Ask Lemmy

Forever is a long time.

Possible? It's possible today!

I think it's just an engineering and more likely a desire problem right now. It is expensive to get things into orbit and we just haven't studied what other problems will arise.

If you mean faster than light speed, there is some intriguing things in physics but with our current understanding no we cannot move massive objects faster than light.

There are still a lot of gaps in our understanding though so perhaps we will learn that it isn't impossible.

If we weren't busy squabbling like neanderthals about who has a bigger stick and joined together we could have already come to some form of interplanetary travel and possibly colonization of other planets in the solar system but we're too busy fighting over this tiny speck of space dust to focus on anything else.

No, but yes- of course assuming humanity continues in a meaningful way. I mean technically we are already travelers- we're already traveling through space at high speed.. https://cosmic-odometer.vercel.app/

In terms of lightspeed travel, I think no, and definitely not sci-fi warp tech, BUT generational ships where people live and continue to reproduce over gigantic time scales could. If a ship had enough space, ecosystem of its own, etc- we could continue at "sub light" travel pretty much indefinitely without any ludicrous scientific advances beyond radiation shielding, etc.

Again though, that's a long, LONG way off and would require we stop trying so hard to off ourselves and the lovely little blue marble we currently traverse life on.

With a generational ship and a shield and a way of blocking cosmic rays I think it will eventually be possible, but take a very long time. I don't believe light speed will ever be possible, but going near light speed starts slowing down time a whole bunch for those on board the ships. So if for instance we came up with some trickery to get up to 99% the speed of light and wanted to go to a planet one galaxy over that's 25,000 light years away, in theory the ship and the people in it would get there in about 1200 years. Even though it would be like 25,000 years for anyone who wasn't on the ship. At 99.999% it would only take what would seem like about 115 years on the ship.

I'm not going to say that's flat out impossible that it could happen but we'd have to find one hell of a way to cheat the system.

Alternatively, I think it will come about (if humans don't kill ourselves off) that a person can "live forever" in one form or another. If we get to that point then pesky things like travel time and atmospheres and such will be much less an issue. I then wonder how long a person would want to be around before they decided they'd rather "self terminate".

I sure hope not

I mean Im not even sure we will have planetary much less intergalactic. I mean like one offs sending people to some other planet. Im not sure that counts anymore than voyager would for interstellar. I mean I do think about it. Intergalactic, planetary, planetary, intergalactic.

Not at all. But can we volunteer some people to go up and try it?

Well I wouldn't say it's completely impossible. A lot of technology exists that would have been seen as impossible in the past. But I think intergalactic travel is extremely unlikely. I can't imagine that we will ever create ways for the human body to withstand long distance travel as portrayed in shows like Star Trek

No. Never.

I think it is more a question of will we make it that far. If so then it should be possible but I don't expect it would be the norm and likely single way. Communication back home would be almost pointless due to the distance.

Perhaps it will be like the Rimworld lore. FTL is never achieved, civilisations are unable to remain stable once communication takes more than a few years or decades between planets as culture drifts over time. This doesn't prevent intergalactic travel but it does make it a one way colonisation mission.

yhea, but that depends on timescales and if we don't kill ourselves.

We have some huge hurdles to solve before we get there. Earth is on the fast track to developing permanent Kessler syndrome. As for just reaching Mars, whoever arrives, the astronauts might be too weak physically to even stand up. There was alot of talk about asteroid mining, but it turns out these asteroids are literally the junkyards of space. Not to imply all asteroids are useless star system leftovers. Its far too soon to be discussing interstellar travel.

Ain't nobody got time fo dat.

We can't even make radio waves that travel that far. Our best radio telescopes focused on something near that we suspect might have life don't have enough power for us to think they can be received by an arbitrarily advanced civilization on the other end (assuming there is that happens to be listening when the signals arrive). And that is stars in our own subarm of the milky way.

Space is just bigger than you can imagine.

I wouldn't even put money on interstellar travel.

Other stars are at least a thousand times as far as distant planets, but other galaxies are only about 4 or so galaxy-widths away on average. So if distant interstellar travel is possible, then intergalactic travel is just a hard trip away. The problem is that statement continges on a very large "if".

Yes

Has anybody here heard about the Alcubierre drive?

Technically yes, but also no.

At least not casually; flying between star systems at will, faster than light between star systems, etc...

I'm sure at some point, if scientists confirm the habitibility of a world orbiting a star relatively nearby, some group or other would probably get a Generation Ship concept going and head out. Musk or some other fucking billionaire looking for a world to conquer. So technically that is interstellar travel, but not really as it's just a one way point to point, not a taxi service.

It already is and so is time travel but you wouldn't believe someone on the internet?