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The "escape velocity" for Earth is about 11.2 kilometers (7 miles) per second.
If you can achieve that upward velocity, then Earth's gravity can never pull you
back. The Apollo spacecraft, set up to park in Earth orbit for a while and then
to eventually continue on to the Moon, reached speeds not much greater than
escape velocity, and took something like three days to make the trip in each
direction.
11.2 kilometers per second is about 0.0037 percent of the speed of light.
Suppose we launch a robotic space probe, and since it has no people in it, we
can really put the pedal to the metal and accelerate to 100 times the Earth's
escape velocity. That's still only about 0.37 percent of the speed of light.
Put it another way . . . Think of a really hot car, with a streamlined body, an
engine that burns pure rocket fuel, and steel-studded tires that never slip, and
the car does zero to 60 in one second. Of course, that's 2.7 G's, so the driver
sinks way back into his seat, all the blood rushes to his knees, and he passes
out. But we've got no time to worry about him. Luckily he was able to switch
the car into full robo-drive while he was still conscious, and it's steering itself
straight and level. Also, since we're receiving fuel continuously by radio, we
don't have to worry about ever running out, and we can keep accelerating at
2.7 G's for as long as we want.
-- We're doing another zero-to-sixty every second.
-- How long will it take us to reach the sea-level speed of sound ?
-- How long will it take us to reach 1/2 of the speed of light ?
Answers:
-- Sea-level sound barrier . . . 12.7 seconds
-- 50% of the free-space speed of light . . . 64.7 days
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoNo. Humans cannot travel the speed of light, and do not have the technology to even get close to this speed. According to the Special Theory of Relativity, it would be impossible for anything that has mass (which would include humans) to accelerate to the speed of light. This is because, as an object begins to approach the speed of light, the object's mass begins to increase infinitely. Thus, it will then take even more energy to go faster, and as it's mass approaches infinity, so does the energy required to accelerate the object to the speed of light.
Wiki User
∙ 14y agoNot with current technology.
Wiki User
∙ 13y agoNo.
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According to the Theory of Relativity the closer an object gets to the speed of light the slower it goes so why does light which travels at the speed of light travel at all?
AnswerThe question states an incorrect premise. As an object approaches the speed of light, neither the object nor light "goes slower". At relativistic speeds (speeds of about 1/100 of the speed of light or faster), the faster a body travels, the slower time passes for that body compared to a "non-moving" frame of reference.Light is measured to travel at the same speed for all observers, no matter what the observer's speed is. For example, suppose you were in a space ship traveling at 1/2 the speed of light, and that space ship was racing toward a star. You would measure the light coming from that star at c, the constant speed of light. Now suppose your friend was in another space ship which was "stopped". Your friend would measure the same light coming from the same star at the same speed of c. The difference between you and your friend is your friend would age more quickly than you would, because time passes more slowly for you while you are traveling at relativistic speeds.It is also true that, as a body approaches the speed of light, it develops something called relativistic mass. So you, your space ship, and everything in it gets heavier when you travel at 1/2 c. Because the space ship gets heavier, it becomes harder to push (it has greater inertia), and therefore it is more difficult to accelerate the space ship further to make it go even faster. So it is true that, as you approach the speed of light, the harder it is to approach the speed of light. The mathematics predicts that, at the speed of light itself, your relativistic mass is infinite1, and so is your inertia, therefore you can never "push" something to make it actually go as fast as the speed of light.Light itself is a bit of an enigma. A photon - a light particle - has zero mass, but it does have momentum. Zero mass also means zero relativistic mass, allowing the photon to travel at c. In fact, not only can a photon travel at the speed of light, it must travel at the speed of light - a photon exists only while travelling at the speed of light - it ceases to exist if it stops or slows down.1 Relativistic Mass = Rest Mass / SQRT ( 1 - v2/c2), v is the velocity and c is the speed of light.Answer:I think I know where this question is coming from, but you made a bit of a confusion perhaps? Basically, the closer you get to the speed of light, the slower time goes? Is that what you meant to say? Relativity is very hard to get your head around, because you need to drop the concept of velocity altogether, and only think of relative velocity, and time, and even length in the direction you travel in (I did say it would be weird!). Light will ALWAYS overtake you at 300000000m/s. It doesn't matter how fast you go, or how slow you go relative to the source of that light, it will always, if travelling through a vacuum, travel at the speed of light given, and this value is a constant value called C. Its the space speed limit that is policed by the laws of physics. But, if you did travel very fast (close to C), there would be a time dilation relative to people here on earth. And this was first discovererd when they realized that particles that came down to earth from the upper atmosphere had a half life such that they should have decayed before they made it to the ground, however, because their velocity relative to the earth approaches C, they actually lasted longer! This same principal would apply to humans, so it would be possible to sit in a space craft, go close to C, come out 1 year later, and for all your friends and family and everyone you know to have grown old, whilst you'd only be 1 year older, because more time would have passed on earth than would have passed in your space craft, and this is called the time dilation effect.
