To sum up, I understand fully that fuel is an issue, I’m talking theoretical.
In space there is little to no resistance because of how few particles floating about. But if you were always running and engine, pushing matter out behind you, youd have a constant acceleration. So it seems like we should be able to travel near speed of light (combining this constant acceleration with abusing gravity for slingshot maneuvers). Yet people always say nothing can travel the speed of light.
In: Physics
Theoretically, given unlimited energy resources in propulsion, you can get as close to speed of light as you would like.
Realistically, even bridging Earth’s gravity well is very expensive, much less accelerate a probe to near light speed. It’s also an interesting consideration of what value is it to send a probe fast: communicating with Voyager (which is still very close to the solar system) is quite difficult, so sending any high-fidelity data would be a challenge on its own.
Latest Answers