Speed of light, baby!

"Someday, maybe someday, we will find out to use worm holes, portals, or warp drive. Until that time comes however, even the thought of traveling even 10% of the speed of light, remains just that - a thought. Maybe the Fermi Paradox is more than just a fancy term - maybe it is true." 

When I worked at IBM, we had an inside joke about any system that we were working on that was slow. At least one person would say with a wink and a nod, "That is what I like about working at IBM - everything should operate at the speed of light!" That is a true statement. By definition, the speed of a circuit should be as fast as the speed of light - that is, by definition. In reality, it never happens. That being said, NASA is still occupied with the idea of space travel that is at least a fraction of the speed of light. 

NASA would love, love, love to have some kind of propulsion that would obtain 10% of the speed of light. Even 5% would be grand. But 10%? Ready for this one? That would be 67 million miles per hour! Considering our fastest rocket in our inventory can obtain a speed of 430,000 mph, that is like standing still compared to a rocket which can travel at 67 million mph!

If we only had rocket travel that was 10% of the speed of light, we could make it to Mars in a jiffy, and getting to the Moon would be a blip. And then we could get outside our Solar System and visit our closest star - the Alpha Centauri system. Really? Could we? The Alpha Centauri system is about four light years away. Just a walk in the park compared to most distances in the universe. But hold on - even if we could travel at 10% of the speed of light, traveling four light years would take us forty years just to get to Alpha Centauri. Forty years there, forty years back. Now we are almost talking about using a generational ship to get there.

I guess that leaves the idea of visiting the Andromeda Galaxy out of the question. Why? As close as it is to us, it is still over 2,000,000 light years away. Even if we were able to travel at the speed of light, getting to Andromeda would be a non-starter. What does that really mean? Right now, with a top speed of a rocket being 430,000, getting to Mars will take months. Getting to our Moon will take a day. Anything else outside our Solar System, is out of the question. If we really want to see what traveling to the stars is like, turn on an episode of Star Trek.

Someday, maybe someday, we will find out to use worm holes, portals, or warp drive. Until that time comes however, even the thought of traveling even 10% of the speed of light, remains just that - a thought. Maybe the Fermi Paradox is more than just a fancy term - maybe it is true. Maybe the UFOs people have been seeing are more interdimensional than interstellar. Maybe - but if interdimensional travel is real, that would be the subject of another article. Until then, I am good with just being in our neighborhood.