@Metal-Brain
It might turn out if they can manage that speed, it might be designed to be a one way trip. Depends on how much stuff they can carry, and I think it would be more like a small armada, say ten ships maybe only 2 crewed the rest with junk they would need on arrival. The micro chips being worked out now they claim more than half c, so 8 years or so for that project and the results of such a probe would tell them if there was a planet that could be inhabitable. But still, there are dozens of stars within 15 light years and telescopes and radio scopes will get more powerful as time goes by so they would I think only contemplate sending humans if they found a halfway decent planet they could live on.
The whole point being if we humans off ourselves with nukes or bio warfare or if a big asteroid hits like Chixulub humans would stand a chance of surviving anything that happens to Earth. I think a planet was found on one of the three stars of Alpha Centauri but the catch is it is pretty close to the tiny star but in the goldilocks zone but the star burps out deadly radiation and such so if it was determined it was livable they could install a planet wide magnetic field to shield the incoming blasts. Without that shield there would be no hope of maintaining an atmosphere so that would be first on the list of projects to begin to make it Earthlike.
And of course that assumes we get another couple hundred years of scientific development before we off ourselves in some war or other.
@sonhouse saidRather than traveling all that distance and likely find planets no better than Mars there why not just go to Mars? Robots with AI could go to another solar system on a one way trip and send radio signals to other space ships to relay the signal back to earth. Then our descendants could know if it is worth the trip for people.
@Metal-Brain
It might turn out if they can manage that speed, it might be designed to be a one way trip. Depends on how much stuff they can carry, and I think it would be more like a small armada, say ten ships maybe only 2 crewed the rest with junk they would need on arrival. The micro chips being worked out now they claim more than half c, so 8 years or so for that projec ...[text shortened]... another couple hundred years of scientific development before we off ourselves in some war or other.
@Metal-Brain
You have such little imagination. The moon is there as a beacon for mankind and sure enough, it attracted us to land a dozen people on it and get back home safely. Mars is similar, a beacon and better place to live than Luna.
So we will go to Mars next.
I bet we find life on Europa, in the buried ocean, a beacon and I bet we go there next, establish an outpost.
THEN maybe we will attack Proxima Centauri, where we know right now there is a planet in the goldilocks zone, a mere 4 odd light years away.
A beacon we cannot ignore.
It seems the physics of rocketry says with fusion or maybe anti matter rockets we can get to at least 20% of the speed of light and you can bet your boopie we will try for it.
The thing about all that is, mankind getting off Earth means that something catastrophic happening to Earth killing all humans there means humans survive in at least other planets and moons of our own solar system.
Proxima Centauri is just another step away from Earth in that regard.
BTW, we already know how close to c we can get with rockets that don't invoke some star trek worm hole drive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstellar_travel#:~:text=A%20nuclear%20pulse%20drive%20starship,of%20the%20speed%20of%20light.
If we can develop rocketry to the point where we can accelerate 24/7 at one G, there is a graph on that site showing, some 4 years to get to Proxima Centauri and about 10 years to Sirius, 8 light years away and that is SHIP time, not Earth time because we would get close to c which means time dilation will make it SEEM like the trip is going even fast than the speed of light FOR THE TRAVELERS. If we were tagging along say with radar, we would find say a trip of 100 light years maybe takes 12 years for the travelers but Earth folks see it taking 100 years or so but that is another story.
Big if of course, but like I said, we don't know what kind of propulsion will be invented in the next couple hundred years, maybe even some kind of faster than light drive, who knows.
@Metal-Brain
You THINK you know all about anti matter but we have been dealing with AM for DECADES and magnetic steering and traps keep the stuff separated from regular matter and we don't use enough to blow up, an AM rocket would have a magnetically trapped mass of AM and a mass of regular matter in another container with magnetic guides to keep AM away from our kind of stuff till it gets to the rocket motor and THAT is when AM meets our stuff and that is where the controlled release of massive amounts of energy much more than fusion takes place, 100% E=MC^2.
You just make stupid statements when you know zip about the subject.
Try getting a physics education sometime, you can get stuff free on the net. Maybe you won't look so stupid if you do.
Hydrogen can blow you up also, you remember that big blimp thing? Gasoline in our cars can blow up also and kill people. We can mostly deal with all that and we can deal with AM too. The big guys at CERN have been accelerating AM for decades and it hasn't blown up yet.
Exactly where did you go to school anyway? Did you do even high school physics or chemistry?
@sonhouse saidYou are an idiot. As soon as you make AM come to matter it will explode and blow any other AM into your matter space craft and blow you up. Your stubborn denial of this obvious problem is extreme stupidity on your part.
@Metal-Brain
You THINK you know all about anti matter but we have been dealing with AM for DECADES and magnetic steering and traps keep the stuff separated from regular matter and we don't use enough to blow up, an AM rocket would have a magnetically trapped mass of AM and a mass of regular matter in another container with magnetic guides to keep AM away from our kind of st ...[text shortened]... yet.
Exactly where did you go to school anyway? Did you do even high school physics or chemistry?
Do you know why weapons grade uranium is never used for nuclear power? You would blow yourself up. If you cannot contain an explosion with weapons grade uranium you cannot do it with AM. Stop lying and being stupid.
@Metal-Brain
You refuse to learn. That has always been your problem. You learned nothing from what I posted. Tell me how much energy would be given off if one AM atom met one regular atom? But you will be unable to answer that because you never learned basic physics.
@sonhouse saidYou are projecting again. You refuse to learn anything you don't want to believe. Reality is not like science fiction. Nothing is more powerful than an antimatter explosion. It is impossible to contain powerful explosions like that in sequence with others without blow back.
