Question Will there be deep space travel in the next half century

[Catastrophe]

SOURAV, You are correct. Even the shortest interstellar journeys are going to take hundreds of years. It is still not certain that we can overcome radiation difficulties at all. Extra weight (maybe a lot of extra weight) will greatly increase fuel requirements. Perhaps we will eventually develop weightless fuel systems, but these may require complicated conversion units. Maybe the radiation problem will keep us here until we are seriously threatened. Mankind is a persistent and innovative plague, and will doubtless try hard to survive. So far, we have lasted but a blink of an eyelid. The dinosaurs lasted about 160 million years.

I do believe that remote control will come first and will persist for many generations, but mankind must plan for eventualities. Sooner or later there will be another Chicxulub event, and we will have to get out of the way. We must plan ahead now.

Cat

 

[voidpotentialenergy]

Unless we have some tech leap or new understanding of how to travel and bypass space/time then the only way to travel is as DNA.
100s 1000s of year trips even with a pretty good leap of tech.
JMO

Thank You for your feedback. However, it is not possible to 'bypass space/time' !

Gravity does, just for us to figure out how

 

[voidpotentialenergy]

Even at 0.7% conversion of hydrogen mass to energy is far more powerful than any chemical process. I think fusion is something over 500x more efficient at conversion vs. fission, IIRC.

Yeah, all critical issues in finding the most effective way to travel incredible distances. But chemical burning fuel that must be carried along in huge quantities seems less effective. I haven't dug into this much as we have such a long way to go to get me excited.

The idea of using rail guns to accelerate protons (hydrogen ions) into a high speed stream that could be scooped-up by a subsequent spaceship to minimize wasting fuel on fuel, so to speak, makes some sense.

A forgotten problem to a trip to any star is the relative speed and running into a sand grain along the way.
Lota energy released hitting 1.
Faster you go the more problematic that becomes.
We can fend off most particles that have a + or - charge with a large magnetic field but uncharged bits are going to need a serious shield.
A bunch more weight to carry and a lot more energy for the magnetic field..

 

[Catastrophe]

"A bunch more weight to carry and a lot more energy for the magnetic field.."

. . . . . . . . . and much more, if there is to be a return trip.

Cat

 

[SOURAV]

Yes Sir, you are right. There may be a lot of problems, but we have to try. Sooner or latter we have to fly out of the Blue Planet. Main problem is fuel. We need a lots of fuel. However, it is not clear (till now) how we fly to another planets some billion of l.y. without storing the fuel in the spaceship.

 

[Catastrophe]

"However, it is not clear (till now) how we fly to another planets some billion of l.y. without storing the fuel in the spaceship."

Pardon my asking, as this is probably a difference between US and English English, but over here "till now" is ambiguous. I am assuming you mean til now = up to the present, but it can equally mean (over here) = now, at last, it has become clear, instead of as at present, it still has not yet become clear.

Very often, context would suggest the intention, but not in this case.

Cat

 

[neverforget010621]

I think you are right concerning deep space travel, but unduly pessimistic concerning the exploration of Mars. I suggest that human exploration of Mars may well occur within 10-20 years if Elon Musk gets his way and he seems quite intent. Time will tell if gets a s far as a permanent settlement, flags and foot prints or if it fails to materialise at all. Why do you think that travel to Mars won't be possible?

Humans on Mars, or any attempts of colonization of Mars, in the next half century is indeed, not possible. This is due to one main reason. Funding.. Now Elon Musk may have his big steel rocket, but that rocket isnt going anywhere without NASA, and without american taxpayer money, The cost is simply to great. Furthermore, in order for there to be a publically funded NASA\Musk mission to Mars, there has to be a "financial or political incentive" to go to Mars, to justify the cost, and to justify the risk of people dying on Mars. And right now, sadly, there is no reason for America to pay money to send some billionaire yahoo to Mars, we have way too many problems that need to be solved here first, and to be honest, thanks to a certain political party, a functioning America, as we know it now, has one foot in the grave, and within a decade will no longer exist as the "United" States.. So if Musk is serious about going to Mars in his lifeteam, he should be courting the russians or china, because the US is in no shape to deal with this right now. .. Until NASA finds something worth the effort and worth the tax payer money to go to Mars, the Perserverence Robot, would have to find living organisms for there to be any thoughts of sending more than robots to Mars.. So perhaps the moon, and Ceres(asteroid belt) is possible, but anything else is a pipe dream.

