• Question: Do you think in the future the human race will be able to fly around in space and explore the Universe?

    Asked by to sakshisharda, Naomi, Mathew, Ian, Edward on 24 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      Sort of…

      NASA currently have a giant nuclear powered robot with lasers driving around on another planet. They have any number of things in space that are taking pictures and measuring stuff. That definitly meets the criteria of flying around space and exploring the universe.

      They could be doing a lot more if they had the support and funding of politicians, and the general public. They certainly could put people on other planets fairly quickly with the right funding. It’s really sad that most people alive today have to ask their grandparents about the “old days” when we had horse and carts, steam trains, and REAL spaceships that actually took people to the moon.

      However space is HUGE. Actually sending something to another star system is almost impossible. Even with the best technology we could imagine (never mind what we could build) it would take hundreds of years to reach some stars. I think we probably will build spaceships that could take us there, but it would be a lifetime commitment to make a single trip. We’re NOT going to be able to fly between stars in any kind of practical way, like they do in Star Trek!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      It’s taken the first satallite (Voyager 1) 37 years to just about leave our solar system – so exploring space like Ian has mentioned literally would be a trip of a lifetime and it’s very unlikely that we’ll ever have the technology to do so.

      Richard Branson is making it possible for people to fly in space on his Virgin Galactic airline – if you can afford the $200,000 price tag!

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