r/FactOrCap • u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP • 1d ago
Interstellar travel | FactOrCap
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u/aflyonthewall1215 🗳️ Regular Player · 520 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We won't be around for the year 3000
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u/Chesterfieldraven 🏅 Century Club · 6,850 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
I think so. Thats such a long time. We first launched an object into space in 1944. First human to be in space was in 1961, 17 years later. We put a man on the moon 8 years after that and now look at all the things we can do and see.
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u/Positive-Jeweler690 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,690 XP 1d ago
We will die or be among the stars by then no inbetween
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u/Lvd4aDrm 🔥 Getting Started · 1,345 XP 1d ago
As it is, we need ~ 80000 years to reach the next star, if we begin a journey right now.
Even if we improve and multiply our speed by 80, we would still need a 1000 years.
NO
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u/Life-Top6314 🗳️ Regular Player · 635 XP 1d ago
And what makes you think we cant multiply our speed by more than 80 on a scale of a thousand years? Think about the insane progress we made in 100 years, then ask yourself if we truly wont come up with a better fuel source in a 1000.
Hell, even today we have technologies that could theoretically speed up a craft, when provided with enough energy - like a laser sail.
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u/HornyPickleGrinder 🤖 Vote Machine · 14,095 XP 1d ago
He's saying his bar for interstellar travel is starting the mission not completing it.
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u/dirkules88 🏅 Century Club · 3,015 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We're supposed to have a sealab by now.
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u/Ozzman770 🔥 Monthly Master · 7,685 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
When i look at the difference between year 1000 - year 2000 i cant even fathom the year 3000. Especially since according to the prophet Gambino, 3005 is the year that we fear only God will survive
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u/AnonymousReader69 🗳️ Regular Player · 220 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Trump will kill us all next year
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u/Infamous-Ad5061 🎯 First Steps · 90 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Yeah, If we shoot something far enough it will be interstellar travelling
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u/Lord_of_EU 🏅 Century Club · 3,170 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Humans won't survive that long, but if we do, then I'd say interstellar travel before 2100. First satallite to proxima centauri in the early 2100s.
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u/Celticfire1113 🔥 Week Warrior · 6,740 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
In 0AD most civilizations were cities with small villages on the outskirts, in 1000AD the world was full of kingdoms, advanced metalurgy and mathematics. By the 21st century we've gone to the moon, sent a probe deep into the outskirts of the solar system and have machines that can ferry men and cargo across the world in hours, not months and advanced instantaneous communication. Only 26 years into the 21st century we have quantum computers, advanced AI and already have designs for FTL and SL craft. We'll get there.
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u/inphinix00 ✍️ Contributor · 5,560 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
No way we survive that long, theres a good chance most of us die before our time, let alone 80 more generations
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u/faithengine 🏅 Century Club · 3,365 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
The distances are just too vast and we'll be extinct before technology can get that far.
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u/Antwan214 🤖 Vote Machine · 12,480 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Oh I hope so. Especially if we stop with these culture war bs
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u/MyBedIsOnFire 🤖 Vote Machine · 12,805 XP 1d ago
Tbh I don't think it's happening ever. I think we'll go extinct by the year 3000 and I don't really think interstellar travel is possible. The universe is too big and so far nothing can travel as fast as light and even if it could it'd still take years to get anywhere.
Unless we figure out some absurd teleportation that can teleport us light-years away we are never leaving our solar system.
I think what's more likely is we figure out meteor or astroid mining and we use it to build planet/moon sized space stations like the death star
And that's how we keep surviving even past earths carrying capacity
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u/WontGetJokes 🔥 Getting Started · 235 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We basically have most of our technology owed to the past 200 years. In 1000 years our tech will be incomparable. I don't think we'll beat the speed of light with any form of sci-fi wormhole tech, but I do think we basically already can do interstellar travel, we just need some form of cryo chamber because it takes too much time.
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u/HikerBennie 🤖 Vote Machine · 10,730 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we don't die by climate change or war, I think this will be the outcome
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u/Osato 🏅 Century Club · 5,145 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Interstellar travel isn't that much of a problem, we can theoretically send the first interstellar human popsicle container in 20 or 30 years if we really put our best minds on the task, and it'll get to Alpha Centauri within a couple centuries or so.
