Travel through space - not in our lifetime

[TheDoctor]

I'm sat here with a cup of tea and a toasted crumpet getting a headache about this whole light speed issue.

Sci-fi would have us believe that travelling at the speed of light will be the one way to travel through the cosmos. I agree. To reach other habitable systems we will need to travel at ultra light speed or face hndreds of years in stasis. The problem arises with the navigation.

What we see in the sky at night is the stars as they were hundreds of years ago. They are bound to move and if we go bombing along at multiples of the speed of light we are likely to collide with something. Imagine driving down Tottenham Court Road at 80mph with your eyes shut, and that's what you've got.

The systems need to be mapped, so that navigation programmes can be designed that can predict orbits of other planets etc. Anything that goes out to do some mapping is going to have to travel at sub light speed, so it's going to take a while.

Thoughts on this anyone?

The Doctor

 

[RainmanTime]

All I can say is "YUP!"

With regard to another of your posts in the other thread, I agree that trans-dimensional travel is the only real option. Call it "folding space" or "wormhole engineering" or "metric engineering", a rose by any other name...

Now if you will excuse me.... I've got to find my way back to Denver, in the "old style" manner, for another wonderful week of pretending to be a "space cadet". But then again...maybe I'm not pretending! :D

Kind Regards,
RainmanTime

 

[Roel van Houten]

I share your thoughts. However, I think that by the time technology will allow us to travel at light speed, people will have invented a way to avoid crashing into asteroids and the likes. Creating a device that will do just that will probably take us a very long time, but I think it will take us even longer to overcome some of the problems traveling at lightspeed imply.

 

[Imenilop]

I think worm-holing and space-warping is the way to go. Using j titor's time machine, one can jump "world lines" by placing one's self between two black holes, or more specifically at the event horizons of the black holes (or singularities). You'd understand how travelling through space can be done if you look at my post under "does anyone really want to talk about time travel" in this forum.
Or JT can be a fake. His (i use "his" lightly) theory makes sense, though.

 

[TheSadOne]

One question, this might be stupid... But who cares:
Hence the fact you're going lightspeed, wouldn't you pass directly through a star because your energy/mass would be that of light? So the only problem would be slowing down...

It wouldn't matter, we'd be 'light jelly' if we tried it anyway...

 

[Keven]

the great thing is that if you missed your target you could just wait to come around again, because of the what I like to call Pac-man effect.

 

[jayson]

oh, so thats how its done, keven.

 

[Keven]

????

pac-man effect= when you get to one end of the universe you come out the other side

 

[Stalker619]

Traveling the speed of light would strech you out as thin as a string if not smaller. You could be easily deflected from a planet or other steller body.(yes you can keep the same form with out any side effects.Like traveling on a train or airplane.) Or you could travel faster then darkness. becoming like dark matter.