INTERPLANETARY TRAVEL I
I ask myself, sometimes, what prompted men to take the leap and go beyond the clouds? For all I remember, anything beyond the sky was supposed to be heaven. Who would have thought there was an infinite utopia beyond our clouds?
Astronomy and space discovery started in ancient times, even though they did not understand it. If you were lucky to look at the sky at the right time, you could see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with the naked eye. They thought we were the center of it all, and these planets, together with the Sun, moon, and stars, revolved around us. I don’t blame them because everything above seems to be following us when we move around the Earth.
Galileo, who pioneered the telescope and was the father of modern science, discovered other exciting things we could not see with the naked eye, like the milky way, craters on the moon, and Jupiter having its moon. Interestingly, we didn’t know Earth was a planet till Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus presented the model of the Solar System in the 16th century, where the Earth and the other planets orbited the Sun. Edwin Hubble measured galaxy distances and a value for the Universe’s expansion rate and proved that the Universe goes beyond Milky Way. All these discoveries naturally spiked man’s intuitive nature, and the desire then the work to go into Space began.
In 1942, the first manufactured object to go into Space was a German V-2 rocket. No human was on it. 1961 saw the first human in Space, Yuri Gagarin; he completed one orbit of the Earth in outer Space before returning. In 1969, Apollo 11 spaceflight took off (history says it is the largest and the most powerful rocket ever built). It landed the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, with Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin. For research and tourism purposes, uncrewed and crewed flights traveled to Space before and after these historical dates.
“That’s one small step for man. One giant leap for mankind.” — Neil Armstrong
How far have we gone in Space, though?
Let’s analyze the journey out of Space to the Planets in our Solar System. It takes:
Seven months to travel to Mars
15 months to travel to Venus
Six years to travel to Jupiter
6.5 years to travel to Mercury
Seven years to travel to Saturn
8.5 years to travel to Uranus
9.5 years to travel to Pluto
Twelve years to travel to Neptune
Why does it take that long to reach these planets? Time Dilation.
Time dilation is the difference in the time taken to run out as measured by two clocks. The period between time results from the relative velocity and gravity difference between their locations. The Twin Paradox and Christopher Nolan’s movie Interstellar are two exciting scenarios that explain this phenomenon. Einstein’s theory of general relativity gives us an expansive view of time distortion in Space. Einstein’s theory of general relativity implies that gravity can distort time. It says, “The closer the clock is to the source of gravitation, the slower time passes; the farther away the clock is from gravity, the faster time will pass.”
“Time dilation goes back to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, which teaches us that motion through Space creates alterations in the flow of time. The faster you move through the three dimensions that define physical Space, the more slowly you’re driving through the fourth dimension, time — at least relative to another object. If you’re able to travel near the speed of light, the effects are more pronounced.” — MIT
Basically, time is faster on Earth, gravity aids velocity, and light is the quickest thing in the Universe. Light travels at a speed of approximately 300 000 km/s. A light-year is the distance light can travel in one year.
“Light travels from the moon to our eyes in about 1 second, which means the moon is about 1 light-second away. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach our eyes, so the sun is about 8 light-minutes away. Light from Alpha Centauri, which is the nearest star system to our own, requires roughly 4.3 years to get here, so Alpha Centauri is 4.3 light-years away.” — Vicky Stein
“To obtain an idea of the size of a light-year, take the circumference of the Earth (24,900 miles), lay it out in a straight line, multiply the length of the line by 7.5 (the corresponding distance is one light-second), then place 31.6 million similar lines end to end,” “The resulting distance is almost 6 trillion (6,000,000,000,000) miles!” — NASA’s Glenn Research Center
Albert Einstein stated the speed of light is the speed limit, and no one can travel faster than that. “as matter approaches the speed of light, the matter’s mass becomes infinite.” We do not currently move at the speed of light, not to talk of faster than the speed of light. How do we travel to other habitable planets — exoplanets — and make it back in time? If we want to build another world on these planets, how feasible is it to transport resources that will help us build from our planet to the other planets?
Remember, the farthest planet in our solar system takes 12 years and another 12 to make it back. Habitable planets, also known as Exoplanets, are outside our solar system, so it takes more years to get to them. Scientists say
Kepler-186f is 490 light-years away and slightly larger than the Earth.
Gliese 581g is 20 light-years away and three times larger than the Earth.
Gliese 667Cc is 22 light-years away and 4.5 times larger than the Earth.
Kepler-22b is 600 light-years away and twice as big as the Earth.
HD 40307g is 42 light-years away.
HD 85512b is 35 light-years away and three times bigger than Earth.
Tau Ceti e is 11 light-years away and twice as big as the Earth.
Gliese 163c is 50 light-years away and seven times bigger than Earth.
Gliese 581d is 20 light-years away.
It is safe to say our existing technology, resources, and physics stand between Interplanetary Travels’ feasibility. Supplies are needed to make the journey to these planets — trips that take years. How efficient is the fueling system, and how often is a refill required? Can the spaceship conveniently house all these supplies? Remember, mass is also a function of speed, and we don’t need anything making us slower than we already are. As beautiful as it is in Space, it is also a rough place — asteroids, radiation, and space junks are a few of the dangers in Space.
This births the question “What is our reality now as regards Space Travels?”
