just 40 light-years from Earth
The word “just” is doing a lot of work here.
One of the more optimistic estimates in this thread is that it would take us ~60 000 years to travel with existing technology.
Of course, now that we have ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok we’re obviously gonna reach light speed travel within the next 10 years, so it won’t be a problem.
Achieving a velocity of 0.5 times the speed of light (ccc) for space travel involves solving advanced challenges in physics and engineering. The Python script below creates a simplified optimization framework to analyze the propulsion needed. It uses physics principles like relativistic mass-energy equivalence and propulsion mechanisms such as fusion or antimatter engines.
This code assumes you have the theoretical fuel and energy to achieve the speed, but it abstracts away complex challenges like time dilation, cosmic radiation, and material limitations.
Python Code
import numpy as np import matplotlib.pyplot as plt # Constants c = 3e8 # Speed of light (m/s) target_speed = 0.5 * c # Target speed (0.5c) ship_mass = 1e5 # Mass of the spacecraft without fuel (kg) fuel_efficiency = 1e-3 # Fuel conversion efficiency (e.g., antimatter ~0.1, fusion ~0.001) exhaust_velocity = 1e7 # Exhaust velocity of the propulsion system (m/s) specific_impulse = exhaust_velocity / 9.81 # Specific impulse (seconds) # Functions def relativistic_mass(speed, rest_mass): """Calculate relativistic mass.""" gamma = 1 / np.sqrt(1 - (speed / c) ** 2) return gamma * rest_mass def fuel_needed(final_speed, ship_mass, exhaust_velocity): """Estimate fuel required using the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation.""" delta_v = final_speed mass_ratio = np.exp(delta_v / exhaust_velocity) fuel_mass = ship_mass * (mass_ratio - 1) return fuel_mass # Optimization def optimize_propulsion(target_speed, ship_mass, exhaust_velocity, fuel_efficiency): fuel_mass = fuel_needed(target_speed, ship_mass, exhaust_velocity) energy_required = fuel_mass * fuel_efficiency * c**2 # Total energy for propulsion return fuel_mass, energy_required # Perform calculations fuel_mass, energy_required = optimize_propulsion(target_speed, ship_mass, exhaust_velocity, fuel_efficiency) # Display results print(f"Target speed: {target_speed / c:.2f}c") print(f"Required fuel mass: {fuel_mass:.2e} kg") print(f"Energy required: {energy_required:.2e} joules") # Visualization speeds = np.linspace(0, 0.5 * c, 100) fuel_masses = [fuel_needed(speed, ship_mass, exhaust_velocity) for speed in speeds] plt.figure(figsize=(10, 6)) plt.plot(speeds / c, fuel_masses, label='Fuel Mass Required') plt.xlabel('Speed as a Fraction of Light Speed (v/c)') plt.ylabel('Fuel Mass (kg)') plt.title('Fuel Requirement vs. Speed') plt.legend() plt.grid() plt.show()
How it Works:
Relativistic Mass: Accounts for relativistic effects as the spacecraft approaches significant fractions of the speed of light. Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation: Estimates fuel requirements based on the propulsion system's exhaust velocity and initial mass. Energy Requirement: Evaluates energy needs assuming the specified fuel efficiency.
Limitations:
Idealized Assumptions: Assumes perfect efficiency and ignores engineering constraints. Simplified Physics: Doesn't account for external factors like gravity, drag, or realistic propulsion systems. Energy Storage: No consideration for how energy would be stored or delivered.
Would you like more refinement or details on specific subsystems?
FIRE ALL THE PHYSICISTS
perpetually within the next 10 years
I think you’re forgetting Stargate technology…
Grok 2.0 alone will move heaven and Earth to reach alien civilizations. It’s sole reason for that will be to insult them. But hey, a motivation is a motivation.
I read a science fiction book from Iain M Banks over the holidays that was set in a rogue star system that was millions of light years away from the nearest galaxy. No matter how advanced that society could get, they would never be able to travel to the nearest star. They were doomed to isolation in their 1 star system basically. Compared to that, a mere 40 light-years at least gives the hope that it might one day be possible to travel there within a few life times (or less) of traveling.
Which book?
Against a dark background
What do you mean? It’s just a quick 2.351 × 10^14 mile drive. No biggie
Can Elon, Jeff, Mark, Bill and that Virgin Atlantic weirdo please quickly hop on the next Starship rocket and fly to that planet to check it out? Just a quick there-and-back? Have a looksy? Go on, you know, for mankind, be an(sic) hero…
Wouldn’t we have to terraform that shit too? We can probably send a probe out there or some shit, maybe the “Breakthrough Starshot” concept would be able to do it in a few hundred years or some shit
40 light years to reach a potentially habitable planet with a carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere?
Just wait 40 years on Earth.
I always like when people talk about potentially habitable exoplanets. It’s like “this planet is not literally on fire or frozen solid, and it’s atmosphere is 80% carbon dioxide with a measly 20% hydrochloric acid”. Like we’ve got a planet here that we’re struggling to not kill ourselves on from doubling the Co2 from 250 ppm to 500 ppm. We’re never getting to that other planet, bro. If we were gonna, solving climate change would be trivial by comparison.
Nobody is seriously looking for ‘habitable’ planets because they expect humanity will someday inhabit them — this is all about the hunt for other life out there in the universe.
To astronomers, “habitable” just means that the planet gets to correct amount of energy from its star that liquid water could potentially exist on its surface. Liquid water may not actually be a requirement for life, but since we only have a single data point to work from, it makes sense to look for the preconditions of the kind of life we’re familiar with on earth, of which liquid water is a big one. (Another is carbon chemistry, so finding lots of atmospheric carbon isn’t necessarily a bad thing when searching for other life out there.)
I must say I’m quite intrigued that we know it has beer before knowing it has a carbon atmosphere
Maybe oceans of beer.
Priorities.
I’m not sure about beer (hah, I got it, the survey name), but vodka for sure: there are giant clouds of ethanol in space https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/51271/there-are-giant-clouds-alcohol-floating-space
Discovered in 1995 near the constellation Aquila, the cloud is 1000 times larger than the diameter of our solar system. It contains enough ethyl alcohol to fill 400 trillion trillion pints of beer. To down that much alcohol, every person on earth would have to drink 300,000 pints each day—for one billion years.
Sadly, for those of you planning an interstellar pub crawl, the cloud is 58 quadrillion miles away. It’s also a cocktail of 32 compounds, some of them as nasty as carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, and ammonia.
Ok, so this vodka smells like old pish and bitter almonds :D
Oh great! The planet has already got a carbon dioxide atmosphere. So we can’t go there and burn stuff to mess it up like web did to the last one.
Tell again if it is.
The Rapist