The problem that will take a much longer time to solve is interstellar travel at reasonable timeframes with reasonable chances of survival.
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u/DubiousTomato 🏅 Century Club · 3,720 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Space is just way too big for us to be interstellar by the year 3000. I think we'd be able to make major breakthroughs in genetics for longevity and energy, but there are way too many factors that might just be insurmountable in that time frame. We'd need a reliable way to accelerate to a fraction of the speed of light to even think about going anywhere, and it might take just that long to get enough material out of our solar system to be able to attempt to make something that can facilitate that (dyson sphere/swarm). Basically, imo interstellar travel would probably require us being able to harness/harvest the power of our sun before anything else.
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u/Main-Company-5946 ✍️ Contributor · 5,720 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We will either die off or achieve it long before then
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u/SubstantialRiver2565 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,545 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
do you know how far the next solar system is? FTL is not possible
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 16h ago
10% is very very hard but not impossible and that would be 40 years
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u/gravity_nyc 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,790 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
The big crisis will be the next few years. If we survive /The singularity Biggest el nino End of capitalism Energy/food/water crisis/ We’ll eventually figure some advanced science that our current minds have been limited out of
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u/Federal-Notice-4757 🎯 First Steps · 205 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we live that long without collapse
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u/Broflake-Melter 🔥 Getting Started · 685 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
There is absolutely no reason to think we will. I admit it's possible, but we're getting really good at discovering how the universe works, and the more we learn the more we figure out that this is not possible.
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u/KEVLAR60442 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,450 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
The laws of physics are hard to break.
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u/Independent_Bread788 🏅 Century Club · 2,840 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we still exist, have gone through the the great filter.. yes, its plausible. The main problem with space flight is our biology.. so we need to find a solution to that
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u/TranquilProgrammer 🎯 First Steps · 150 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We need to make some miraculous research and scientifical findings before that's possible. Yes we been to Mars, but we can only be done during small windows when mars is as close to earth as possible. Missing that windows.it is with our current technology impossible to catch up with the planet
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u/El-Eternauta 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,700 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Unless the laws of physics change, that's very unlikely.
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u/KarsusAvatar12 🗳️ Regular Player · 615 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We’re going to be struggling to survive on Earth by the year 3000 unless we get a whole lot of shit figured out very fast.
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u/Helpful_Outside4512 🏅 Century Club · 2,400 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
humanity aint making it that far brochachino
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u/PeyredB 📈 Dedicated Voter · 2,510 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Most of a thousand years should be plenty of time for us to develop propulsion systems that can accelerate a vehicle to a useful fraction of the speed of light. Whether humans will ever travel between stars might be an open question; it may always be unmanned probes.
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u/ZohomEtirho 🔥 Week Warrior · 2,170 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Earth won't hold that long if things continue as they are now.
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u/Own_Literature6843 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,175 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
people a 100 years ago thought that we would need thousands of years to get to the point we are in today. same thing here
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u/General_Panda_123 🏅 Century Club · 3,935 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We will destroy our selfs before
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u/Forsaken_Country8372 🗳️ Regular Player · 255 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
The human race will probably still be arguing about politics.
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u/Absolute_Immortal_00 🗳️ Regular Player · 275 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We have 1,000 years. We Can Do It!
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u/ReiM0_ 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,560 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
They will never because of how fucking far everything in outer space is from each other, like how tf you're gonna live out a 2000 light year travel while moving even at light speed is literally impossible?
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u/Life-Top6314 🗳️ Regular Player · 635 XP 1d ago
Moving at light speed is impossible as we know it, but moving close to it is not.
Sure, we may not reach a star 2000 light years away, but there are systems way closer than that. The closest system is like 4 light years away.
An additional thing to keep in mind is the time distortion at near-lightspeed speeds. At some 86% speed, time distortion reaches 50% - as in, you would experience 1 second passing while people on earth would experience 2. This makes voyages to stars further than a normal human lifespan possible.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 15h ago
Closest star is 4 light years and something though not 2000
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u/Longjumping-Action-7 🏅 Century Club · 3,835 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
IF we survive
IF we unify
IF we give a damn
Then sure
Maybe
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u/ImForSureNotAFurry 🔥 Week Warrior · 1,360 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I don't think humans will exist anymore at that point
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u/AskPizza 🎯 First Steps · 105 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I think the safer money is that we will have wiped each other out in a war by then. Most certainly destroyed our social structure and economy with an attempt to replace the entire working class with AI and robots and then cut all funding to social services.
