UFO's... What do you think?

[troutsqueezer]

Brevity is the soul of wit.

 

[RoyJackson]

It would be a tall order I think to do it with current technology.

The Voyager space probe travels at 0.00567% of the speed of light. (17 km/sec)

To reach a star 4.37 light years from earth in 50 years requires traveling at 8.74% of the speed of light, or 1,541.45 times faster than Voyager(s) which I think attained their speed by planetary gravity slingshot.

That would require some type of propulsion system. This is a round-up of some other propulsion ideas:
Gallery: Future in Space

I don't think NASA will have any trouble filling the seats for a one-way journey to Mars or anywhere else. Mars One Over 200,000 applied within a short time and supposedly 705 of those are initially viable candidates.

As far as current technology, I was thinking of the Orion nuclear rocket conceived in the 1950's and 60's. It's doable...today...but only if mankind was willing to put the resources into it. We're not there yet...and there are a lot of technological issues to consider other then propulsion.
Here's a bit more: Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since the topic is UFOs, there is no doubt in my mind life resides elsewhere and some of that life is more advanced then we on earth. Although my heart says yes, we have been visited; my head says "probably not".


Limitations in space travel that we understand (travel faster then the speed of light) may not be the limit Einstein theorized...not to a sufficiently advanced civilization.

 

[stuckmotor]

My ancestors settled here from the planet 1234 and we don't believe in all that space alien stuff. I guess, we could be wrong...

 

[jlgurr]

Indeed my friend. I sometimes wonder if Earth is actually the size of a grain of sand in the grand scheme of things.

Watch "How Great is Our God" by Louie Giglio. This will put our puny existence into perspective relative to the stars above.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[Egon]

I'm positive that our solar system is contained in a small ornamental sphere and worn around a cat's neck.

 

[ovrszd]

Mastering the the fabric of space/time is the ticket...

Yep, that was my point earlier. When we can conquer time we'll have no use for this Planet. Except maybe to come back for the holidays, kinda like going to your childhood hometown.

 

[ovrszd]

But first of course, humanity would have to stop needing to spend huge amounts on war and war preparedness and direct that to something with lasting usefulness. Doing that requires re-framing our values as a species; we would have to transcend our basic natures.

But Dave, that can't happen. If the U.S. focused the monetary resources required to develop a successful way to escape Earth at the cost of our military budget we would not be the passengers. The passengers would be some thug nation that quietly stood back and waited for the completion date, then stomped out our existence, because we would have no defense system and took our seats.....

 

[jerrybob]

It would be a tall order I think to do it with current technology.

The Voyager space probe travels at 0.00567% of the speed of light. (17 km/sec)

To reach a star 4.37 light years from earth in 50 years requires traveling at 8.74% of the speed of light, or 1,541.45 times faster than Voyager(s) which I think attained their speed by planetary gravity slingshot.

That would require some type of propulsion system. This is a round-up of some other propulsion ideas:
Gallery: Future in Space

I don't think NASA will have any trouble filling the seats for a one-way journey to Mars or anywhere else. Mars One Over 200,000 applied within a short time and supposedly 705 of those are initially viable candidates.

I can think of several politicians I would like to send........hopefully.....they won't get the engines started on their return takeoff.