 

[Lariliss]

DNA seems to be also not ready to travel.
It needs reconstruction technology development (not less than 20 to 30 years).
It needs ethical issues to be resolved.
If anyhow a mission with a robot and DNA is sent, it will need remote babysitting for the robot at least to handle it.
My bit of opinion.

'Ground control to robot...'

'However, it is not possible to 'bypass space/time''

 

[Slarty1080]

Humans on Mars, or any attempts of colonization of Mars, in the next half century is indeed, not possible. This is due to one main reason. Funding.. Now Elon Musk may have his big steel rocket, but that rocket isnt going anywhere without NASA, and without american taxpayer money, The cost is simply to great. Furthermore, in order for there to be a publically funded NASA\Musk mission to Mars, there has to be a "financial or political incentive" to go to Mars, to justify the cost, and to justify the risk of people dying on Mars. And right now, sadly, there is no reason for America to pay money to send some billionaire yahoo to Mars, we have way too many problems that need to be solved here first, and to be honest, thanks to a certain political party, a functioning America, as we know it now, has one foot in the grave, and within a decade will no longer exist as the "United" States.. So if Musk is serious about going to Mars in his lifeteam, he should be courting the russians or china, because the US is in no shape to deal with this right now. .. Until NASA finds something worth the effort and worth the tax payer money to go to Mars, the Perserverence Robot, would have to find living organisms for there to be any thoughts of sending more than robots to Mars.. So perhaps the moon, and Ceres(asteroid belt) is possible, but anything else is a pipe dream.

One thing is for certain nobody will be going to Mars anytime soon onboard NASA’s current SLS heavy launcher at $1 billion a throw. Starship should be cheaper than this congress dictated program by 1-2 orders of magnitude. In a few years time when Starship is operational the cost of getting to Mars is going to look very different.

NASA has no say over the goals of the US Space program, that’s decided by Congress, NASA has to do what it’s told. And Congress is quite happy to spend tens of billions on space activities every year. Once the price to get to Mars comes down the prestige of sending the first humans there will be irresistible to the critters in Washington, especially if the Russians and the Chinese are strutting their stuff in Space.

 

[Kakihara]

I think amount of fuel is not the biggest of the problems.

If We can achieve an impressive speed, for example a 40 or 50% of the light speed, having enough energy for a travel, then the main problem will be the small particles in our way. At that speed, It's very difficult to avoid small particles on our way, and a little rock, as small as a lighter, could put an end to our journey, destroying the ship itself.

Regards

 

[Clovis]

We are experiencing problems even to go to our own moon. Anywhere else is out of the question. At least for the rest of this century. Covid 19 has damaged even the worlds economy. Not just ours. America can't afford it, Europe can't afford it ,neither can Russia. China, it would be a gamble at best.

 

[Kakihara]

I think that deep space travel has nothing to do with <<Off topic content removed by moderator>>.

Our sci-fi literature during the past 70 years has been always unrealistically ahead and far beyond our reality today on space travel.

 

[Clovis]

No matter, we still can't afford it. Due to a lot of things other than what I posted. That's just a part of it. A lot of Space ambitions are on hold right now. Both government and private.

 

[Slarty1080]

No matter, we still can't afford it. Due to a lot of things other than what I posted. That's just a part of it. A lot of Space ambitions are on hold right now. Both government and private.

I think it depends what we are talking about here. If its travel to the stars then the best that can be said is lets have another look at the question in a hundred years time and take it from there. If its sending humans to Mars then the biggest problem is our tendency to throw rockets into the ocean after one use and to let jobs dictate space policy. Nothing wrong with a jobs creation program, but the jobs creation program tail is wagging the space policy dog at the moment.