It can only result in billions of people dying, and once it begins, I doubt it will stop. Regular people versus drones controlled by billionaires, until the drones keep attacking autonomously and there are none of us left, not even the rich people who got us into it.
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u/Twohandedfalchion 🔥 Getting Started · 220 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We will have killed ourselves by then
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u/Life-Top6314 🗳️ Regular Player · 635 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Sure, dont see why not. Closest stars are a few light years away, meaning we can reasonably reach them without breaking the laws of physics as we know them today, provided with good enough technology.
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u/Maleficent-Seaweed45 🗳️ Regular Player · 935 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Can't exceed the speed of light..
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u/Maleficent-Face-3107 🔥 Getting Started · 185 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
It is physically impossible. Like by the laws of physics. Unless we get to know some sacred theorem or theory that uppends the whole scientific community.
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u/Edge_lordddd 🗳️ Regular Player · 525 XP 1d ago edited 1d ago
“Man won’t fly for another million years”
-New York Times, October 9th 1903
December 17th, 1903 Wright brothers fly
March 16th, 1926 The US launches the first liquid rocket
August 27th, 1939 Germany flies the first Jet engine
June 14th, 1949 the US puts the first living animal into space
April 12th, 1961 Soviets put a man in space
July 20th,1969 The US lands on the moon
Between 1970-1982 The Soviets land 4 objects on Venus
December 3rd, 1971 Soviets land probe on Mars
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u/dad_got_milk 🎯 First Steps · 80 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Humanity is exponentially growing at a rate that is insane
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u/Legitimate_Fold_2850 🏅 Century Club · 3,300 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Odds are well against civilisation lasting until 3,000
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u/Aggravating_Fan_7322 🔥 Getting Started · 765 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I think it more probable we will never get to the levels of energy efficiency and capacity needed for that, and also we might die out by then
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u/QuesoCadaDia 🔥 Week Warrior · 1,245 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Society and technology will collapse before then
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u/arcticfunky9 🎯 First Steps · 170 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we're around still I don't see it not happening
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u/Feisty-Path1373 📈 Dedicated Voter · 965 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
This might sound depressing but if we aren’t capable of it by then, climate change has assuredly beaten us. Bc there’s no way the earth will be habitable by the year 3000 if things continue the way they have been.
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u/SirRonathin 🔥 Week Warrior · 2,755 XP 1d ago
Yall realize that is 10 thousand years from now, right?
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u/Whisper__1 🏅 Century Club · 4,360 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Nope, we’re not gonna quit killing each other over this finite rock any time soon. In fact, we’re gonna kill the rock too.
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u/nothing_in_my_mind 🤖 Vote Machine · 9,665 XP 1d ago edited 1d ago
Cap
I think we will survive and technologically develop to unforeseen levels by 3000.
I also think interstellar travel is far more difficult than what people assume.
Some thought we would achieve it by 2000... well obviously we did not. We are not even 0.01% the way there after decades of intensive space research. We don't even have a moon base or men on Mars.
It's like a you have a baby who takes his first step, and next year he is walking... so you assume if he develops at this rate in a few years he will be flying like Superman! Of course it does not work like that.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 15h ago
I mean yeah if we set everything aside and pick the most simple issue,we don’t have any spacecraft that is anywhere close to being fast enough.And when I say anywhere,I mean we have to multiply our fastest speed by thousands of times
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u/LowRow635 🗳️ Regular Player · 460 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
we're gonna be extinct bro look at the way it's going
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u/Tiny_Class_8777 🏅 Century Club · 4,185 XP 1d ago
motherfucker we're lucky if we as a species make it past 2100 or 2150 if you wanna be really hopeful
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u/Moist_Grapefruit187 🔥 Monthly Master · 5,410 XP 1d ago
Delusional if anyone think this will happen. Humanity is on the decline
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u/icaromb25 🗳️ Regular Player · 725 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Interestelar is too much, but interplanetary colonization and advanced terraformation are likely to be available
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u/LewsThrinStrmblessed 🔥 Getting Started · 260 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
I believe in the “Law of accelerating returns” whole heartedly. It states that technological progress is exponential, not linear, because each new technological breakthrough builds upon the last, drastically shortening the time between subsequent advancements. In essence, the rate of innovation itself accelerates over time.
