How Real Are Interstellar Travel Possibilities?

Let’s say in the near future the entire solar system is about to meet its doom and we humans have at best around half a century or so to flee to our new home situated at a ‘modest’ 4.2 light-years situated at the Alpha Centauri star system. But what technology do we use to get Humans there and thus continue the trait of human existence on the universe?

In this article, we’ll try to attempt to answer this question by presenting 5 real interstellar possibilities that can be created with technologies available within our lifetime:

1. Hydrogen Fuel Engines: Hydrogen fuels are by far the most widely used fuel in today’s rocket propulsions. The highest speed that was achieved by such an engine was around 25000mph. Yet, to get into our ‘near’ home we would require speeds of at least 10 percent the speed of light. To provide such a huge amount of thrust within such a short time is nearly impossible with such fuels. Besides the amount of mass required to provide such a thrust is unrealistic by every means. So, Hydrogen Fuel Engines? Not an option.

2. Thermonuclear Thrusters: If Hydrogen fuels aren’t efficient, why not just bomb thousands of hydrogen bombs under the rockets and propel them to high speeds? Well, such a proposition was made by Freeman Dyson in the Orion Project. However, To provide a thrust we would need 300000 Hydrogen Bombs and within 1 month we will achieve speeds equivalent to 0.1c. However, the field of Thermonuclear Engines is still at its infancy and provided that we substantially improve its efficiency, Thermonuclear Thrusters may be worth a shot.

3. Anti-Matter Drives: If we thermonuclear reactions are capable of producing only 1 percent of its rest mass into energy, why not build something that is an absolute 100 percent mass efficient? That’s the promise of anti-matter technologies. When a proton meets its counterpart, an anti-proton, it annihilates to form ‘pions’ (A type of Meson) which can travel at extremely close to the speed of light. If we could channel these mesons through a magnetic field it could provide thrusts at 0.5 times the speed of light with only a few kilograms of anti-matter. This would take an approximate of only 9 years to make a trip to Alpha-Cen. The catch? Antimatters are extremely hard to produce and even harder to store. Gigantic Particle accelerators like the Large Hadron Collider are only able to produce a handful of anti-protons. So, unlike previous techs, the Usability of antimatter doesn’t depend upon its ‘thrust-power’ but on its large scale production capability. However, Anti-Matter is likely to be the most popular fuel within the next century or so.

4. Light-Sails: What if we could build a ‘sail’ that’s a kilometer wide and blast lasers underneath it that will help us literally to sail through at near light speeds? In fact, with current technologies, we can send unmanned sails coated with carbon at 0.1 percent the speed of light! However, to take humans with that sail, it will need tons of more lasers and the surface of Light-sails must be made of substances like the Sapphire. Light-Sails are a prominent future interstellar traveling technology and a better engineering capability can accelerate such sails beyond 0.1c.

5. Black Hole Drive: Undoubtedly, this is the coolest option of all. Instead of dumping mass into a region of space-time, causing it to carve out a black hole, intensely powered beams of light will be in use. The hawking radiation produced by the mini black hole will then propel us to the destination. The black hole thus produced will have a mass of around 600 billion kilograms. Any smaller, the black hole will evaporate too quickly, any larger, and its Hawking Radiation would be too weak. With such a drive attached underneath the space ship, it will be possible to reach 0.1c within 20 days. However, unlike any other techs, the speed of the spaceship will keep on increasing with time which is likely to make the journey through the Blackhole drives the shortest way possible.

So, upon which should we count our bets on?

Provided that we prioritize the availability of current resources, Nuclear-nukes is probably the best option. To execute such a possibility, we’ll just need to increase its production factor by 200 (which we definitely shouldn’t do unless it’s about the question of human existence) and we can hope to set foot on one of the planets of Alpha centaury by the late 2100s. Antimatter technologies and Blackhole drives are tools of the very distant future that can be used to travel for intergalactic purposes. Through these technologies, we can not only travel massive distances but can reduce the time massively via relativistic effects. However, provided that we focus on innovative technologies with what we currently have, Solar sails are undoubtedly the best option. If humanity lands on another planetary system or sets on interstellar travel, there isn’t an alternative to such sails. So, yeah, based on such possibilities, we can conclude that light sails are the most probable among all of the following.