If Starship delivers on it's promise to reduce costs by 1-2 orders of magnitude, then a crewed mission to Mars should be quite possible even with cut backs. Of course we are still some way from seeing Starship operational and it might not work, but if it does then I would not be betting against Musk. It's also worth considering how much the Government spends on space $20 billion or so - compared to what else it spends - $700 billion or more on defence and all the rest so its not a massive part of the whole.

 

[Catastrophe]

Will there be deep space travel in the next half century

"What is deep space
The International Telecommunication Union defines "deep space" to start at a distance of 2 million km (approximately 0.01 AU) from the Earth's surface. ... Deep space exploration further than this vessel's capacity is not yet possible due to limitations in the propulsion technology currently available."

However, I think 'further than Mars' may have been more what OP had in mind.

Google gives:

The trip takes around seven months; a bit longer than astronauts currently stay on the International Space Station. The precise duration of each journey depends on when it is taken. Because both Mars and Earth's orbits are not perfectly circular, the time it takes to travel between them varies from six to eight months.
How long does it take to travel to Mars? - A Mission to Mars

So what is beyond Mars? Where might 'deep space' (in this sense)?

If we take the moons of Jupiter as the next nearest destination, a very rough (though overly simplistic) calculation might be to take 5/1,5 (AU/AU) would give about 2 years each way (in fact, probably a lot more than this). So this is the minimum journey which might be ascribed to the thread subject.

On the basis of sending a robot, or even a chip, assuming these qualify as travel, I think this should be possible in the next 50 years. Travel by humans is a totally different question. My 'take' on this would be 'no way'. Speeds would be much slower, and time would have to be allowed to slow down and turn around.

Cat

 

[voidpotentialenergy]

Will there be deep space travel in the next half century

"What is deep space
The International Telecommunication Union defines "deep space" to start at a distance of 2 million km (approximately 0.01 AU) from the Earth's surface. ... Deep space exploration further than this vessel's capacity is not yet possible due to limitations in the propulsion technology currently available."

However, I think 'further than Mars' may have been more what OP had in mind.

Google gives:

The trip takes around seven months; a bit longer than astronauts currently stay on the International Space Station. The precise duration of each journey depends on when it is taken. Because both Mars and Earth's orbits are not perfectly circular, the time it takes to travel between them varies from six to eight months.
How long does it take to travel to Mars? - A Mission to Mars

So what is beyond Mars? Where might 'deep space' (in this sense)?

If we take the moons of Jupiter as the next nearest destination, a very rough (though overly simplistic) calculation might be to take 5/1,5 (AU/AU) would give about 2 years each way (in fact, probably a lot more than this). So this is the minimum journey which might be ascribed to the thread subject.

On the basis of sending a robot, or even a chip, assuming these qualify as travel, I think this should be possible in the next 50 years. Travel by humans is a totally different question. My 'take' on this would be 'no way'. Speeds would be much slower, and time would have to be allowed to slow down and turn around.

Cat

Not really much humanity can visit after Mars.
Even with a big leap in the speed it's pretty high probability of a solar flare along the way.
Even a trip to Mars has a pretty good chance of one.

The Jovian moons are all in pretty high radiation zones and cold/hostile bodies that a drill is much more important than boots.
Same setup for all the moons of the rest of the planets except for 1 moon Titan and it's thick protective atmosphere.

Maybe Titan, Ceres and Mars moons but IMO after Mars it's robots because the danger and distances just to high.

 

[Atlan0001]

Not really much humanity can visit after Mars.
Even with a big leap in the speed it's pretty high probability of a solar flare along the way.
Even a trip to Mars has a pretty good chance of one.

The Jovian moons are all in pretty high radiation zones and cold/hostile bodies that a drill is much more important than boots.
Same setup for all the moons of the rest of the planets except for 1 moon Titan and it's thick protective atmosphere.

Maybe Titan, Ceres and Mars moons but IMO after Mars it's robots because the danger and distances just to high.

