Happy Hour - # 002

 May we present, a conversation starter for your next social event:


When it comes to going far — like, next-star-over far — we don’t yet have any working solutions. Several have been proposed, including, most recently, a relativistic electron beam which could get a probe to Alpha Centauri in roughly forty years, but everything at the moment is in the concept stage. It’s a fascinating discussion to imagine what technology might take the lead for our first star shot.


(At least we think it’s fascinating. You’ll have to break this out at your next poker game and see.)


Image Credit: econews


Other possible methods rolling around the minds of scientific thinkers:



That last one just makes you sound smart when you say it.


Each of these could get a craft going fast enough to make the journey to Alpha Centauri in a human lifetime. In each case specs for how they might achieve that goal have been worked out.


It’s just a matter of moving forward to the next phases of design.


Also being given serious attention by quite a few brainy people is the good-old-fashioned Star Trek style warp drive. Do any search for “Alcubierre drive” and you’ll find a bunch on that.


For fun, here’s a 4-minute video showing just how fast we’ll have to go to reach the closest star:


Go Incredibly Fast


Any of these concepts are obviously next-gen or even next-next-gen — we have lots more local stuff to get to first — but what will power our first interstellar transit?


To spice up the discussion (if it needs it), what about a paradox of sorts, whereby we launch a 50-year craft, only to develop an FTL (Faster Than Light) option halfway into its journey and end up already waiting there when it arrives, greeting our earlier emissary in our shiny new warp ship?


Another point to consider: The same tools needed to beam ships across interstellar space could, in the long run, reshape how we move and power craft within our own solar system. Relativistic beams might first be used for very fast trips to outer planet destinations, or as long-distance space-based power lines for infrastructure around Earth and the moon.


How much time and effort should we be devoting to these things?