research purposes? I think not. Maybe unmaned probes are the solution.

[@Dismantled500]

I mean theres the possibility of NASAs Cryosleep chamber

[@scarvymccargo]

You can't escape the 2nd law of thermal dynamics. The craft will suffer catastrophic breakdowns. Also, human nature will reduce the mission to a dumpster fire hurtling through space.

[@mikcurius3779]

A ship full of humans travelling for hundreds of years, would become like the ship pandorum in the movie.. All will be transformed in crazy monster freaks or cannibals... If one day there will be a need of evacuating earth, the best solution is to be built a big space station or an artificial satellite with artificial gravity, like this in the movie elysium.. It's more believable than light speeds or interstellar generation starships.

[@ranaskip]

And when your grandkids get there only to find there surounded by 3 suns and a few uninhabitable planets, then what? The first astronauts made there decision to go, their kids and grandkids did not. There is a big moral quistion here.

[@bratsos]

The only way to become this travel reality is the majority of the crew must be robots. Only few humans required.

[@johngeier8692]

We need to find target planets that are closely analogous to Earth several hundred million years ago. It seems rather pointless to travel to a distant planet which is analogous to Mars rather than Earth.

[@lightspeed4448]

How would they stop the ship?

[@Matchhead79]

If the earth was 12 inches in diameter, the distance needed to travel would be twice the distance to the moon or New York to LA 122 times

[@genehauser9217]

Yeah…..good luck with that.

[@perlaurent]

to go for such a quest of lets say 100 years of duration - lets say two vessels, each with 1500 human beings, starting from a moon orbit, where the soaceships will be built … for all this we should plan a preparation time of 100 years … meaning: lets start now, lets train the crew starting from now, give them time to develop and simulate as much as possible in advance … and then the grandchildren will be the ones to enter the real mission … and three generations on first humans can explore the next star-system 🩵🩵🩵

[@aerocap]

Well, enough internet for today.. 🙄

[@buyungyahya7992]

Mission to Proxima Centauri is equals to mission to the moon. I think we should have the mission to the sun first

[@Quvl]

Me when the aurora at thumbnail

[@johnfic4751]

It’s a radioactive waste land so why?

[@hwrdgrn]

All of these scenarios are not practical given human life span and the uncertainties of subsequent generations of children. As far fetched as it might sound, the only practical solution is to develop faster than light speed travel, ideally many multiple times light speed. The current level of our knowledge says this is impossible, but many things, including travel faster than the speed of sound were impossible less than 75 years ago.

[@haircafekevin]

You can't propel something that has mass to the speed of light or faster because it would take infinite energy.

[@ProssionalCDL-cb6xe]

Make exercise bikes to charge ship

[@malcolmhaynes1424]

It's about 24 Trillion miles to this planet, I'm sure light travels 5.88 trillion miles in one light year. Amazing I

[@user-zm8ov6hc7s]

At the moment and speed it’ll take approximately 63000 years.

[@edwardturner1282]

If earth could stop wasting resources on these senseless wars and all nations contribute to exploration of space and oceans; we could do this.

[@user-zm8ov6hc7s]

Maybe those who attend the WEF should go and start their own society.

[@scottymoondogjakubin4766]

Our we could use the holtzmen effect " faster than light space folding " using guild space vessels piloted by spice drinking guild navigators ! 😀

[@onenation8707]

You forget Alien which was made way back in 1979.

[@davejohnson6738]

We haven’t established society in the moon 🌖 yet.

[@Bach_Treebane]

I'm here because I thought it was about subnautica cause of the thumbnail

[@ancestrosdelsol9494]

This will never happen. We can't even go to Mars with our current technology, and Mars is already practically impossible.

[@haircafekevin]

We do have the technology to go to Mars. It would take about 6 months to get there. The issue is the lack of political capital.

[@mikcurius3779]

We can't even go to mars and we are discussing a trip to alpha centauri? Are we serious? And what for? Are we sure we will find something there? All these vids are just for satisfying curiosity, no practical value even in 100 years

[@simonstory29]

It's called Endurance, not Cooper.

[@romankrhounek5974]

I thought you can see Proxima Centauri from the southern hemisphere

[@Elwood470]

The only thing you will see is the "light" from PC, still 4.24 YL's in the distance.

[@romankrhounek5974]

@@Elwood470 yeah thats what a thought

[@petery4521]

Who cares how long, I just want on it so freaking badly.

[@aliensoup2420]

I can travel there INSTANTLY in my spaceship of the IMAGINATION! Ha ha ha haaaa. Or, I can take a couple minutes to start up my Blu-ray copy of Avatar.

[@billygamer3941]

Solar sail will not work once outside of the heliosphere.

[@PortmanRd]

Fill it full of Creationists, and send it to Xenomorph Prime.

[@blueenergyshowtime]

When human beings can travel from Sydney Australia to London in 30 minutes, we can travel to Proxima Centauri in less than 4 years.

[@fob3476]

Traveling to Proxima Centauri in 4 years (near SOL) is like traveling from Sydney to London in 0.06 seconds

[@marlandtownsend4715]

25 hours at warp 10

[@mikcurius3779]

Warp speed is up to 9.99999, never 10.

[@Pisti846]

Without artificial gravity it is all for naught.

[@MrOystein1977]

"Are we there yet?" "No." "Are we there yet?" "No! "Are we there yet?" NO!!" 🚀

[@thedrumknight]

So I guess all space faring people will be vegan. “Food” in space is almost always depicted as plant based. Which makes sense.

[@queensapphire7717]

We cannot send humans to mars, nevermind a “close” Star.

[@ujayet]

We have billions of star systems in our own Milky Way,, we haven’t even step foot on mars yet and we want to shoot for another galaxy? Let’s take a a step at a time.. how bout we shoot for zeta reticulum star system I heard there’s an intelligent life form there.

[@jamesbarry1673]

ask that question in 250 years,

[@jiezhao88]

The first mission is highly likely to be done by robots and AI which don’t need all these complicated support systems which we the fragile human need.

[@fjgiie]

Yeah, with only robots we will not need the once every million years maintenance.

[@lochinvar50]

It isn't remotely possible even in the coming future. The pragmatic steps we should be taking is colonizing one planet/moon at a time to serve as stepping stones.

[@varman001]

We must create a moon base and mars colonization BEFORE considering populating other star systems!

[@deocyasol9406]

Assuming a mission from Earth reaches the vicitnity of PC, the "pilgrims" from Earth will no longer look like human. In other words they make look like gingers, or even land octopus or squid. Remember, lack of gravity (even with artificial is developed on the ship) softened the bones which could result to deformity and over the years the appearance of humans in that ship will looked as described above.

[@davehoward22]

The humanitarian and ethical implications of condemning someone ,who hasn't even been born ,to live their whole lives in a spaceship would be huge.Plus who's gonna sign up in the 1st place?

[@m.pietro9087]

I can imagine traveling at 1% of light speed and hit a small meteor…

[@Pisti846]

I am sure the spaceship will have one of those 5 mph bumpers on it.

[@m.pietro9087]

@@Pisti846 😂