VPE I'm surprised at you. Life is not going to live on planetary, moon, asteroid, or any surface of the kind, except for Mars of course. Life is not going to live in caverns dug into them either, except, again, for Mars. Life is going to live on the surface of space itself; the "High Frontier" in the high seas of space itself; in designed, designed protected, eminently habitable habitat space colonies. They will orbit all of the planets, even a few of the bigger moons of two of the gas giants. They will be eating the asteroid belt for centuries to come. Eventually, after a few centuries quite possibly, The total decentralized, detached, surface area of a seemingly almost spider web tenuous plane of a vast wide area network of wide area networks of local area networks of islanded space colony city-states, private agriculture and ranching and fishery, estates and too many other functional station facilitations to name, not to mention the space in countless ships always in transit transiting in the countless lanes, space corridors, between them all will be greater than the surface area of a thousand or many more than a thousand Earths depending upon what we eventually discover in the now so distant Kuiper and Oort clouds. The solar system over decades and centuries will become loaded with life, and in and during that loading we will vastly shrink the distances of the solar system. Vastly, shrink the distances, vastly shrinking the solar system!

In and during those decades to centuries we will evolve vastly the technology of our then gigantic and gigantically various transportation systems, as we go -- as we shrink the distances of the solar system as we so vastly shrank the distances of Earth. We will then be into the edges of interstellar space, if not fully into interstellar space within those centuries, if not even more shortly, just many decades. If not just literally falling into discovering natural ways and means to transit interstellar space, we will be into developing the artificial means to transit, to travel, interstellar space (I repeat: to, in turn, shrink those distances as we have, or will have, found or developed the ways and means to shrink all distances before).

There are many really fantastic prints of spin gravitied space stations ("Voyager Station" for one) and space colonies on the internet. We will have to develop the tools to develop the tools of construction of space stations and colonies, of building ships in space. Because we can, we will build bigger and bigger and better facilities, tools, in space. Eventually we will have facilitation in space to more or less speedily input raw materials into one end, and output custom designed stations or colonies, or ships and boats, or exoskeletal structure spacesuits, out of the other end. We will not be even nearly as limited in dimensionality and possibilities out there in the solar systemic space frontier, on and in the surface of space itself, as we are in here on Earth or on or in any planet, moon, asteroid, or the all too cramping natural like concerning populating possibilities, mass conversion possibilities, energy possibilities, mobility possibilities, transit lane-corridor possibilities, just about any dimensionality and possibility you might care to name.

The space frontier itself is not only vastly broad in high frontier high seas of space, we will most certainly discover and use to the hilt those high frontier high seas' equally vast depths that so few physicists and others even seem to know exists. I'm not the only one, thank goodness, who knows about the dimensions of space frontier's depths as well as its breadths. "Deep space" really means deep space, not the singularly, so relativistic, flat plane breadth of space. They are not 2-d. They are not singularly the same. We cannot even observe the 3-d of space frontier, much less any 4-d or greater. But we will access those greater dimensions once we birth out of our lesser dimensionality and are out there to stay and grow into those greater dimensions. The observed appearance of the observable universe is purely relativistic flatness, not so the unobservable reality that must be entered out into, reached into, worked into, and traveled into, to realize the reality of. There is no shortcut to it!

 

[Atlan0001]

The shortest route to the outer planets and the comet cloud belts from Earth, especially when we have constantly powered travel in space will probably be traveling either a curve directly toward Sagittarius in interstellar space or directly away from it, and then back into the solar system and the outer planets and comet cloud belts.

Once we reach into interstellar space, the most direct route of travel between distant points of the Milky Way will probably be to curve into intergalactic space and then back into the Milky Way toward the destination point. Of course we will travel these routes only when we have constant power, thus constant acceleration, means in our transport.

Constant power means (constant acceleration means), will probably be fusion power engines shrunk to fit into whatever size ships we will have by that time. The power source for the engines will probably be whatever cosmic energy source we discover to exist for use. In other words, an external, cosmic, energy source rather than onboard tanked fuel. Whatever onboard tanked fuel-energy there might be, would be for starting the process of powered voyaging, not continuing it.

This is how I foresee / imagine things developing over decades and/or centuries regarding deep space routing and travel. I do believe this post ends my sleeplessness well enough for this early morning. My wife of more than fifty years will kill me (kind of, so to speak) if she wakes and finds me, at my age, going at it so darn early.