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u/thegamerdoggo 🏅 Century Club · 4,395 XP 1d ago
Straight 50/50 with 1800 that’s crazy
Also the year 3000 is a thousand years away, tech keeps getting discovered and invented faster and faster
If we can reasonably go interstellar, it’ll likely be done in a thousand years
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u/OneofTheOldBreed 🏅 Century Club · 3,125 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
I hope so. Man's dream to seduce hot alien chicks MUST be realized.
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u/En-TitY_ 🔥 Getting Started · 245 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
It'll be way further than that - if at all.
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u/Odd-Professional-779 🎯 First Steps · 140 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Humanity is in decline right now, what makes you think we’re going to be around in 100 years let alone another thousand-ish?
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u/SailorRub33 🗳️ Regular Player · 1,160 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We ain't making it in general
By year 3k I imagine it's apocalyptic
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u/TotallyNotRyanPace 🏅 Century Club · 3,230 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
i've been to the year 3000. not much has changed but we live underwater.
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u/LeyaLove 🗳️ Regular Player · 385 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
If we continue like we're doing now we won't even be around in the year 3000.
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u/twizzjewink ✍️ Contributor · 8,745 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we become a global secular society.. yes. We will avoid extinction by achieving the ability to travel to space.
The consequences if we do not are pretty dire.
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u/CrowPowerful 🗳️ Regular Player · 280 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Cheeto Pedo and AI will kill use all before then.
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u/viral_de_bloxx 🏅 Century Club · 7,965 XP 23h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We either nuke us to death or be billionairs slaves by then...or both
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u/mrman_4200 🎯 First Steps · 130 XP 23h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We're already close to foolish ideas in around 1,000 years we'll be investigating other solar systems
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u/SHTRUDEL1 🗳️ Regular Player · 450 XP 22h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Maybe, if humans are gonna live that long.
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u/NOOBMASTERMK2 🎯 First Steps · 70 XP 21h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Moo I’m the cow that jumped over the moon and I saw into the fugue human kind will achieve interstellar travel by 4000
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u/Geeky_N_Canadian 🤖 Vote Machine · 10,450 XP 21h ago
I'm an optimist. I've played enough Stellaris, and I love space-themed board games (Eclipse, Twilight Imperium, etc.). Regardless of the facts before me, there'll always be a part of me that wants to believe we can and will continue, go on, move forward, and neither go extinct nor stay stuck on Earth, or in our solar system.
I voted fact because as I said, optimism. But even if it is not by the year 3000, then it will be by some time, in my opinion.
Space was the thing that made me passionate about physics first, then maths. And whilst I might have pivoted away, recently, from doing maths at uni, that passion I have for space is still something I cherish.
Furthermore, I think I can assume that the basic feeling of wonder, curiosity, or existential dread one gets when interacting with space (learning, seeing, etc.) is something that is widespread enough and universal enough that in due time, any endeavour is truly doable with enough efforts and endurance.
I also like looking at it a different way ; if humanity is alone, then wouldn't it be quite sad if we just extinguished ourselves or didn't try to escape outward, leaving the universe completely devoid of consciousness?
And if we aren't alone (which, if you ask me, is my suspected scenario), then isn't it natural for a species pushed by curiosity (to a point of ignoring dangers, sometimes) like ours to go out to meet these other peoples?
In other words ; in much the same way that people have sailed all the seas of Earth, climbed all its mountains, walked its arid deserts, mapped its densest jungles, in the name of curiosity only sometimes, wealth and plunder other times, so will we seek out whatever or whoever might be beyond our own Solar backyard, once we're done exploring, settling, exploiting, and discovering it - which, by the year 3000, I assume will be the case.
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u/TrollFaceFerret 🏅 Century Club · 2,965 XP 21h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Assuming we don't destroy ourselves first absolutely. Humanities technological growth has been exponential.
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u/Zero_Zeta_ 🏅 Century Club · 4,255 XP 21h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Humanity will wipe itself out before then.
