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To: txhurl; RandallFlagg
At 150,000mph sustained, straight line, no 'problems' (i.e. micrometeorites, failing systems, etc ....assuming all systems go and operating at peak capacity, constantly) ....it would take 566,928 years to get there.

Needless to say, unless some new mode of transportation is invented, we are not going to be getting there anytime soon. Even if we could move at the speed of light it would still take over a century. At the fastest speeds we can get currently (and as RFlagg said, the speed of 150K mph was due to the Sun's gravitational well), even a generation spaceship (where many people get on a spaceship, and they breed over many many many many many many many many generations, until when the spaceship arrives it is the nth generation ....Earth can be considered a generation spaceship, with humans breeding as it speeds about around the sun) cannot work. 566,928 years is a long time for something bad to happen, and in space many bad things can happen with rescue being an impossibility. Food, air, energy, fuel, disease, water, system breakdowns and wear-n-tear, external impacts, loss of guidance, genetic breakdown due to interbreeding (again, 566,928 years is a long time and unless you have over a billion people in the spaceship - an impossibility - interbreeding will eventually be the case), conflict ....anyone of a myriad issues that can arise.

Conclusion - I never use the word 'impossible,' but this might be one area that may very well fit the word.

43 posted on 08/25/2010 11:05:48 PM PDT by spetznaz (Nuclear-tipped Ballistic Missiles: The Ultimate Phallic Symbol)
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To: spetznaz

You and I think alike on this stuff.

If man could build a spaceship with enough fuel to travel
beyond the solar system at 150,000 mph, it will require
566,928/30 = 19,000 generations of human breeding to reach
that foreign solar system.

Nice material for science-fiction! But it really is just fiction.

As for communicating with those aliens, it will require 127 years plus for each message to reach the aliens. Which means your great-great-great-great-grandson will have to receive the answer to message sent by you (254 years+).


60 posted on 08/26/2010 12:21:43 AM PDT by Undocumented_capitalist (Pure is the enemy of good...waiting for pure to happen will always end in dispair.)
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