 

[voidpotentialenergy]

VPE I'm surprised at you. Life is not going to live on planetary, moon, asteroid, or any surface of the kind, except for Mars of course. Life is not going to live in caverns dug into them either, except, again, for Mars. Life is going to live on the surface of space itself; the "High Frontier" in the high seas of space itself; in designed, designed protected, eminently habitable habitat space colonies. They will orbit all of the planets, even a few of the bigger moons of two of the gas giants. They will be eating the asteroid belt for centuries to come. Eventually, after a few centuries quite possibly, The total decentralized, detached, surface area of a seemingly almost spider web tenuous plane of a vast wide area network of wide area networks of local area networks of islanded space colony city-states, private agriculture and ranching and fishery, estates and too many other functional station facilitations to name, not to mention the space in countless ships always in transit transiting in the countless lanes, space corridors, between them all will be greater than the surface area of a thousand or many more than a thousand Earths depending upon what we eventually discover in the now so distant Kuiper and Oort clouds. The solar system over decades and centuries will become loaded with life, and in and during that loading we will vastly shrink the distances of the solar system. Vastly, shrink the distances, vastly shrinking the solar system!

In and during those decades to centuries we will evolve vastly the technology of our then gigantic and gigantically various transportation systems, as we go -- as we shrink the distances of the solar system as we so vastly shrank the distances of Earth. We will then be into the edges of interstellar space, if not fully into interstellar space within those centuries, if not even more shortly, just many decades. If not just literally falling into discovering natural ways and means to transit interstellar space, we will be into developing the artificial means to transit, to travel, interstellar space (I repeat: to, in turn, shrink those distances as we have, or will have, found or developed the ways and means to shrink all distances before).

There are many really fantastic prints of spin gravitied space stations ("Voyager Station" for one) and space colonies on the internet. We will have to develop the tools to develop the tools of construction of space stations and colonies, of building ships in space. Because we can, we will build bigger and bigger and better facilities, tools, in space. Eventually we will have facilitation in space to more or less speedily input raw materials into one end, and output custom designed stations or colonies, or ships and boats, or exoskeletal structure spacesuits, out of the other end. We will not be even nearly as limited in dimensionality and possibilities out there in the solar systemic space frontier, on and in the surface of space itself, as we are in here on Earth or on or in any planet, moon, asteroid, or the all too cramping natural like concerning populating possibilities, mass conversion possibilities, energy possibilities, mobility possibilities, transit lane-corridor possibilities, just about any dimensionality and possibility you might care to name.

The space frontier itself is not only vastly broad in high frontier high seas of space, we will most certainly discover and use to the hilt those high frontier high seas' equally vast depths that so few physicists and others even seem to know exists. I'm not the only one, thank goodness, who knows about the dimensions of space frontier's depths as well as its breadths. "Deep space" really means deep space, not the singularly, so relativistic, flat plane breadth of space. They are not 2-d. They are not singularly the same. We cannot even observe the 3-d of space frontier, much less any 4-d or greater. But we will access those greater dimensions once we birth out of our lesser dimensionality and are out there to stay and grow into those greater dimensions. The observed appearance of the observable universe is purely relativistic flatness, not so the unobservable reality that must be entered out into, reached into, worked into, and traveled into, to realize the reality of. There is no shortcut to it!

Life might be in many places in our solar system and beyond.
Humans are not designed for low G or big doses of radiation.
Even on Mars a colony will need to sleep at 1 g or suffer all sorts of health problems and Mars is the only semi safe place to set up camp, wandering around on the surface to much will get you pretty good doses of radiation.

Maybe Titan but it a cryogenic low G world so it has a long list of needs for a colony but at least with a thick atmosphere radiation isn't a problem.

