From special kinds of engines to new technologies that'll literally warp us across the galaxy,
join me as I show you some real potential interstellar travel possibilities.
7.
How To Define Interstellar Travel You might think that the term "interstellar
travel" means a lot of different things depending on your views of space and the various TV
shows and movies that you've watched.
Wikipedia defines it as such: "Interstellar travel is the term used for crewed or uncrewed
travel between stars or planetary systems."
Notice how they say "planetary systems" and not traveling between the planets in our own
solar system.
Traveling from Earth to Mars, or even Earth to Pluto (still a planet!) is considered interplanetary
travel.
Whereas Interstellar Travel is the process of going beyond our own solar system, and
doing it in a relatively easy amount of time.
Which naturally brings us back to things like TV shows and movies where various sci-fi franchises
have had their own style of Interstellar Travel.
Whether it was the Lightspeed Drives in Star Wars, or the Warp Engines in Star Trek, they
had ways to traverse massive star systems in minutes, or hours at the most depending
on distance.
This is something that humanity is still aiming to create, and right now...we're a long ways
away.
But, we're getting there, bit by bit.
And do recall, at one point in time humanity was restricted in how it could fly.
Planes were once just massive hot air balloons, and the idea of going to space on such a craft
was ludicrous to say the least.
So while we're not there yet, there are tons of industries and space entities trying to
make these potential possibilities come true.
6.
The Breakthrough Starshot Believe it or not, one of the most likely
candidates in regards to Interstellar Travel was announced as being developed in 2016.
It's called the Breakthrough Starshot, and it's meant to use the Earth's own atmosphere
to help power flight to the nearest star systems to Earth.
How is that possible?
Simple, we're going to power up some sails.
To be clear, this is NOT a manned mission to the stars, it's quite literally a one-way
trip, but it's an epic one considering how they're going to do it.
According to the creator of the project, Yuri Milner, he plans to put into the orbit of
the Earth massive "light sails", which you've no doubt heard referenced in various sci-fi
shows of certain kinds.
Anyway, these sails are going to have special chips attached to them, and then once they're
launched into orbit, they're going to be blasted by a laser that'll power them up.
The laser (which will be fired from Earth which goes to show how powerful it'll need
to be in order to reach space) will charge them up for two minutes, which is all they'll
need in order to travel about 1/5 of the speed of light.
To put that into a round number for you, that's about 60 million meters per second.
So yeah, that's pretty fast.
So what's the goal of these light sails?
Well, much like the Voyager 1, it's meant to record data from the stars and planets
that it passes.
The team are so confident in these sails that they're planning to reach the Alpha Centauri
system (which for the record is 4.3 light years away) and will use a special camcorder
on the sails to get images in high resolutions and send them back to Earth (not unlike Voyager
1 and other probes and satellites) for us to study.
Now, if you're wondering why these light sails haven't been launched yet...it's because they're
not done.
There's still many advances that need to be made before that becomes possible.
HOWEVER, at present, the only limitations are the technologies that we have right now.
Meaning that we don't need "sci-fi tech" to make it work, we just have to make what we
got better.
And should this work in this phase, the technology could be adapted to make it work with manned
ships.
It's just a matter of time and technology.
5.
The Energy Cost When talking about Interstellar Travel, it's
important to note the things that are holding us back as well as the things that could push
us forward in the field.
Without a doubt, the biggest thing that is preventing us from making a reliable Interstellar
Travel engine is energy.
If you think about it, a spaceship isn't much different from a car.
It has systems that make it run, and an engine that needs fuel in order to run.
The hardest things for the early Mercury and Apollo missions was making sure that the engines
that they built had enough power and speed to break through the atmosphere, which needs
a certain velocity.
So now, imagine trying to make a spaceship that is meant to go to other star systems,
and potentially come back...all on one tank of gas.
Not the easiest thing to do.
Which is why ideas like the Light Sails are meant to be powered by other things other
than raw fuel.
Which may seem like an easy thing to swap, but it isn't, because it's not just getting
the energy, it's using it in such a way that'll allow you to go faster.
While we may not "need" to go the speed of light to achieve Interstellar Travel, the
faster we go, the more distances we'll be able to reach in the universe.
But without the right amount of energy, that's not going to happen.
And as the current Mars colony missions are proving with their preparations, it's hard
enough to reach a planet that is technically "right next to us", let alone a planet or
star in another solar system, or even another galaxy!
That's not to say that there aren't people trying to fix this problem, there are.
But it's one of the biggest hurdles to make it happen, so people have to get creative.
Before we show you how creative though, be sure to like the video and subscribe to the
channel so that you can see all our weekly videos!
4.
The Bomb Option That's right, we're going to launch bombs...in
space!
Sounds cool, huh?
Believe it or not, there were many projects that had this option being a real thing that
could propel spaceships to where they needed to go.
It was part of the Orion Project if you want to look it up.
It may sound weird, but you need to think of this less of the logical use of bombs like
these in space, and instead thing of what a bomb does when it detonates.
In this case, a thermonuclear bomb.
When it detonates, a massive amount of energy is released, and a shockwave of incredible
power and speed is released.
It goes so fast you can't see it with the naked eye (check out Mythbusters high-speed
camera shots of explosions if you do want to see it though!).
So what we're basically be doing is riding that shockwave.
And every time we need to keep our momentum going, we'd just drop another bomb behind
us and let it explode, creating another shockwave of momentum that we would ride.
