I notice this video has had a lot more views recently, so I plan to make a few more related videos hopefully releasing them over the next month. So keep an eye out if you liked this video!

Humans understand this" there's nothing out there.. you have only one Earth, Take care of it"🙏

“The Expanse” that’s how the ships in that show traveled throughout the solar system. but they were still using a theoretical form of propulsion to accelerate. GREAT SHOW.

Well done, succinct presentation! To paraphrase: "Many things seem impossible until they are accomplished'"!

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! I always hope my science communication can be enjoyed. Good quote!

Let's say somehow we achieve a speed closer to light speed. In case the spacecraft has to do some maneuvers or take a slight turn (say to avoid some obstruction), the centrifugal force on the inmates will be deadly. Any solution for that? I personally feel unless we achieve some kind of wormhole like thing, we are going nowhere

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I'd imagine maneuvers like that would be impossible at those speeds. A spacecraft would have to be set on a course for its mission duration and hoped no asteroids appear. Extremely extensive mission planning would be required I would imagine. Yeah, wormhole only way out hey. But we didn't know that black holes were actually real until that photograph a few years ago, it was all just predictions from the mathematics. So perhaps wormholes will turn out to be real too!

Further to your recent comment, I hope you do indeed make more of these videos because the manner in which you present your studies in person (in front of the camera) is appealing when compared to the many so-called science/space videos on this platform that use plagiarized material, stock-footage and amateurish text to voice software. If you'll forgive me for saying that your early videos might not have the polished "look" of Marcus House or the great Neil Degrasse Tyson (who happens to be my personal astrophysicist), but I believe you have the potential to be in that league, Best wishes (by the way, I really enjoyed the video!)

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! That means a lot being compared to them.

Operation starshot, once it's attempted, will make for a good (albeit highly miniaturized) proof of concept for a laser acceleration system. To upscale the system we would need a massive laser array, likely in space, likely solar-powered. Then there's the whole problem of deceleration... perhaps use a solar sail at the destination system, while the craft orbits the star? Once they get there... they're on their own. it takes years just to do a microphone check. For now, we should just figure out how to make self-sustaining space colonies.

Even just communicating with other distant civilizations is almost an incomprehensible endeavor. Whatever comms we hear will be from a civilization that's long since been forgotten by the descendants of that civilization, if any, living today. I would also predict that any civilization that was advanced enough for us to hear transmissions broadcast many thousands of years ago, would be so advanced today that they would have spawned a vast number of colonies on other planets by now and would likely have either visited earth or know of our existence.

Creating a vehicle and propulsion system capable of interstellar travel would not only be extremely difficult, it would be extremely expensive, and while we may think people would be altruistic about such a project, that's not how we're wired. Which company, foundation, or other entity would devote the kind of resources such an undertaking would require, knowing they would most likely never live to see any return on their investment? Unless we can figure out a way to cheat the system and achieve faster than light travel, I'm afraid we are going to be stuck right where we are. But that's not so bad. I can't think of another planet I'd rather hang out on, but that's me. Enjoy what you have, while you have it, and live long and prosper. 🖖

Forever is a very long time to bet against. Scholz’s Star passed us 0.8 Ly away 70 000 years ago. Within some millions years we might have something close enough for us to get to. To get a thriving complete ecology to another star system is rather hard though, that will be slower than a spacecraft designed for speed. It is the final frontier after all.

If you could only travel 1,225,000,000 miles per hour, providing you didn't teleport into another dimension, you could get to the next star system in about 2 years. So, I'd say you're right, were stuck.

@atlantic_love

2 жыл бұрын

It's daunting to me to think that this is where we'll be until we cease to exist. I hear people all the time say "we'll be here for thousands of years", and I refuse to believe that simply because the rate of things like war, disease, technology advancements, climate change, risk of another planetary catastrophe means we won't be here that long. I also think we're not the first "human species" to be having this conversation.

@0Turbox

Жыл бұрын

One thing is to reach higher speeds, another one is to avoid collisions.

