Journey
to the stars
In the next century people will travel to
other planets in our solar system. But could we ever travel to the stars? I
believe that we could. But the problems would be enormous.
The biggest problem would be
distance. The nearest star has planets is called Barnard’s Star. It’s six light
years away from the Earth. That means it takes six years for light to travel
from Barnard’s Star to Earth or from the Earth to Barnard’s Star.
How long would the journey to
one of the planets in orbit around Barnard’s Star take? Let’s say that we had a
spaceship called Spaceship X. If Spaceship X travelled at one million
kilometres an hour, it would reach Barnard’s Star in – well, what do you think?
How many years would it take to reach Barnard’s Star, if you travelled at one
million kilometres an hour? Ten years perhaps? A hundred?
No. If Spaceship X travelled
at one million kilometres an hour it would reach Barnard’s Star in ten thousand
eight hundred years – ten thousand, eight hundred. And that would be at a speed
of one million kilometres an hour. But our fastest space vehicle – Helios B,
that’s H-E-L-I-O-S and then B, Helios B – Helios B can travel at a quarter of a
million kilometres an hour. That’s only two hundred and fifty thousand
kilometres and hour. The Apollo moon rockets – the largest rockets ever built –
travelled at only forty thousand kilometres an hour. How long would they take
to reach Barnard’s Star?
If we wanted to reach
Barnard’s Star in less than a human lifetime – say, fifty years – the spaceship
would have to travel at one hundred and thirty million kilometres an hour – one
hundred and thirty million. In fact there are plans for this spaceship. It’s
called Daedalus – that’s D-A-E-D-A-L-U-S – Daedalus.
But the rocket would be only
one of the problems. What about the astronauts?
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