@Metal-Brain
You refuse to learn. That has always been your problem. You learned nothing from what I posted. Tell me how much energy would be given off if one AM atom met one regular atom? But you will be unable to answer that because you never learned basic physics.
Then there is the problem of obtaining AM. AM would make the perfect bomb if it was possible to get enough of it. Making it would be ridiculously expensive. That is why no AM bombs exist. Stop clinging to unrealistic science fiction ideas that make no sense. This is not Star Trek you silly man.
@venda
Sure, For every force in nature there is an opposite force, like out discussion of rockets, the gasses expelled by the rocket motor translates to acceleration of the entire rocket.
So with any kind of rocket propulsion that law works fine.
It doesn't matter if it is chemical fueled rocket like the Saturn V or whatever, that law takes hold or if it is a solar mirror used as propulsion, photons hit the surface and imparts it's little bit of momentum to the mirror so in space you can use solar energy to get around the solar system with no fuel required but good old Newt laws works there just as well and just as well for atomic fission rockets or antimatter rockets, all the rocket ideas involves shooting stuff out the ass end for propulsion.
@sonhouse
Atomic fission rockets have impure uranium just like Nuclear power plants. If you used weapons grade uranium you would blow yourself up. Same with anti matter only worse. As soon as antimatter comes in contact with matter it will explode. Any other anti matter will be blown into your matter space ship with catastrophic results. Why do you keep denying this obvious problem? Star Trek is not reality. Come back to the real world.
@Metal-Brain
You are SO dumb you don't even KNOW when you are puking garbage.
I guess you forgot for one tiny example Voyager 1 and 2 are powered by radioactive decay and have been doing that for near half a century.
Not sure why you think you know more than actual physicists and engineers who have been working in this field for over a century.
You act like those folks would put weapons grade uranium on a spacecraft because they are so stupid.
I asked you how much energy would be released by one AM atom meeting one normal matter atom and you just go off on your usual BS puking uneducated pile of shyte.
You don't understand the idea of a magnetic trap which can hold ionized AM so it never gets to touch normal matter and can be channeled to a place where they can safely combine in a controlled manner with normal matter, that much is already known except for uneducated losers like you.
Its funny how the big accelerators like the one at CERN has been making AM for decades and what do you know, they haven't blown up yet. But I guess you didn't even know about THAT in your desperate drive to prove your vastly superior intellect.
@sonhouse said"I guess you forgot for one tiny example Voyager 1 and 2 are powered by radioactive decay and have been doing that for near half a century. "
@Metal-Brain
You are SO dumb you don't even KNOW when you are puking garbage.
I guess you forgot for one tiny example Voyager 1 and 2 are powered by radioactive decay and have been doing that for near half a century.
Not sure why you think you know more than actual physicists and engineers who have been working in this field for over a century.
You act like those folks w ...[text shortened]... ess you didn't even know about THAT in your desperate drive to prove your vastly superior intellect.
That is not weapons grade uranium you idiot.
"Its funny how the big accelerators like the one at CERN has been making AM for decades and what do you know, they haven't blown up yet. But I guess you didn't even know about THAT in your desperate drive to prove your vastly superior intellect."
In extremely small quantities and very expensive. We have been over this before you absolute moron. AM bombs do not exist for a reason. They are too expensive. Build an AM bomb first and get back to me. Can't do it? Go figure you fukking idiot! You are so stupid it makes me sick! You are a pathetic excuse for a human being. You only believe what you want to. Logic never sways people as stupid as you. You have been watching too much star trek and refuse to accept reality.
"You are SO dumb you don't even KNOW when you are puking garbage."
You are projecting again. It is you that are puking garbage. Do you seriously think you can fool people here into thinking you have any idea what you are talking about?
@Metal-Brain
YOU are so stupid you think atomic rockets using some variation of Uranium or plutonium is WEAPONS GRADE? Why don't you take atomic power 101 for a change instead of making yourself look like the IDIOT you really are.
Tell us o maven of all things science, what is the percentage in weapon grade uranium and what is the percentage in nuclear power supplies?
I bet you don't know the answer to either one of those questions and that makes you look EXACTLY like the idiot you really are.
@sonhouse saidYou phrased that wrong. I said the opposite.
@Metal-Brain
YOU are so stupid you think atomic rockets using some variation of Uranium or plutonium is WEAPONS GRADE? Why don't you take atomic power 101 for a change instead of making yourself look like the IDIOT you really are.
Tell us o maven of all things science, what is the percentage in weapon grade uranium and what is the percentage in nuclear power supplies?
I ...[text shortened]... swer to either one of those questions and that makes you look EXACTLY like the idiot you really are.
Nobody uses weapons grade uranium or plutonium to power space crafts. That is my whole point. AM releases even more energy than that. Get a grip on reality.
AM would make a good bomb, but you cannot get enough of it. It is not practical to make it or find it and capture it in sufficient amounts.
Since nobody can procure enough to build an anti matter bomb you should give up on your star trek fantasy. Nuclear fusion for future space crafts is a lot less far fetched than AM. You would blow yourself up with AM. You would get AM blow back into your matter space ship and any AM you are carrying would kill you quickly which would be the only upside. It would be a quick and relatively painless death for you.
I guarantee you would have to make it unmanned to test it. Nobody would be stupid enough to travel in it until you get a successful test after blowing up all of the others. Good way to run out of money. Nobody will fund it for that reason alone. Musk or whoever would have to use his own money if he was stupid enough to try.