4:05 am and the clock goes tick-tick-tick Musings
Having, sort of, got my head around the speed of light thing, but perhaps not, the next part is the travelling to a new planet or star, somehow.
These are the current questions I muse on as I meditate myself to sleep.
How many of you are there on this journey?
If speed of light travel, or near to s-o-l travel is possible that would still mean that something 2 light years away would take 2 years to get to? Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf about 4.24 light-years from the Sun, that’s a 9 year round trip?
Could be nothing there when you got there.
Anyway, you accelerate to your top speed and half way to your journey you have to start to slow down, which means either engines at both ends of your spacecraft or some elegant manoeuvre where you spin your spaceship around 180 degrees.
Any windows that were are the front are now at the back.
Unlike Star Trek, FireFly, Star Wars et al I’m not actually sure a spaceship can just stop on a dime. Acceleration\Deceleration in the vacuüm of space depends on the exhaust gases providing the resistance and so then your forward momentum. (Equal and oppose reaction). To slow down then when you flip your ship you’re now effectively travelling backwards through your own exhaust gasses to slow down. That’d be an interesting engineering challenge.
Food and Water. Well you could recycle the water, but you can’t recycle food.
Fuel, you’d have to take enough to get there and back again.
Boredom. After all when you’ve watched all the re-runs of Boston Legal, the original Star Trek, Hill Street Blues, Dad’s Army and Red Dwarf there are still a few years left to fill.
Much of this depends of course on the spaceship you’re in working for 9 years, and that it doesn’t breakdown or explode at any points, because that would be a bit inconvenient.
I then got to the bit where it’s ready to launch on the journey, and there is a malfunction and the cockpit capsule has been designed to detach or flay away to safety, I’m now hoping that there is a rescue craft to come get us, with that much fuel on board the jettison distance would have to be huge, and the rescue craft a fair way away.
I then start to wonder about sleeping in low gravity, and what does a sleeping room look like, and then I wake up the next morning all things being equal
Oh, I know it’s not possible to travel that fast, take that much fuel, food, water, and come back again, but check our this link it’s interesting if you are interested.
http://spacetravel.nathangeffen.webfactional.com/spacedifficulties.php
A life just as ordinary 
Yes. There’s something about the dream of space travel that seems so far beyond any current capabilities. There has to be a huge leap forward for it to work.
LikeLike
But I’ve watched all the science fiction programs, say it’s not so…..
I think getting to the moon has enough problems without thinking even of Mars.
LikeLike
If only life could be like Star Trek.
LikeLike