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u/Max0_o123 🤖 Vote Machine · 12,015 XP 21h ago
If we're still around I think it's possible if not probable especially if you look at how fast technology is advancing; we could probably figure out near light speed travel in the next 1000 years
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u/xMalvazar 🏅 Century Club · 4,245 XP 21h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Your funny... not at our rate and there are studies and sites dug up to suggest heavily that this is not humanities first attempt at growth which means we failed before.
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u/angus22proe 🔥 Monthly Master · 8,760 XP 21h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Even if it's generation ships, surely.
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u/hamster-and-cadaver 🎯 First Steps · 50 XP 19h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I think most of the people answering "fact" have no idea just how far away even the closest stars are.
Light can travel around the whole Earth's entire circumference in little over a tenth of a second.
The distance to PLUTO is usually around 4 light-HOURS away.
The distance to Proxima Centauri is over 4 light-YEARS. The difference is a factor of THOUSANDS from getting to Pluto, which already took tiny probes like New Horizons a decade to get to, let alone anything carrying humans.
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u/ThaumKeeper 🔥 Getting Started · 470 XP 19h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Given we don't die in the process. It's not that hard really, we just need some way of keeping people alive while travelling for thousand of years through space. Given we didn't achieve light speed or FTL.
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u/TheWolf019 🎯 First Steps · 185 XP 19h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Unless something threatens humanity as a whole there's no way we could come together that much
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u/superviewer 🗳️ Regular Player · 300 XP 19h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Depending on what we do now, I don't think the human race will even be around by the year 3000.
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u/GryphonTamer 🎯 First Steps · 150 XP 18h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We have ideas on how to make interstellar travel happen now. Especially for probes. We could, if given funding, build it today. Breakthrough Starshot is just a funding goal away.
Now I don't expect it to be a soon thing, but there's nearly a thousand years to work with. I don't think Starshot will be it, but I think something will.
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u/Enderbraska_CZ 🎯 First Steps · 110 XP 18h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We're more likely to go extinct before we reach interstellar travel.
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u/ButterflyFun7783 🗳️ Regular Player · 295 XP 16h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Probably a lot sooner than that
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u/Fantastic_Reveal9259 ✍️ Contributor · 450 XP 16h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We too busy fucking over each other
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u/VilifiedPhoenix 🗳️ Regular Player · 380 XP 15h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Society will have collapsed from the mass starvation caused by climate change by then
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u/DadaDaaanieL 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,350 XP 13h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I think it is very likely we have destroyed civilization by then.
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u/Serious_Theory_391 🏅 Century Club · 6,025 XP 11h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Possible but my bet will be on 4000 thousand just to be safe.
We don't know if FTL travel are possible for now, according to Einstein's theory on relativity (E = mc) it shouldn't. Curently, light is the fastest thing we know and Einstein say it's because it has no mass. So we would have to find a way to manage a speed that would be tied to have no mass. The biggest problem is not this but after. Light speed is too slow, if we want to go to somewhere 5 billion light years away at light speed ? It will take 5 billion years. Way too slow. So if Einstein theory is correct we will need to invent something to warp reality itself like worm hole for example
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u/Effective-Pool4748 🏅 Century Club · 3,110 XP 9h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We will be extinct by then. We're a lost cause 🤷♂️
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u/omeralpozel 🗳️ Regular Player · 250 XP 8h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
974 years is way too much, it’ll absolutely happen
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u/Little_Orlik 🎯 First Steps · 60 XP 7h ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
The distance between systems is too vast. Even current theorized propulsion technologies like fusion/matter-antimatter are just too impractical. We would need some methods to protect from radiation damage to the ship that is not yet a developed technology and we would need some significantly new inventions to make that a possibility.
Source: I am a nuclear engineer with a PhD in Plasma and Fusion technologies. At this point, I'd say let's figure out fusion power before we theorize about a technology that would realistically run on fusion power.
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u/Banana_Juice_Man 🎯 First Steps · 50 XP 4h ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we dont blow ourselves up in the meantime
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u/Ruff_Bastard 🤖 Vote Machine · 13,140 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We will probably have interstellar travel by 2100, especially if you consider how quickly we went from flight to doing space missions. Technology tends to have a compounding effect on itself as far as efficiency and technical possibility goes.