Every destination is far better suited to robots than humans.
All comes down to do we need to send humans to any place, is it so expensive and dangerous to do so that robots will always be #1 on the checkbox.
JMO

 

[Atlan0001]

VPE, concerning your reply, post #44, Utopia on a singularly shrunken closed systemic, entropic, Earth cannot and will not exist. Then we on a shrunken Earth alone, shrunken in, folded in, in all distances of once wide open frontiers, are bound for closed systemic, entropic, Dystopia, Armageddon, and extinction that is totally unnecessary. Both Daniel Webster and Horace Greeley once called the American West so vast, raw, alien, and harshly forbidding as to be totally unsuited for civilized humans. They claimed, at the time, it was nothing but a huge death trap. Three hundred and fifty years before that such men as Thomas More were saying the same thing about the entire Maritime Frontier and the American continents. Human will and energy -- advanced life's grown great embryonic wants and needs, growth (birth) structures and infrastructures -- to get out of the wombs of Old Worlds into New Life Frontiers will not be denied : the alternative is no good alternative at all. We will either begin Exodus from the womb of Earth or face an inevitability of death trap in spinning our wheels in place.

Physicist Michio Kaku stated conditions perfectly in his book 'Hyperspace'. In two million years humanity has grown in numbers over a million fold. But that is nothing comparatively speaking. In the same two million years, humanity has grown in energy, complexity, complication, and reaches, two million fold average per every man, woman, and child living. One million fold of that two million fold increase in energy.... coming in just the last seventy years! It is exactly analogous to life inside the womb in the final stage reaching the due time of beginning inexorable progression to birth from the womb universe into a brand new and alien universe it has now grown in limbs, organs, energies, needs, wants, and all other preparations for. If it stops, it dies. There is no stop action, no staying, no going back, and no making heaven on Earth (in the womb of Earth). There is no "into perpetuity" for advanced life at the apex of the pyramid of life on Earth. We were produced to be the "all eggs in one single basket of life," so to speak, for one purpose. We were not made to be the custodians of Earth, we were made to be the carrier of Earth life out into to the new frontier of universe -- for Earth life -- or self-destruct if we can't or won't do the job we were made for so long ago. The phrase is "Grow or die" : "Birth or die" : Exodus of die : Evolve out or die : Frontier or die : Go nova into the universe or implode in place, and be replaced if there is time enough, before yet another mass extinction (possibly the final mass extinction) to produce another species much less sensitive; therefore willful enough and tough enough and ruthless enough to get the job of birthing life out of its now increasingly dangerously vulnerable womb world nest done.

 

[voidpotentialenergy]

VPE, concerning your reply, post #44, Utopia on a singularly shrunken closed systemic, entropic, Earth cannot and will not exist. Then we on a shrunken Earth alone, shrunken in, folded in, in all distances of once wide open frontiers, are bound for closed systemic, entropic, Dystopia, Armageddon, and extinction that is totally unnecessary. Both Daniel Webster and Horace Greeley once called the American West so vast, raw, alien, and harshly forbidding as to be totally unsuited for civilized humans. They claimed, at the time, it was nothing but a huge death trap. Three hundred and fifty years before that such men as Thomas More were saying the same thing about the entire Maritime Frontier and the American continents. Human will and energy -- advanced life's grown great embryonic wants and needs, growth (birth) structures and infrastructures -- to get out of the wombs of Old Worlds into New Life Frontiers will not be denied : the alternative is no good alternative at all. We will either begin Exodus from the womb of Earth or face an inevitability of death trap in spinning our wheels in place.

Physicist Michio Kaku stated conditions perfectly in his book 'Hyperspace'. In two million years humanity has grown in numbers over a million fold. But that is nothing comparatively speaking. In the same two million years, humanity has grown in energy, complexity, complication, and reaches, two million fold average per every man, woman, and child living. One million fold of that two million fold increase in energy.... coming in just the last seventy years! It is exactly analogous to life inside the womb in the final stage reaching the due time of beginning inexorable progression to birth from the womb universe into a brand new and alien universe it has now grown in limbs, organs, energies, needs, wants, and all other preparations for. If it stops, it dies. There is no stop action, no staying, no going back, and no making heaven on Earth (in the womb of Earth). There is no "into perpetuity" for advanced life at the apex of the pyramid of life on Earth. We were produced to be the "all eggs in one single basket of life," so to speak, for one purpose. We were not made to be the custodians of Earth, we were made to be the carrier of Earth life out into to the new frontier of universe -- for Earth life -- or self-destruct if we can't or won't do the job we were made for so long ago. The phrase is "Grow or die" : "Birth or die" : Exodus of die : Evolve out or die : Frontier or die : Go nova into the universe or implode in place, and be replaced if there is time enough, before yet another mass extinction (possibly the final mass extinction) to produce another species much less sensitive; therefore willful enough and tough enough and ruthless enough to get the job of birthing life out of its now increasingly dangerously vulnerable womb world nest done.

