We really don’t know how common objects are between stars. We’ve observed a couple of interstellar visitors passing through our system, old asteroids from origins unknown. But we can only track the really large ones. We can see mid sized objects when they come very close to earth, but we can’t track small objects at all, we literally have no idea how much of that exists in deep space. (Or for the most part, in our own solar system)
Still, you can see just from the evidence that our deep space probes have never really (hit) anything, that it would in fact be a quite rare event. It’s just hard to say how rare.
That’s why I don’t believe space travel will ever be as easy as depicted in shows like Star Trek. I cannot believe the human body can withstand such speeds. But I could be wrong. A lot of current technology, I would have said was impossible a few decades ago
Well their way around it in Star Trek is to say that the ships aren’t moving at fantastic ftl speeds. They’re warping space to make the distances between those points shorter, and then traveling at a reasonable speed across that (briefly) shorter distance. So they don’t need to expose humans to extreme g forces.
Warp drives are loosely based on a real theory, an Alcubierre drive, but as far as I know, while the idea is mathematically sound, it’s practically quite impossible. They would require some unfathomable amounts of energy to operate as well as matter with negative mass (which is not a thing).
The human body can stand very fast speeds, but it can’t cope with acceleration. To reach high speed you have to accelerate HARD. Otherwise it’s weeks and months just to get moving quickly. And don’t get me started on slowing down when you get there…
And speed is relative to point of view. If you look at an airplane from the ground it moves pretty fast but for the people on board their reference is the plane itself and they’re pretty much stationary. And, similarily to airplane, when craft speed or direction changes the force required affects to people on board too and that’s where limits of the human body come up pretty quickly.
See The Expanse if you want to see this in action at speeds significantly less than c.
Edit: Even for just getting around in the solar system, they had to magic up some chemicals to allow the human body to withstand deceleratory g-forces strong enough to keep travel times short enough to not completely wreck the narrative.
I wish they expanded on that in the Halo lore. They have these “orbital drop pods” that contain one soldier and are launched at ridiculous speeds towards the ground for quick battlefield insertion. They never address the sudden decrease in velocity, not a single line of dialogue mentions something like an “inertial dampener”. It’s odd because other systems are typically introduced or hinted at in dialogue, so as to ground the story I guess. (slipspace most notably being their version of FTL travel)
Once nearing the ground, drop pods activate a drag chute (more formally termed a “Drogue Panel”[10]) formed from the upper-most panels. The chute deploys and begins to slow down the pod’s descent. Once about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) from the ground, a series of computer-controlled retrothrusters engage and rapidly decelerate the pod such that it can impact safely.
Also most (not all) drop pod deployments are used by specialized troop like ODST or spartans:
Of these, the UNSC are particularly reliant on the use of drop pods thanks to the aptly-named Orbital Drop Shock Troopers; specialised shock troops who specialise in the use of drop pods to insert behind enemy lines and conduct special missions.[7][8] Although the ODSTs are the primary users of drop pod insertions in the UNSC, both Spartans and regular Marine forces may also use them.[9]
Right, but the way they’re depicted in the games doesn’t seem nearly enough of a slowdown not to crush the pilot… they would have to slow down to… what, 10m/s to be safe ?
I see your point, but to give that particular game scene plenty of benefit of the doubt: that pod transports a spartan. It is possible that he intensionally disabled the slow deceleration, because he can handle the impact.
One of my favorite sci-fi books has the main character going through the thousands of paper files stored in his space ship.
But computers still work with our current understanding of physics, I’m far from being an expert but without magic I don’t see a way for faster then light or time travel to work.
Distances in space.
Everything is further away that you can possibly imagine.
Warp 9 to the nearest wormhole.
The Voyagers, by some measures, haven’t even left the solar system, and they’ve been going for decades
It’s amazing that it hasn’t collided with anything severe enough to end its research all these years…
That’s because the space between things is enormous.
Most of the universe is just hydrogen gas, really small particles really far apart.