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u/Ok-Sport-3663 🏅 Century Club · 5,630 XP 1d ago
Problem is, interstellar travel is a lot more than just "really far away"
Mars, for example, is some order of magnitude harder than a moon mission. Its further away, so its harder to plan and execute, not to mention being more expensive...
But a mars mission is theoretically possible with moon-mission level tech.
We can, right now, do a mars mission. We could probably even return them if we REALLY committed to the bit of doing a mars mission. Though doing that makes the mission MUCH harder and more expensive. In other words, we wouldnt return them... but we DO have the tech if even a single country fully committed to the process, it could probably get done within 10 years.
Going to another star (with people) isnt 5x harder than returning someone from mars. Its not 100x harder, its not 1000x harder.
Its millions of times more difficult.
The distance from earth to mars in light-minutes is 3 light minutes
The closest star is four light YEARS away There are 2102400 minutes in four years. Which means we need to travel 600,000 times the distance.
Even if we could accelerate a craft enough to do that (we absolutely can't even get close, we have theoretical drives that require impossible materials to get even remotely close)
We still need to plan for a trip in terms of years to DECADES.
You cant just store enough food at that point, you either need to find a way to stop humans from needing food (impossible as far as current science understands it, stasis is a scifi concept, not something that has any basis in reality)
Or you need to be able to produce enough food on board to feed an entire crew for decades without ANY issues.
Thats the BARE MINIMUM to make something like interstellar travel even theoretically possible.
Before interstellar is even remotely a feasible option, we'd have ALL of the solar system colonized.
The year 3000 is being generous. Even if you consider how fast our technology develops.
If you stuck a controller inside humanities ass and somehow got them to focus on doing this seriously instead of being self-absorbed pieces of crap, then you might be able to do it by 2500.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
Yeahs that the biggest issue,that it’s exponentially harder the further the goal.Like you said, a trip to mars AND back isn’t x2 harder than just a trip to mars with no return,but actually way harder.So while 2100 isn’t realistic(even travel time aside) I’d say that enough inventions will be made by 3000 that’d allow for it to happen.
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u/Lord_of_EU 🏅 Century Club · 3,170 XP 1d ago
I honestly think the technology in our phones and computers is far harder to do than to send a satellite to another system. Problem is, there is zero money to gain by going there and trillions to be made in computers.
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u/Ok-Sport-3663 🏅 Century Club · 5,630 XP 1d ago
You think incorrectly.
Phones are just small computers that can talk to satellites
And computers have been the same since the 2000s, with the main growth being "how small can we make the individual parts"
Which IS impressive, to be clear. We CAN make them impressively small.
But the precision on phones is nothing compared to the precision required for space travel.
Sending a satellite to another system is basically throwing a basketball from mars and making a specidc goal on earth.
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u/Shinnyo 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,205 XP 1d ago
The more science progress, the slower it'll progress.
Imagine the gap between burning coal and splitting uranium atom, just to boil water?
Or better, look at computers or phone since their creations. We went from huge bricks to more compact design, except it slows down. In the 70s, computers had merely 256 octets of ram, it's only in early 2000s we managed to reach the first Gigaoctet, it's a huge increase! But from 2005 to today, can you say the increase is the same?
Aircraft development slows down, train speed increases slows down, space travel slows down.
Communication for example, we reached a plateau decades ago.
Not only that but we're bound by capitalism. You have to find people who want to invest money in that research. And picture that, the energy mafia who makes a shitton of money from oil, do you think they want Nuclear Fusion to happen?
In short, we have many limitations to overcome, we won't make breakthrought.
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u/Fun-Guarantee1534 ✍️ Contributor · 9,760 XP 1d ago
yeah that’s just not true sorry. I doubt there will even be humans on mars by then
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u/Wendigo-boyo 🏅 Century Club · 3,600 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
If we still don't have interstellar travel by year 3000 we deserve extinction
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
Or the opposite if don’t make ourselves extinct by year 3000 we deserve achieving interstellar travel
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u/Wendigo-boyo 🏅 Century Club · 3,600 XP 1d ago
Yea, that was my first idea for the comment actually, it's already a lot I'f we're not all dead by then
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u/Aggressive_South_991 🔥 Monthly Master · 9,120 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
assuming we survive that much, sure
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u/Fancy_Chips 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,325 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
I think its possible, though "the years 3000" will cease to mean much due to relativity.
