On Space Travel

What is the future of space travel? Upon what are we to rely to answer this question? A practical means of doing so would be to review progress made in the past, and using that data reason what will come to pass in the future. What other sources can provide insight as to space travel's future? There has always existed the medium of science fiction. Creations of the imagination such as Star Trek and Star Wars attempt to present conceptions of what our world could be like in the future. Are these expressions of the future, however, reliable and accurate portrayals of the future? Determining the answer to this must be based upon nothing short of honest, reasonable thought. In doing so, we must ask this question: is a world in which people can travel to and fro between planets and stars much like one makes visits from house to house on a city block, a valid illustration of the future?

We must ask ourselves the question, then, of how creators of series such as Star Trek and Star Wars arrived at the content behind these works. Were these works totally original? Or had they been based on a previously existing idea? Let us assume that Star Trek and Star Wars are projections of current technology into the future. What is the history of mankind's progress in the area of space travel? The first flying machine was built at the very beginning of the twentieth century. This marks the point of origin in our study of man's progress in creating machines that can fly. Perhaps since the dawn of time man has envisioned travel by air. However, our concept of what can be empirically accomplished in the area of space travel in the future must be based upon the progress we have observed mankind to achieve in travel by air up until now. On another topic: how long has science fiction been around, in comparison to spaceflight technology? This could be considered a very important question in terms of what we discussing. With this in mind, we must ask ourselves a very honest, very piercing question: is the notion of a world in which people can travel to and fro between planets and stars much like one makes visits from house to house on a city block, a product of what progress says is possible, or is it a product of the ideas presented by science fiction?

Science fiction does not put into consideration the harsh realities that would exist if space travel were attempted in the real world. Science fiction does not put into consideration the vastness of the distances in between planets and stars. An example: let us assume that our nearest star, Alpha Centauri, possesses a solar system like the sun does. In science fiction scenarios, travel from one solar system to the next is an everyday occurrence. Let us further assume, for the sake of the material, that the sun is the size of a tennis ball. Given that the sun is the size of a tennis ball, how far away would Alpha Centauri be, itself also about the size of a tennis ball? Make a truthful, educated guess on this figure. The answer to how far away Alpha Centauri would be is that it would be about 1,380 miles away! This is a figure leaps and bounds beyond what the average person would have guessed, as can be quite clearly seen. This would put the earth about 25 feet from the sun, and the moon a mere inch from the earth! Let this dictate to us the true nature of space travel.

Another aspect to space travel unclear to the average person is the belief that celestial bodies possess fixed positions within the cosmos. In science fiction we find systems of bodies portrayed that are seemingly stationary. This represents the average person's conception of the placement of bodies within space. In reality, however, nothing is stationary. When we say that all systems of bodies within the universe are without a fixed position, we mean that there's nothing in the universe that isn't in motion. For example, when you leave behind a point of origin in moving toward a destination somewhere else in the cosmos, that point of origin, having been in motion the whole time, continues to move away from where it was when you left it. When you reach a destination, in turn, where it is when you reach it is not where it was at the moment you left your point of origin. This is because for any given orbiting system you find, that orbiting system will itself be a component of a greater orbiting system. You will never reach a level, take note, in which some type of orbiting isn't taking place. This means of reasoning lays the foundation for what we know as Einstein's principle of relativity: nothing has a fixed position. Let this dictate to us the true nature of space travel.

We are now to put into consideration yet another aspect of how science fiction has influenced our beliefs about space travel: the speeds at which space vehicles are to be supposedly able to travel. The typical science fiction scenario involves space vehicles capable of attaining speeds near, reaching, or exceeding the speed of light. This is science fiction's answer: what better solution to distances as vast as those of space than the bringing forth of space vehicles capable of speeds equally as large? The question of importance that we must ask, then, is whether the notion of travel at near-light speed is a work of true science, or the result of science 'borrowing' ideas from science fiction? Let us further examine the situation. Put into consideration the notion that travel at near-light speed is an entity created out of its own necessity. Travel at near-light speed is necessary in the sense that it helps solve an issue unavoidable in the area of space travel: the issue of time. Assume that before us lies a civilization making a journey to its nearest star, perhaps 4 light-years away. Assuming this civilization lacks the technology present in the science fiction scenarios (as we do), their journey would take thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years to complete. Travel at near-light speed is what must be present in space travel, if space travel is to be what science fiction says it should be. What this appears to suggest is that the whole idea of space travel is nothing more than the product of someone's imagination.

For example, there's the problem of containing the huge quantities of fuel that a space vehicle would require to reach its destination: where do we find room for all of it? Then there's the problem of debris floating through space: if you're darting though space at light-speed, how do you dodge space rocks so that the force of an impact doesn't damage or destroy your ship? What about the colossal inertia due to the ship's motion affecting conditions within the ship? These very pressing, very crucial, very real issues are not the only issues of their kind. These factors, however, and the factors presented earlier in this writing, must be pondered and considered seriously when the topic of space travel is approached. Our ultimate goal, then, is to direct our attention towards a very important question: is our conception of space travel based upon true science, or from ideas 'borrowed' from science fiction?