@dherman0001

Жыл бұрын

@@atlantic_love The climate isn't changing. Sea levels have not risen. Polar Bears are thriving.

@atlantic_love

Жыл бұрын

@@dherman0001 The climate is changing, drastically. Your willful ignorance on the matter is what's not changing. Polar bears are increasingly not thriving.

@dherman0001

Жыл бұрын

@@atlantic_love Not anywhere I've been throughout the world. It's the same as it was 50 years ago. The exact same.

I think we need to look at time differently. 70k years is a very short time, relatively.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Of course 70,000 years is short on the grand scale of the universe, but humans are impatient!

I imagine that interstellar dust is going to be the thing that prevents interstellar travel and prove all our attempts to be wastes of fuel.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Yeah, interstellar dust certainly is a problem for high speeds. There are designs which include a dust shield, I plan to make a video on this at some point in the future.

@matthewatwood207

Жыл бұрын

@@BenRankin I'm looking forward to it! I imagine giant bullet-shaped supermagnets that dwarf the neilson cylinders they shield by more and more comical proportions as the top speed increases.

Ahahaha “i’m just gonna leave now”. Really interesting video !

Understandable - very clear.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Thanks! That's always the hope of science communication.

To sustain a long-term human presence in outer space will require an Earth-like environment for the space crew. That means building a rotating drum or cylinder, to produce artificial gravity equivalent to what we have on Earth. My understanding is that it would have to be at least a kilometer in diameter. Individual components would have to be made on the ground, then sent up into orbit, and assembled there. Imagine the cost! I think it's more likely that someday we'll send unmanned probes to relatively nearby star systems such as Proxima Centauri. If we can develop a reliable quantum communication system for them, then we'll be able to explore those star systems. If we ever send people to anywhere far beyond our solar system, it will have to be a one-way trip.

@BenRankin

26 күн бұрын

Yep I reckon that'll be the case. I could possibly see exploration around the solar system as you have described. Hopefully SpaceX keep there starship production ongoing. That's starting to look promising.

@EnneaIsInterested

15 күн бұрын

Why send all the components from Earth? It's much, much more effective to bootstrap industry off-world to get this running. Once we have the off-world factories, we can build those cylinders, in fact, that's a good point. Bootstrap lunar industry to get rotating space habitats going, so people will definitely have a place to live off-world where the gravity isn't too low.

That's not a small problem, it's a huge problem 😂

If we can achieve constant acceleration it would not only provide interstellar travel within a lifetime, it would also create artificial gravity. There must be some way to use the sparse matter which exists in space, or the cosmic background radiation or something already out there so we don't have to bring fuel with us. Except for a catalyst there's no practical way to bring the fuel along. Airplanes work because half the mixture burning for propulsion is the oxygen already existing in the air.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

There are many spacecraft designs that make use of the space matter for propellant. I actually wrote my engineering thesis on this topic and in the future plan to make some videos about those designs.

Unfortunately if we could even do constant acceleration as you approached the speed of light if you ran into a small pebble it would be like a nuclear explosion. I don't believe approaching the speed of light is really practical and if we ever do interstellar travel it will just take a long time.

We simply must consider a longer-lasting fuel and other methods beyond the burning of anything. No chemical propulsion and ways to safely manage these fuel sources while achieving orbit or while sourcing and using the materials found elsewhere in Earth's solar system. Risking the safety of our delicate planet in order to get off of it is still a big issue. We must face this challenge together.

Nice Star Citizen Origin 300i going quantum later in the video. It's too bad we'll probably never find a way for interstellar flight. If we do, those of us dreaming of it now will be long forgotten.

A fusion powered, laser sail assisted ship is just about the best we could do. You still might want to be more flexible on your definition of a 'reasonable' amount of time. The journey might still take a couple hundred years.

@Eidolon1andOnly

Жыл бұрын

I think the Orion Project type rockets would be a more realistic approach to get to our nearest neighbor within 40 years.

