1. Exploring the Concept of Near-Light-Speed Travel
2. Time Dilation and Age Differences
3. The Dangers of High-Speed Travel
4. The Vastness of the Universe
5. Looking Ahead: Space Travel Missions
Ever wish you could travel at the speed of light to your favorite destinations? However, once you see the reality of that speed, you may rethink everything.
“There are some important things you should probably know about approaching the speed of light,” NASA’s video, Guide to Near-light-speed Travel, explains. First, a lot of weird things can happen, like time and space getting all bent out of shape.
According to the video, if you’re traveling at nearly the speed of light, the clock inside your rocket would show it takes less time to reach your destination than it would on Earth. Consequently, since the clocks at home would be moving at a standard rate, you’d return home to everyone else having aged quite a bit.
“Also, because you’re going so fast, what would otherwise be just a few hydrogen atoms that you’d run into quickly becomes a lot of dangerous particles. Therefore, you should probably have shields that keep them from frying your ship and also you.”
Finally, the video addresses the fact that even if you were moving at the speed of light, the universe is a very big place, so you might be in for some surprises. For example, your rocket’s clock will say it takes about nine months to get from Earth to the edge of the solar system. An Earth clock would indicate that it took about a year and a half. Fortunately, NASA astronauts have a plethora of tips for avoiding jet lag along the way.
“If you want to get to farther out vacation spots,” the video elaborates, “you’ll probably need more than a few extra snacks. A trip to the Andromeda Galaxy, our nearest large neighbor galaxy, can take over one million years. Moreover, a journey to the farthest known galaxy where it currently sits might take over 15 billion years, which is an extraordinary amount of vacation time that I think many would find unrealistic.”
The video doesn’t explain how your rocket will travel at the speed of light. Our technology just isn’t there yet, but perhaps the aliens will share that tech with us soon. Until then, you can track the first crew launch of Artemis II, a rocket that will fly around the moon in 2024 before making its first lunar landing in 2025.