How long to Pluto in a spaceship?
10 X 100000000 light years if the space ship is moving with a speed of 10000000000 km per minute.
How would people travel to Mars?
In a special space ship.
How fast can a flying saucer go?
The theory of general relativity does indeed allow for faster than light "travel". Not by accelerating to an actual speed that is greater than that of light, but in terms of squishing space in front of you and expanding space behind you, using enormous amounts of energy. There are galaxies, so far away that we cannot see them, that is speeding away from us faster than the speed of light because the space between it and us is expanding. If alien ships can do this, well - it is the same as asking if there are aliens in the first place. We don't know.
What is the fastest way to get to Venus?
At the moment it is not possible for a person from Earth to travel to Venus.
When Working in outer space at what Speed does the space ship Travel?
This depends on the type of spaceship.
What is Pleiadian Space Ship?
The Pleiadian Space Ship is built by human extraterrestrials from the planet Erra in the Taygeta Star System which is part of the Pleiades Constellation. Erra is 440 light years from earth. The space ship is built with a magnetic propulsion engine which is able to bend space and time and travel faster than a billion miles a second. They discovered they can travel in another dimension which is faster than the speed of light.
How can you speed up travel in outer space?
there are a lot of possible methods to do this but the peoples favourite is faster then light but that is probly impossible. We could use nuclear bombs behind each ship to propel the ship into space like the Orion project
Can a space ship travel at the speed of light with the support of a artificial worm hole the spaceship will be charged with opposing ionsspace HHeopposite of Heto create space for occupantsship?
it is impossible to accelerate to that speed simply due to the reletivistic velocity additional formula
How long does it take to travel a mile in a rocket ship?
The time required for a space vehicle to travel 1 mile is precisely(3,600 seconds)/(speed of the ship, in mph) .
How long would it take to go one light year?
Depends on your speed. A light year is the distance light travels in a year. If you traveled slower it would take longer.Depends on the speed you are going.At the speed of light one year.See related question for details of a light yearJust like any other distance, it depends on the speed of travel.-- At the speed of light, radio, x-rays, etc., it takes 1 year.-- At 1 million miles per hour, it takes about 671 years.-- At 60 miles per hour, it takes about 11.2 million years.A light year is the distance that light will travel in one year in a vacuum. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. So, light will travel about 5.8 trillion miles in one year. Now, to answer the question. The answer depends on how fast you are traveling. If you were in a space ship travelling 99.9999% the speed of light, it would take you about a year to travel a light year. Now, there is currently no human-made space craft, that we know of, that can travel that fast. The space shuttle travels at about 17,500 miles per hour. In order for the space shuttle to travel one light year, it would take about 38,262 years.
Can a light year ship be invented?
Do you mean a light SPEED ship? Ignoring the possiblity of "warp" technology, which, though potentially faster than light, does not really address the problem of achieving light speed, but circumvents it: As speed increases, so does mass. The increase in mass is imperceptible at the speeds you and I commonly travel, and even at the enormous speeds (but still nowhere near light-speed) achieved by the space shuttle. However, at speeds near light speed, mass increases assymptotically. At light speed, mass is, in fact, infinite. If a ship was attempting to attain light speed, its mass would increase more and more with each additional unit of speed. As it gets closer to light speed, the mass would be so great that no amount of thrust would be able to get it TO light-speed. The mathematical proof of this is somewhat more complicated, but take my word for it - it's impossible.
How long does it take to get to the moon in a space ship?
Depends on the speed the craft can travel. The Apollo mission took about 3 days
Where should humans travel in space?
in a space ship
Is the spacecraft the same as a space ship?
no, a space craft may be used to explore or travel and a space ship has to have a captain, it is the much more formal version of space travel. JB)
Would a man or anything survive inside a space ship traveling the speed of light?
According to our understanding of physics (which is always subject to revision and reinterpretation as we learn more) it is impossible to travel AT the speed of light. A spacecraft with sufficient power can go very CLOSE to the speed of light (although because of the interstellar gas and dust, it would probably be quite dangerous to do so!) but can never actually REACH the speed of light.
How do you go to other universes?
You can travel with the speed of light at the most. That can be the limit. That is the maximum speed that you can reach out. It will take about 14 billion years to cross your universe. So you have to spends the generations in space ship. Better go to your neighbor. You probably never had been there for years.