Scientists speculate that we could use this kind of force to propel a spaceship to about
1/10th the speed of light.
Which could get us to Alpha Centauri within a century if we do it right.
The other way to flip this around is that instead of just dropping bombs behind us,
we convert the thermonuclear reaction into rockets.
And just harness the raw explosive power of the bombs to propel us forward.
Which could achieve the same speeds, if not greater.
The only problem is that when it comes to those kinds of explosions, they're really,
REALLY hard to contain.
And even if we do the drop off and blow them up option, we'd need to make sure that our
spaceship could handle the forces exerted while not throwing us off course, which could
be a death sentence as this would be a one-way trip via this option.
That being said, this is an option that can be used IN OUR LIFETIME if we do it right.
Not that I'd want to be one of the people testing out that option, but it is an option
that we have.
And it's not the only real science option that we have.
3.
Antimatter Drives This is another one of those ideas that have
been touched upon in Sci-Fi series like Star Trek, but in this case, it ain't science fiction,
it does work, we just haven't found a way to harness it correctly.
Antimatter Drives are reactors that bring together matter and antimatter, and when it
does, the destruction they cause releases a massive amount of energy.
In fact, it converts the destruction into 100% release of rest energy (versus 1% for
the nuclear option).
And because of this, we wouldn't need much to go far.
Even needing only 10 grams of antimatter just to get to Mars!
And the trip would only take a month instead of years with what we have now.
Which means that space travel could happen very quickly within our solar system.
So what's stopping us from destroying matter to get us to the stars and beyond?
Well, the same thing that is preventing us from using the bomb option: containment.
If you thought containing a nuclear explosion was hard, just wait until you try and contain
an antimatter explosion.
Have we done it before?
Yes, actually we have.
You recall the CERN Hadron Particle Accelerator?
That's one way we've done an antimatter explosion.
The problem is that this device does not do it efficiently, it takes a lot of time to
make it happen, the collider is 21 kilometers in length diameter wise, and most importantly...we've
only done it with the smallest levels of antimatter.
So trying to get that faster, more efficient, make it fit into a starship AND not cost more
than our planet is worth...is difficult to say the least.
However, not unlike the bomb option, it could happen, we just need some key advances in
technology.
And it's not just speeding up that needs some advances...it's also slowing down.
2.
Slowing Us WAY Down I want you to think about a racecar.
You can do NASCAR or Formula 1, I don't mind either way.
If you think about the speeds that these supercars can go, it's astonishing, but there's a catch
to this that has cost many people their lives.
If you go fast, but you have no way of slowing down, you're going to crash, hit a wall, bump
into another car, etc.
When it comes to space travel, we honestly haven't really figured out how to slow down
quickly.
The missions to the moon never stopped at the moon, they continued to orbit until the
pickup was ready.
The first moon mission only had Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin be on the moon itself for
2 and a half hours before resting and getting up to their craft.
While they were on the surface, astronaut Michael Collins orbited the moon 30 times
as he waited for them to come back up!
Only after they were on board did they use their engines to break out of the orbit.
So now, imagine traveling at 1/10th or 1/5th the speed of light to reach a certain place...and
then having figure out how to stop.
It's not that easy.
Scientists speculate that we could achieve this similarly to how the Apollo astronauts
did it with the moon, by finding a way to orbit a nearby star or planet, but that has
its own risks and difficulties.
In short, while there are many options to figure out how to make us go fast, if we can't
figure out how to slow down without injuring the ship, the crew, and more, there's no reason
to even take off.
Because on Earth or in space, no one wants to crash.
1.
Black Hole Drive Oh yeah, we're doing this.
The idea of a Black Hole, or even a wormhole, being the way for us to traverse the stars
is hardly a knew concept.
Wormholes were used in both Star Trek Deep Space Nice to go from one sector of the galaxy
to another, as well as in the Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar.
And there is a device out there that could potentially harness the power of a Black Hole
to make us able to travel beyond our solar system.
It's called the Schwarzschild Kugelblitz.
And no, I'm not saying that name again, I almost bit my tongue saying it the first time.
As you might expect, this Black Hole Engine is powered by an artificial Black Hole.
As finding one for us to contain naturally would be problematic to say the least.
What's more, we don't do this via the "usual creation" of a Black Hole.
Because in space, they're created from dying stars that have gravity that condense it so
much that even light can't escape.
With this engine, we use light via a laser to warp spacetime to fold in on itself and
create a singularity.
But, we're not actually running off the power of the Black Hole, but instead, via the Hawking
Radiation that it emits.
We would make a Black Hole that is literally the perfect size that would emit this kind
of radiation for years to come.
And all we would have to do is make sure capture enough of it to propel us forward.
Doing that would make this the fastest option of any of the ones we've outlined for manned
ships.
One problem.
To make a Black Hole this perfect for us to use wouldn't just take precision, it would
take a laser that is more powerful than the black hole itself.
Which would likely mean that it would take a laser more powerful than the Death Star,
many Death Stars more than likely.
While it's not impossible, it's not probable with what have right now.
But again, all it takes is the right advancement in technology and we could be flying around
with a Black Hole fueling us.
The Romulans would be proud.
Thanks for watching everyone!
What did you think of these insane Interstellar Travel options?
Which ones would you like us to make?
Do you think we'll be able to reach new star systems in our lifetime?
Let me know in the comments below, be sure to subscribe, and I'll see you next time on
the channel!