@donhoverson6348

Жыл бұрын

@@Eidolon1andOnly Well we certainly don't have any trouble building nuclear bombs so propulsion would be taken care of. There is still the issue that at goodly fractions of the speed of light grains of dust become bombs.

@Eidolon1andOnly

Жыл бұрын

@@donhoverson6348 True, but light/laser sail craft would face the same risk.

@donhoverson6348

Жыл бұрын

@@Eidolon1andOnly True. But with a big enough ship perhaps you could put a shield on the front. Long and narrow would be the way to go. Either way I won't be living long enough to see the winning design launch, let alone arrive.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Yep, fair enough. Perhaps I was thinking of the possibility of a manned flight, hence the 50 years. I must have forgotten about the return 50 years though! A few hundred years certainly reasonable for a probe.

Never say never. For all we know, there could be a breakthrough in the next 100 years or something that changes everything we thought we knew about physics.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Let's hope that's the case!

Once we can travel 1500 to 4500 times the speed of light, we can flit around the galaxy just like in Star Trek.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Well if physics is to be believed we're not going to be able to do that unfortunately.

Lol, 1 G acceleration would provide the astronauts gravity. Then the roof becomes the ceiling as the ship switches to deceleration

@donhoverson6348

Жыл бұрын

No. They would just turn the ship around. Floor and ceiling would retain their positions.

@magicsinglez

Жыл бұрын

​@@donhoverson6348: good point

WARP DRIVE. that’s how humans will accomplish interstellar travel. and it’s the most practical. and i really think humans will be able to do it in the future. not in my lifetime. not even in 100-500 years. but in a thousand years, if we haven’t destroyed ourselves in the process, who knows.

Warp drive technology!

Why do you assume constant acceleration is required? Figuring out the drugs/treatments to keep a human body healthy in 0-G for 20 years (allowing us to get to the nearest star at .2-.3c) would surely be much easier. We can already survive a year in space with no little to no therapies besides training.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

If you are not accelerating all the time to some degree you would have to rely simply on orbital mechanics (0 g) which is painfully slow. (Pure orbital mechanics where you do an initial impulse burn and then coast under no thrust to the destination - like current realistic rocketry)

@JM-cv7nv

Жыл бұрын

No, I'm saying this: accelete at 1G for 10 weeks. This puts you ~.2c, after which you coast for 20 years undergoing treatment for any psycho-physiological effects, then slow down for the weeks to return. This is not so impossible.

@JM-cv7nv

Жыл бұрын

*return to a reasonable intercept velocity with the star (Proxima Centauri)

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

@@JM-cv7nv Ah ok, fair enough. I would imagine that you could not maintain 0.2c without some level of acceleration/thrust, the spacecraft would instead return (very slowly) to orbital mechanics speeds. But yes, if what you say is correct that is a better solution.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

@@JM-cv7nv or do you mean coast under thrust at 0.2c? Cause yes I agree with that. That's another method in which I actually included in a book I published on the topic. But just didn't include in this video.

I think this is probably right. It is a question of energy. I feel that humankind will never travel to the stars. We may send machines there, very slowly, or on a very small scale, and we will colonise the solar system given sufficient political stability on Earth. That may be the limit of it.

I don't think it'll ever be realistically possible unless the laws of physics permit warp drive or something similar. The energy requirements are otherwise absurd. If we look at less sexy alternatives, however, it could be readily achievable with current technology if we are willing to colonize star systems 100,000 years at a time, which is a short amount of time in the grand scheme of things. That would require some kind of cryogenic embryo storage with artificial intelligence overseeing the operation.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

Yeah I'm sure you are correct. The amount of fuel needed for the idea of constant acceleration travel must be unimaginable.

♥️♥️♥️

The real solution is to accept the max speeds of fusion rockets, and pursue indefinite life extension. If the people going are not ageing and are perpetually twenty-somethings, it does make this all manageable at 0.1c

@BenRankin

14 күн бұрын

Interesting point. Would solve the big problem of time somewhat.