Something big enough to make a difference hitting Voyager would be a staggeringly rate event.
We assume all of that.
We really don’t know how common objects are between stars. We’ve observed a couple of interstellar visitors passing through our system, old asteroids from origins unknown. But we can only track the really large ones. We can see mid sized objects when they come very close to earth, but we can’t track small objects at all, we literally have no idea how much of that exists in deep space. (Or for the most part, in our own solar system)
Still, you can see just from the evidence that our deep space probes have never really (hit) anything, that it would in fact be a quite rare event. It’s just hard to say how rare.
Like a single grain of dust should be enough at those speeds
aaaaand that’s why we will NEVER reach 99% c
Dust at that speed would be CATASTROPHIC.
I like Alistair Reynolds’ Revelation Dpace take on it.
Massive ice shields, long thin ships to minimize cross section.
Occasionally ships just go poof.
That’s why I don’t believe space travel will ever be as easy as depicted in shows like Star Trek. I cannot believe the human body can withstand such speeds. But I could be wrong. A lot of current technology, I would have said was impossible a few decades ago
Well their way around it in Star Trek is to say that the ships aren’t moving at fantastic ftl speeds. They’re warping space to make the distances between those points shorter, and then traveling at a reasonable speed across that (briefly) shorter distance. So they don’t need to expose humans to extreme g forces.
Warp drives are loosely based on a real theory, an Alcubierre drive, but as far as I know, while the idea is mathematically sound, it’s practically quite impossible. They would require some unfathomable amounts of energy to operate as well as matter with negative mass (which is not a thing).
The human body can stand very fast speeds, but it can’t cope with acceleration. To reach high speed you have to accelerate HARD. Otherwise it’s weeks and months just to get moving quickly. And don’t get me started on slowing down when you get there…
And speed is relative to point of view. If you look at an airplane from the ground it moves pretty fast but for the people on board their reference is the plane itself and they’re pretty much stationary. And, similarily to airplane, when craft speed or direction changes the force required affects to people on board too and that’s where limits of the human body come up pretty quickly.
Acceleration at one gravity is 9.81ms-1 which is about 35km/h per second. That would take about a year to reach close to the speed of light.
You’d then need to spend the same amount of time slowing down.
So to get to our nearest stellar neighbour (alpha centaurii 4.3 LY distant) you still need to coast for about 2.3 years in the middle of the journey.
This is all assuming you can provide that much thrust constantly for two years.
We just need to discover astrophage.
See The Expanse if you want to see this in action at speeds significantly less than c.
Edit: Even for just getting around in the solar system, they had to magic up some chemicals to allow the human body to withstand deceleratory g-forces strong enough to keep travel times short enough to not completely wreck the narrative.
Isn’t that what “inertial dampeners” supposedly address?
I wish they expanded on that in the Halo lore. They have these “orbital drop pods” that contain one soldier and are launched at ridiculous speeds towards the ground for quick battlefield insertion. They never address the sudden decrease in velocity, not a single line of dialogue mentions something like an “inertial dampener”. It’s odd because other systems are typically introduced or hinted at in dialogue, so as to ground the story I guess. (slipspace most notably being their version of FTL travel)
They do slow down after a bit:
Also most (not all) drop pod deployments are used by specialized troop like ODST or spartans:
https://www.halopedia.org/Drop_pod
Right, but the way they’re depicted in the games doesn’t seem nearly enough of a slowdown not to crush the pilot… they would have to slow down to… what, 10m/s to be safe ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK6qqVX_kOA
I see your point, but to give that particular game scene plenty of benefit of the doubt: that pod transports a spartan. It is possible that he intensionally disabled the slow deceleration, because he can handle the impact.
Yea spartans are supposed to be quite sturdy I reckon. I haven’t read the books but I heard they regularly do crazy shit in them
One of my favorite sci-fi books has the main character going through the thousands of paper files stored in his space ship.
But computers still work with our current understanding of physics, I’m far from being an expert but without magic I don’t see a way for faster then light or time travel to work.