How Long it Would Take Us to Reach Alpha Centauri

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Science For Life

8 min readAug 9, 2023

The innate nature of life is to question and express curiosity as demonstrated by great scientists and philosophers throughout the lifespan of Earth. With increasing concern over our planet’s environmental status and how much longer it has to sustain life, people look to other planets like Mars. The purpose of this post is to display the growth of interstellar travel humanity has made. Although the idea is only remotely possible, I have looked at some of the best rockets from the 1940’s, 1960’s, 1990’s, 2000’s, 2010’s, and 2020’s to compare them with each other. The idea of interstellar travel remains unattainable due to energy insufficiency and other impediments. In order to realistically travel deep through the fabrics of space, a vehicle with the near capacity to travel at the speed of light would be required. Even so, the time needed to reach certain galaxies would be decades, maybe even millennia. Without thinking about fuel and other influences, I took into account the top velocities of different rockets throughout history to find the most efficient vehicle for mankind to dive deeper into the mysteries of space.

Introduction

Space is a mystery so vast, intelligent minds of millions from the past and millions today still scratch their head wondering about it. As the concern over Earth rapidly grows, it raises the question: what can we do before it’s too late? There is only one real answer to this in the long run which is to leave our home seeking a habitat to replicate that of Earth’s. People all around the world ask, “Where will we go?”

However, they should be asking, “How do we go?” This question has been drilling holes into the most brilliant minds of history. The most common answers relate to needing the energy source vaster than the power of the sun. Obviously, this is not possible for mankind at the moment. Perhaps, in the future it could be possible with better technology to aid our objectives.

Materials and Methods

Looking back at the greatest rockets built throughout history, I found their top velocities and formulated a goal of reaching Alpha Centauri. Although Alpha Centauri is not really a habitable solar system it provides a goal of this project to leave Earth to another place about 4.367 light years away(3). Looking back at the greatest rockets ever, I used the Wait Calculation to see how reasonable certain rockets are, hypothetically if we had endless sources of energy, in comparison to others. The Wait Calculation basically subtracts two rockets’ velocity in relation to the speed of light to find which is more optimal to reach a potential goal which is x light years away. The formula is as shown below:W = (x/v1 ) -(x/v2 +t1–2) .

W means the total wait time. x means the distance from the start to end. v1 means the velocity of rocket one. v2 means the velocity of rocket 2. t1–2 means the time between the launch of rocket one to rocket two(2). Through the equation we are also able to test the growth of the rocketry throughout the advancement of time. This is true because if the velocity of rocket one is lower than rocket two, it would obviously go faster. However, with the setback of time, if the wait calculation in the end is still positive, rocketry has taken a huge step into the future. Down below, you can see the launch year, top velocity, and name of the rocket.

RTV-A-2(1): 1948–2000 mph

Saturn V(4): 1963–15500 mph

Minotaur-C(5): 2017* — 17000 mph

Atlas V(6): 2006–36000 mph

Falcon Heavy(8): 2018–24,610 mph

Space Launch S(9): 2022–24,500 mph

* = created in the 1990’s but top speed launch date was in 2017.

The data includes the velocity in miles per hour. To plug this value into the equation for each corresponding rocket, we must include the existing value in relation to the speed of light which is about 670,616,629 mph(10). For the purpose of this experiment, I believe that decimal values would be more efficient than fraction. The top speed in relation to the velocity of light, is displayed below:

RTV-A-2–0.00000298232 mph

Saturn V — 0.00002311305 mph

Minotaur-C — 0.00002538089 mph

Atlas V — 0.00005368193 mph

Falcon Heavy — 0.00003669756 mph

Space Launch S — 0.00003653354 mph

As shown in Figure 2, the velocity of each rocket is extremely minute compared to the enormity of the speed of light. Plugging these numbers into the equation, we are able to find the true duration(wait) calculation of each rocket traveling to Alpha Centauri with an infinite source of energy from its time period. The Atlas V, as shown, has the greatest velocity in comparison to others selected.

Now that we know the value of each variable in the Wait Calculation formula, we can begin the math portion of this project. Comparing the RTV-A-2 with Saturn V, we find:

W = (4.367/0.00000298232)- (4.367/0.0.00002311305) + (1948–1963)

W = (1,464,296) — (188,940–25)

W = (1464296) -188915

W = 1,275,361

This means that it would hypothetically take 1,275,361 more years to get Alpha Centauri for RTV-A-2 than Saturn V. Since the Saturn V rocket was launched 25 years after the RTV-A-2, we could predict that the growth of rocket science ascended with time. Below is each wait time until the rocket reaches Alpha Centauri.

