If you think about the probes we sent to Jupiter and Saturn, we really are getting better at this sort of thing. The real problem is payload. If you think about all the samples brought back from Mars, we’re limited in that respect. It’s not like we are gonna bring back trainloads full of ore.
Get there, get samples, get back…and that’s a pretty neat and sophisticated trick. But like manned landing on the moon, we quickly max what we are able to do.
It’s mainly a storage issue. If you could create a drive (like the Epstein drive from the expanse) that can sustain 1G acceleration for prolonged periods. You could burn for roughly 88 days, getting up to about 1/20 the speed of light, coast for little of 80 years, flip and burn for another 88 days and you could reach the nearest exoplanet. If you can get up to a quarter of C then the trip would take less than 14 years. Obviously it’s not possible but if we could build something like the Nauvoo from the expanse, then the trip becomes more feasible.
A NASA scientist said “…the biggest issue to humanity ever leaving the solar system comes down to three problems, propulsion, propulsion, and propulsion.”
I did get to speak with some of them during my visit as press to Kennedy Center people interested in the topic HERE.
I hope to get press credentials again some time in the near future and return. I say, develop a fusion reaction motor, get the fuel (Helium-3) and launch from the moon which ends the fears of nukes, and other issues. They are already looking at legit mining operations on the moon for Helium-3. We are now in the beginning of a race to get back to the moon and start mining it. China, US, India, all in motion to do it, perhaps we will see mining operations in our life time.
Can i point out that the Earth is littered with meteorite?
When Bennu slams into Earth next century we’ll have a much larger sample without having to go get it.
Propulsion may be doable some day but time will be hard to overcome. It would take what 50,000 years to leave our solar system?
I don’t follow. Currently spacecraft Voyager 1 is well outside the solar system ( 14 billion + miles) launched in 1977 and officially left the solar system in 2001. We can and will be moving a lot faster in future missions and traveling within the solar system is viable. Outside the solar system is another matter per comments in #22, and if tech such as I mentioned above, which is not science fiction (warp drives, etc) but legit tech we can likely develop, who knows.
NASA figured out how to redefine what our solar sytem covers. There is no possible way a spacecraft from Earth has left our solar sytem.
Yeah, no… I think you are referring to the size of the Oort Cloud, nasa admits they have no idea just how big it is and just because it’s theorized to be influenced by the suns gravity.
We currently have not one but two man made probes that have left our solar system and are in interstellar space.
Source?
Hmmm, let’s see, do I believe the scientists I spoke to while at NASA or someone on this here gun forum and all the research I have done over the decades? That’s a tough one…
This is awesome, but I can’t help but be a little concerned when we start bringing stuff back from space, defrosting arctic bugs, etc.
You’re about a decade off. Voyager left our Solar system in 2012.
Hotbig42, sounds like you’re referencing the Milky Way galaxy.
Some people consider the Oort cloud to be the outer boundry of our solar system so it depends what criteria you are using.
At its current speed of about a million miles a day, NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft won’t enter the Oort Cloud for about 300 years. And it won’t exit the outer edge for maybe 30,000 years.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/in-depth/
Sometimes, it is written that Voyager and Pioneers 10 and 11 have exited the solar system. Though all of these spacecraft have gone beyond all the planets of the solar system, they have not exited the solar system, based on the scientific definition. To leave the solar system, they need to pass beyond the Oort Cloud.
Voyager 1 was the first-ever object to reach interstellar space on August 25, 2012 when it passed beyond the sun’s realm of plasma influence (the heliosphere) and it is the most distant human-made object. Voyager 2 has not yet reached interstellar space or exited the heliosphere (bubble of solar plasma). Pioneer 10 and 11 are no longer transmitting science data back to Earth.
I had no idea OUR moon was a source for Helium-3. I thought we were looking at going out to Jupiter, Saturn and it’s moons one day for Helium-3.
99942 Apophis was the one that had me paying attention back in 2004.
More like dependent on which def one uses. Personally I think of the inner solar system most are aware of, or the heliosphere if i recall correctly.
I was just explaining the technical definition that was raised. I personally think it’s amazing that V1 and V2 are both still sending back data 45 years later.
So, serious question as I’m dumb, yet fascinated with this stuff.
Is “warp/light speed” possible and if yes, how would you do it without hitting “objects” in space?
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They used that for Moon (2009). Pretty good as I recall.