How long would take to travel 490 light years with current technology?

Answer 1

It wouldn't be possible using our current technology; with our current technology, it takes 10 years to get outside our own solar system.

With technology that we could reasonably develop within the next 50 years, it should be possible to create a spacecraft that could travel 490 light years in ONLY 5,000 years or so. We know the basic principles for an Orion Nuclear Pulse Rocket, but it would be phenomenally expensive and impractical to build one to go 490 light years. The first such spacecraft will travel to much nearer stars.

Answer 2

That depends on the speed. Close to the speed of light, you can travel one light-year per year (from the point of view of the traveler, though, much less time will elapse). But current technology doesn't allow us to travel even at 1% of the speed of light.

Answer 3

49 years for light - everything else takes longer.

Answer 4

Pioneer 10, which has now escaped the solar system, reached a top speed of 132,000 km per hour. At that speed it would take over 400,000 years to travel 49 light years.