RTV-A-2: 1948–1,464,296 years

Saturn V: 1973–188,940 years

Minotaur-C: 2017–172,059 years

Atlas V: 2006–81,350 years

Falcon Heavy: 2018–119,000 years

Space Launch S: 2022–119,534 years

Results

In this section of the article, I will analyze the numbers above to depict the sheer growth from the sprouts of rocketry to modern day technology.

RTV-A-2, as shown in figure 3, would have been able to reach Alpha Centauri in over a million years. Of course the number would actually be astronomically larger if we used average velocity which the rocket could have realistically sustained with the correct fuel source. This is a limitation because I looked for the fastest possible time a rocket from certain eras could potentially reach Alpha Centauri. In other words, I used the top velocity instead of average velocity.

Through 15 years of advancement in technology, the rocket Saturn V would be able to reach Alpha Centauri in 188,000 years which is 1,275,000 years faster than RTV-A-2. Overall, this demonstrates the effect of technological and mechanical effects on rocket science in the 1960’s.

The Minotaur-C which was built in the 1990’s, and reached its top speed in 2017, would just barely beat out the Saturn V rocket launched back in 1963( by about 17,000 years to Alpha Centauri. Although these certain findings do not show the same difference as described from the paragraph above, there were still advancements made.

From figure 1, you can see the change in years until potentially reaching Alpha Centauri which is 4.367 lightyears away from earth. The first bar graph is in chronological order in terms of launch years in history. The potential journey from Alpha Centauri is 18x shorter now, than it was 72 years ago.

In 2006, a recent rocketry project was able to reach top speeds of about 36,000 mph. It was the Atlas V, and it would take 81,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri. The rocket was powered by a Russian RD-180 Engine, which up until that point in history, was the strongest engine rocketry had ever seen. This is probably the main reason for the Atlas V’s high speed of 36,000 miles per hour.

The Falcon Heavy which was launched in 2018 by SpaceX reached a speed of 24,610 miles per hour which is lower than the Atlas V from 12 years prior. This does not really suggest that rocket science technology regressed, just that the Falcon Heavy is partially reusable meaning burnout in the initial stages of its life is unnecessary which is probably why the speed of the Falcon Heavy is lower than the Atlas V.

The Space Launch Systems was launched in 2022 and reached a top speed of 24,500 miles per hour, meaning it would take roughly 500 years longer than the Falcon Heavy to reach Alpha Centauri. The overall time is 119,534 years to reach Alpha Centauri.

From the beginning years in the late 1940’s to the now early 2020’s rocketry has seen immeasurable advancements in terms of reusability, emissions, and efficiency. The shortest time to get to Alpha Centauri from the data received in this project is 81,350 years. The longest is 1,464,296 years. The one million years shorter it could hypothetically take to reach a place 4.367 lightyears away could have saved all of humanity. If we did not take action to advance rocket technology from 1948, and it came to the point of leaving Earth in pursuit of a more sustainable place in the galaxy, it may have taken over a million years. However, with the advancements in technology, it would take around 100,000 years which is still enormous, but compared to 1,000,000; it is a fraction.

Discussion:

This project is not to suggest that it would take 81,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, it is to show the advancements of rocketry. Additionally, the project has a huge limitation because it uses the TOP speeds EVER REACHED by certain rockets, which is not the speed the rocket can maintain. Needless to mention, each of these rockets lack valid sources of energy to sustain them for up to 1,000,000 years in space traveling up to 36,000 miles per hour.

After reading this post, I hope you will gain the knowledge and interest into the world of space exploration. I highly encourage you to use the Wait Calculation Formula to find incredible discoveries in the exploration of space itself. Feel free to comment what you think in the end.

If you enjoyed this article, please consider following me and giving this story a clap because it immensely helps other people to find this article and others I have written. Also, I have added a PART 2 to this article where I code a Python Algorithm to carry out the same function so please check that out too: https://medium.com/@prathiksasikumar20/how-long-it-would-take-us-to-reach-alpha-centauri-part-2-d2c655b0a161.

References:

How Long it Would Take Us to Reach Alpha Centauri

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Discussion:

Written by Prathik S