In a thousand years. It will take at least that long for humanity to reach the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, using current technologies and methods. Yet since astronomers discovered there could be at least one inhabited planet near this star, there has never been an increased enthusiasm among scientists for ideas about interstellar travel.
“This is a very teasing topic. Now that we know that there is a planet near the star, we can be more creative in our thoughts. You can think of many options: send interstellar probes there, or develop a special type of spacecraft that will allow you to personally look at this planet,”commented Guillem Anglada-Escudé, lead researcher and one of the discoverers of the new exoplanet.
And yet the 4.2 light years separating us and Proxima Centauri are simply unattainable for today's space explorers. It will take time to find the right solution and deal with this problem. The popular science Internet portal Futurism decided to ask its readers about when, in their opinion, the first person will be able to leave the solar system.
The answers show that it won't be soon. The options that received the most votes are 2100s and later. This was the opinion of about 35 percent of the respondents.
One of them, Chalz Honbostel, gave some explanation for his choice:
“We should expect the start of human exploration of Mars no earlier than 2025-2030. Most likely, humans will not be able to reach the orbits of Neptune and Pluto by the end of this century, no matter what kinds of new and exotic propulsion technologies are discovered."
Honbostel is right that many countries and private companies are developing their ideas and projects for the human exploration of Mars for the next 10-15 years. He's also right that many researchers are working on new technologies that will allow our spacecraft to fly faster.
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What do the experts say?
Some enthusiasts are optimistic about our future interstellar travel capabilities, stating that if we push ourselves right now, we can create the technology that will allow us to reach Proxima Centauri by 2100.
Others, such as Marcus Young, a specialist at the US Air Force Research Laboratory, see such possibilities as dimmer. Back at the Joint Propulsion Conference in 2008, Young stated that his team had not yet discovered a single suitable option for interstellar travel.
“There are tons of ideas that on the first look at which you might say, hey, this might work. But after doing some research, you quickly come to realize that nothing really will work,”Young said then at the conference.
However, Young also added that scientists must continue their work and seek solutions to the issues and problems facing the wall of interstellar flight. And, fortunately, this work does not stop. There are already some developments of projects that in the future will help us leave the solar system, including those where it is proposed to use thermonuclear rocket engines. However, the background radiation on the ship would then be too toxic to transport people.
We can also use solar sails, giving vehicles based on them additional acceleration due to powerful laser sources. This approach is being actively discussed in the Breakthrough Starshot program, which aims to send a small unmanned probe to the Centauri system.
Even if we find a way to accelerate the spacecraft to 10 or even 20 percent of the speed of light, we will still face one very important problem - how to protect the body of this spacecraft from being hit by cosmic particles. In addition, it will be necessary to find a reliable solution that will allow the vehicle to slow down upon arrival to the Centauri system, which, by the way, was pointed out by the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk in an interview with the Western edition of Aeon. In his opinion, interstellar travel is indeed possible, but at this stage of our development, it is simply unattainable.
“If we want to travel to other star systems one day, we need to focus on developing laser propulsion technologies that I believe will help us become a multiplanetary civilization. This is the next step in our development,”Musk said in an interview.
And if he's right, then space enthusiasts have reason to hope, because the first colony on Mars may appear in a few decades.
Nikolay Khizhnyak