@EnneaIsInterested

14 күн бұрын

@@BenRankin And additionally, it would help to get off-world industrialization going, I'd say you need a ship that's multiple gigatonnes of mass, so best get those rotating space habitats going.

1:25 - BoostSUS to space ;) ben youre sussy nah jk, solid fukin video

As a scientist and technologist I disagree with you. I reviewed Pulsar's engine designs and they are totally feasible and tested. 20% to 50% of the speed of light is not a theoretical problem, its simply that one needs enough energy to run the engine's over long periods. The technology is being financed by the UK government and the CEO even states that this is the speed of the engines.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

I agree with that. I recently finished my thesis for engineering and concluded that some of the reviewed systems could be built as intended, but the amount of fuel needed for long flights would be the problem.

@mattsmith1126

Жыл бұрын

@@BenRankin Pulsar has not indicated that this is a problem. Nuclear fusion is extremely fuel efficient. They feel that they can get a craft to Alpha Centari and have enough fuel on board to accomplish this.

@BenRankin

Жыл бұрын

@@mattsmith1126 Ok, that's interesting then. What sort of time frame to reach it? Yeah, I note that fusion is very efficient, just felt even so it wouldn't be enough, perhaps not though.

The technology is not there and probably won't the until 40 000 k so just concentrate on the solar system

The greatest challenge humanity will ever face is not killing itself. The second greatest challenge will be respecting all life. The third greatest challenge will be find meaning to our existence. So no, interstellar travel isn’t very important.

@BenRankin

26 күн бұрын

Maybe meaning will be found through exploration?

@carpballet

26 күн бұрын

@@BenRankin Maybe. We’ve been exploring as long as we’ve been “alive.” I think it’s a function somehow of having a brain of a certain size. (Curiosity, inquisitiveness). And frankly, I don’t think we have found any real meaning yet. Maybe because there isn’t any real “meaning.” Who knows? Lol. I wish you well.

For this exact reason is why I have argued that mankind’s goal should really wholeheartedly shift towards AI. It’s clear to me at least that man cannot make this journey due to our limitations, and that we should instead focus on the creation of sentient non-biological life. Perhaps the question about the existence of other intelligent life won’t be answered until we create it. The earth is our home but it will also be our grave, as our sun will eventually die. So we should look to create life that embodies the best of our traits: consciousness, critical thinking, creativeness, problem solving, empathy etc etc. This will undoubtedly be very difficult and imperfect as what we create will be very unlike humans as is necessary for interstellar travel. Those differences despite all our efforts to infuse them with human traits, will make them very non-human. But I think we owe it to the universe to be sure that what gives it meaning isn’t lost: consciousness (self awareness) and critical thought. If perception is reality then for the physical world to have meaning it requires an agent that can is conscious and that can perceive abstractly. Mankind unlike other known animals attempts to define the world around it. I would argue (my world view) that the universe has no meaning except for that which we prescribe to it. And that “meaning” came into existence once mankind came into existence. Obviously if there is intelligent life elsewhere this statement is changed to, “once intelligent life came into existence”, but this assumes that they share the need to define reality. My point is, it would be a great loss to the universe to lose a conscious being that brings meaning to the world, and if we cannot make the journey then we owe it to the universe to create a somewhat like being that can make this journey, so the universe can continue to be explored, defined, and so that conscious life can continue to exist.

@0Turbox

Жыл бұрын

What do you mean with "we"? For me, I don't care what happens after me and after the next two generations. Humans in the far future probably have barely anything in common with us today. It's all Hollywood romantic, when it comes to the Universe.

@MrRequiem147

Жыл бұрын

@@0Turbox If you don’t care about humanity itself then I really don’t want anything to do with you, let alone have a conversation with you b

@0Turbox

Жыл бұрын

@@MrRequiem147 Another thing, I don't care.

That's not a small problem, it's a huge problem 😂

That's not a small problem, it's a huge problem 😂

@BenRankin

26 күн бұрын

Bit of an understatement!

That's not a small problem, it's a huge problem 😂

@BenRankin

16 күн бұрын

Yeah massive