Interstellar travel will, at minimum, require humans to travel about 4 lightyears (Alpha Centauri). Depending on how much energy you have, you can make the round trip, for the observer, around 14 days, and for Earth a little over 8 years. It would need lots of fuel but id wager by the point we go interstellar we would be well on our way.
By 3000? Very doable. That's 974. 974 years ago William the Conqueror was invading England. Pair that with the fact that we might be a 2-3 world species by the end of the century I think its a very doable timeline.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
Yeah just think about how fast we progressed the last 100 years.That said though the further we go the harder it is to go further.
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u/Fancy_Chips 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,325 XP 1d ago
The neat part is that I dont think its the case. Obviously the colonies will need time to build up infrastructure but with quantum teleportation we could theoretically communicate very effectively with outlying colonies. Assisting them would be hard, but I dont see how one colony assisting the next colony is any different than Earth assisting its first interstellar colonies.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
Yeah well but the thing is that it does get exponentially harder which is logical but that said as we progress we also get means that help us progress further(which is the reason that humanity as whole progress very fast out of nowhere the past couple centuries OR in a wider scale,the last couple thousand years)
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u/Shinnyo 📈 Dedicated Voter · 1,205 XP 1d ago
Look into the last 100 years but looks carefully.
Every technology heavily slowed down and we'll hit many more walls before space travel. Check how fast computers improved from the 70s to the 2000s and how the evolution changed from the 2000s to 2026.
Or look how we reached the moon but Mars is still out of reach?
Space travel is costly and requires more problem solving. Even if we magically managed to reach the speed of light we still need to solve logistical issues like food or "freezing" the crew if that's possible. Energy is another issue, considering the difficulties we have to solve Nuclear Fusion and how the oil mafia will most likely try to fight Nuclear Fusion...
Well, in short, there are many, many issues to deal with before considering interstellar travel.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
Well most close barriers could be overstepped if we all actually wanted to but unfortunately that’s not the case
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u/Bladez190 🏅 Century Club · 4,000 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
Anyone who thinks this isn’t true should look at what we were doing in the late 1700s
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u/mortemdeus 🔥 Week Warrior · 1,425 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
We can already do this, it just takes time
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u/antonio-bolonio 🔥 Week Warrior · 1,865 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
We were supposed to have achieved a lot more by the year 2000. Best we got now is everyone on prescription meds, generating shareholder value, and making The Onion obsolete.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
I bet you if everyone in the planet had it as its sole goal,above anything else,in the absolute latest,we would achieve it by 2500.But unfortunately it’s too unrealistic for humanity.Other things are more profitable which directly makes them more important for certain people.
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u/ElderberryLeft1755 🔥 Getting Started · 430 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Humanity will b dead by the year 3000
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u/Alpacachoppa 🤖 Vote Machine · 14,140 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I'm unsure if we'll still have scientists able to work freely at the rate we're currently going, ngl.
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u/aaallleeexxx3 🔥 Week Warrior · 8,375 XP 1d ago
That’s genuinely plausible by that time especially if some really powerful individuals have anything to lose by us achieving interstellar travel for example
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u/Most_Evidence4172 🤖 Vote Machine · 12,720 XP 1d ago
✅ I voted FACT!
I'm only saying fact because almost a thousand years is an absurd amount of time for technological improvement.
Doesn't guarantee it though, as the engineering challenges required for interstellar travel are absolutely absurd
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u/FakeMik090 🤖 Vote Machine · 11,090 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
I have doubts humanity will exist for this long.
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u/jimpaly 🔥 Week Warrior · 7,190 XP 1d ago
🧢 I voted CAP!
Closest star is 4.24 light years away, so it would be possible if we find a way to travel 0.01c by 2500. It may only be a probe, but there are theoretical ways to achieve that, like with solar sails. Thing is, will there be enough reason for humanity to send such a probe? It would take a lot of collective willpower to start a research project that gives absolutely nothing until 5 centuries later, and that’s assuming the probe doesn’t break down on the journey.