Can Future Spaceships travel light Speed?

[amshak]

I am willing to know the answer. If yes Can You Give me Suggistions About this . Can we achive this by Utilizing COSMIC RAYS. I want to Know Your Ideas . I am a bit curious . So I am Hopping For Imaginative Answers :!:
-Amshak...

 

[MeteorWayne]

No. Nothing with mass can ever attain light speed in our Universe.

 

[weeman]

I am willing to know the answer. If yes Can You Give me Suggistions About this . Can we achive this by Utilizing COSMIC RAYS. I want to Know Your Ideas . I am a bit curious . So I am Hopping For Imaginative Answers :!:
-Amshak...

This can be explained through Einstein's equation, E=mc^2:

Energy is equal to mass times the speed of light, squared. What Einstein was saying is that mass and energy are two different states of the same thing. Mass can be converted to energy and vise versa.

So how does this apply to traveling at the speed of light?

As both MeteorWayne and Einstein have said, nothing with mass can travel at C (the speed of light). Photons are massless packets of light, whom have not aged since the beginning of the universe!

So, if we take a look at Einstein's equation, and mass and energy are two versions of the same thing, if we have more energy, we have more mass, and if we have more mass, we have more energy. As an object of mass (anything other than a photon) travels closer and closer to C, it becomes more massive, therefore requiring more energy to push it to a greater velocity. Mass continues to build as an object approaches C, continuously requiring more energy.

This means that at .5 C the object is far more massive than at rest. At .9 C again, more massive. The closer and closer you get towards the speed of light the more energy you need to get there. Eventually, you will come to the conclusion that it requires an infinite amount of energy to propel your infinitely growing amount of mass. Even at .9999999999 light speed you will still never acquire the needed energy to push you the last fraction to lightspeed. In other words, there's just not enough energy in all the known universe to get your tiny ship to the speed of light.

 

[amshak]

This means that at .5 C the object is far more massive than at rest. At .9 C again, more massive. The closer and closer you get towards the speed of light the more energy you need to get there. Eventually, you will come to the conclusion that it requires an infinite amount of energy to propel your infinitely growing amount of mass. Even at .9999999999 light speed you will still never acquire the needed energy to push you the last fraction to lightspeed. In other words, there's just not enough energy in all the known universe to get your tiny ship to the speed of light.

Ok. I agree.
If you think Fictionally , can we go at the speed of Light?
Einstin had said that. - A matter can go below the speed of light or more than the speed of light but not at the speed of light and he had proved it Theorotically, But if we think Practically, Can we go at the speed of light if we give Infinite Energy?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Since we can't supply infinite energy, practically speaking, the answer is no.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

...Ok. I agree.
If you think Fictionally , can we go at the speed of Light?
Einstin had said that. - A matter can go below the speed of light or more than the speed of light but not at the speed of light and he had proved it Theorotically, But if we think Practically, Can we go at the speed of light if we give Infinite Energy?

It would require infinite energy because, eventually, what you would have to accelerate would equate to infinite mass.

So, "lightspeed" represents what appears to be a very real speed barrier. Only functionally massless particles can travel at the speed of light.

 

[nimbus]

I am willing to know the answer. If yes Can You Give me Suggistions About this . Can we achive this by Utilizing COSMIC RAYS. I want to Know Your Ideas . I am a bit curious . So I am Hopping For Imaginative Answers :!:
-Amshak...

Just curious why you asked about the specific possibility of using cosmic rays... ?

 

[WannabeRocketScientist]

The speed of light, as I am too late to say, is indeed the speed limit of the universe.

However, near light-speed is possible, if the hull were thick enough to avoid damage and/or death from various space bound factors (hydrogen atoms, micrometeors etc.)


I am not too knowledgeable in either case, but in theory I believe that it is possible using current technology in theory you could accelerate perpetually until you either ran out of fuel, were battered by some of the cosmic factors mentioned above, or you reached the speed you can attain based on the energy you have at your disposal, which will, as discussed above, not be enough to bring you close to .9 of light-speed, as the energy you would need is not attainable at this point in time (or possibly ever).

 

[amshak]

Ok , it is not possible to attain light speed, and I agree about The Micro metioroids. The known Possibility planet with life is 20.5 light years away, You require 20.5 years to reach there if you go at the speed of light . And its not possible . So what do we do about the future interstellar travels? What if the travel takes more than 200 years? I guess the colonies should be sent . One dies , the other continues .

 

[nimbus]

So what do we do about the future interstellar travels?

http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/blog/

 

[SteveCNC]

here's a link to an article from this site about possible faster than light travel
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/090506-tw-warp-drive.html
Not sure I buy it but who knows at this point , they used to say 1ghz was the speed limit for a computer chip , they used to say a lot of things so you never know .