Oh i agree Humanity needs to step out to secure a lasting future in the universe.
Mars might be the only destination that humans can go.
Even Mars is no simple task to keep humans safe even after you arrive.

Going beyond our solar system is truly a daunting task for humans.
Even 100x the fastest speeds now and it's multi generational trips with inter stellar space a nasty place of severe radiation.

I see those trips as robot explorers first.
When a Earthish world is discovered then robots carrying DNA of humans and all life.
DNA can easily be protected and robot ships stay small and fast for the 100s 1000s years trips.
No need for supplies/ water/oxygen etc.
No one counting the endless days of the trip.
No reason 1 robot ship can't set up shop for life, refuel make copies of itself and launch to the next destination/s to do the same again.

IMO that is how it will be done unless some unsolved way to bypass space/time happens.
Gravity does so it's at least a possibility we could discover that mechanism and use it.

 

[Clovis]

Will there be deep space travel in the next half century

"What is deep space
The International Telecommunication Union defines "deep space" to start at a distance of 2 million km (approximately 0.01 AU) from the Earth's surface. ... Deep space exploration further than this vessel's capacity is not yet possible due to limitations in the propulsion technology currently available."

However, I think 'further than Mars' may have been more what OP had in mind. Humans might be dealing with things we never knew before.

Google gives:

The trip takes around seven months; a bit longer than astronauts currently stay on the International Space Station. The precise duration of each journey depends on when it is taken. Because both Mars and Earth's orbits are not perfectly circular, the time it takes to travel between them varies from six to eight months.
How long does it take to travel to Mars? - A Mission to Mars

So what is beyond Mars? Where might 'deep space' (in this sense)?

If we take the moons of Jupiter as the next nearest destination, a very rough (though overly simplistic) calculation might be to take 5/1,5 (AU/AU) would give about 2 years each way (in fact, probably a lot more than this). So this is the minimum journey which might be ascribed to the thread subject.

On the basis of sending a robot, or even a chip, assuming these qualify as travel, I think this should be possible in the next 50 years. Travel by humans is a totally different question. My 'take' on this would be 'no way'. Speeds would be much slower, and time would have to be allowed to slow down and turn around.

Cat

That's been addressed in SciFi. But thats still only SciFi. Which at times has come true, but not always.

 

[Slarty1080]

Not really much humanity can visit after Mars.
Even with a big leap in the speed it's pretty high probability of a solar flare along the way.
Even a trip to Mars has a pretty good chance of one.

The Jovian moons are all in pretty high radiation zones and cold/hostile bodies that a drill is much more important than boots.
Same setup for all the moons of the rest of the planets except for 1 moon Titan and it's thick protective atmosphere.

Maybe Titan, Ceres and Mars moons but IMO after Mars it's robots because the danger and distances just to high.

I would agree humans aren't likely to be going anywhere beyond Mars anytime soon. But Solar flares are relatively easily shielded against using a well protected "storm shelter" refuge. GCR radiation is another matter however and is very hard to shield from. It is a serious issue for Mars although perhaps not insurmountable, but spending even longer in space like going to Jupiter would rapidly become untenable.

 

[Atlan0001]

I would agree humans aren't likely to be going anywhere beyond Mars anytime soon. But Solar flares are relatively easily shielded against using a well protected "storm shelter" refuge. GCR radiation is another matter however and is very hard to shield from. It is a serious issue for Mars although perhaps not insurmountable, but spending even longer in space like going to Jupiter would rapidly become untenable.

This layman disagrees. And so do many professionals who think seemingly far more of our inventive and innovative, our revolutionary and evolutionary, abilities. You speak as so many have spoken throughout history, only to have been proven dead wrong over a shorter time than you might believe.

 

[amongthestars931]

I'm not sure exactly what Musk has currently but I can tell you that he is our only hope of making that happen!