 

[nimbus]

I could be wrong, but one of the most feasible means of FTL as mentioned in that SDC article is the Alcubierre space warping scheme. You bend space ahead in a certain manner, and space behind the ship in an opposite manner, so that the ship is riding on a ripple of sorts. The problem with that is how you'd bend space that way.

The only near term investigation that'd lead to this, that I know of, is Mach-Effect research (leading to both propellantless propulsion and possibly negative mass matter) by Woodward, March, and a few others researching related phenomena. E.G. Cramer's experiments, also near-term and easy to research on the net; or Martin Tajmar whose few recent magnetics/gravitational experiments are supposed to possibly being related. It's all speculative at this point, but if there's any visible leads to FTL, those are it.

Very speculative and it's hard not to turn this into an internet link fest, so I'll stop there. The keywords to search for are above.

 

[amshak]

Nothing can go at the speed of Photons in Space - But what about Nutrinos ? and some of Electromagnatic Substance. There are Mystirious object in space . So we cannot Be Sure . May be near Nebulae or near Pulsar . Can we Utilize Dark Energy?

 

[MeteorWayne]

Light is an "electromagnetic substance" (except of course, it's not a substance, but electromagnetic waves) so it travels at the sapeed as light the same as anything else in the elecctromagnetic spectrum. Nutrinos (sic) seem to have a tiny amount of mass, so travel slower. Anything with mass travels slower than the speed of light, so that applies to any space ship.

 

[amshak]

What do you think about Wormholls . Just a Fiction or Real?

 

[darkhelmet01]

would it be possible for a craft to ride a beam of light? like a sail boat instead of using the wind to move it, it would use a beam of light.

i read one of the links, and that would take the need for rockets out.

 

[Floridian]

I would say it depends on how you define speed. Since speed is relative. Technically the speed of light is impossible, but might be possible to warp space time and in effective travel faster than the speed of light. According to the big bang people (I'm not a huge fan), the universe in the first miliseconds expanded faster than the speed of light. That means space-time can expand/move faster than the speed of light. In effect you might be able to create a warp drive, and by expanding/shrinking spacetime you could move faster than the speed of light in a way.

 

[Floridian]

would it be possible for a craft to ride a beam of light? like a sail boat instead of using the wind to move it, it would use a beam of light.

i read one of the links, and that would take the need for rockets out.

What you are talking about is removing the propulsion system and using an external propulsion system, significantly decreasing the mass required and allowing for external propulsion. Beamed power/propulsion will definently be used, if humanity lasts that long.

I think it isn't just light we can use, but high powered lasers made of super hot materials as well.

If you could fire your laser .6c, you can accelerate your ship up to .59c, with a constant flow of energy. The only problem is you'd have to go in a straight line.

 

[Floridian]

No. Nothing with mass can ever attain light speed in our Universe.

I understand the equation but has anyone actually proved this in a lab. I mean, what if you accelerated the ship to .99c using an external propulsion system, then kicked on the ships internal for the last boost.

 

[MeteorWayne]

First, for the reply two above, since a laser is light, the light always travels at 1.00 c.

For this reply, due to relativistic mass increase, it would require more energy than can exist in the Universe to accelerate anything with mass to c. It's prevented by the physics of the Universe.

 

[a_lost_packet_]

...I understand the equation but has anyone actually proved this in a lab. I mean, what if you accelerated the ship to .99c using an external propulsion system, then kicked on the ships internal for the last boost.

I'm not sure of the exact velocities but, in particle accelerators, mass bearing particles have increased relativistic mass due to their acceleration exactly as predicted. It takes more and more energy to accelerate them because of this. Confirming experiments abound. Einstein gets proven right, over and over again.

In regular space-time, it's simply not possible to accelerate a particle with mass to the speed of light given what we know today. The equation basically works out to yield an infinite amount of energy necessary to accelerate any mass bearing particle to the speed of light. Period. There's no way around it that we know of right now.

Incidentally, for any particle with no rest mass it must always move at the speed of light...

Work out this formula and you will understand exactly what the problem is:

E = mc[super]2[/super]/sqrt(1 - v[super]2[/super]/c[super]2[/super])

Where E= energy, m = mass, v = velocity and c=speed of light.

Remember, what happens when you divide by zero? What happens if v=0? Now, what happens if m=0 and v=0? What do you see happening as v approaches the speed of light? What happens to E?

 

[amshak]

Yes , thanks for some Ideas , and I think the Nutrinos could move light speed

 

[BurgerB75]

Yes , thanks for some Ideas , and I think the Nutrinos could move light speed

Not if they have any mass whatsoever. Even if they have a teeny tiny bit of mass they can not travel at or beyond the speed of a massless particle (the speed of light).

 

[Couerl]

So what do we do about the future interstellar travels?

Same thing everyone else in the universe has done. We sit here and wait to go extinct. :ugeek: :lol: