Photonic Propulsion | Part 1 | Traveling at the Speed of Light.
Have you ever heard of the term photonic propulsion?
It’s a theoretical method of spacecraft propulsion which uses light as spacecraft propellant allowing the spacecraft to travel through space 🌌 at relativistic velocities, nearing the speed of light, in order to reach your destination at a much quicker time.
By the way, when I mean at a much quicker time, I mean really quick.
Definitely faster than flash. No kidding.
The ability to harness the power of Photonic Propulsion would allow us to reach destinations in a time frame that would’ve been impossible given our current day technology.
Take traveling to Proxima Centauri, the closest star to earth, as an example. From earth, it is about 4.246 light-years away. Traveling at the speed of the NASA Parker Solar Probe (the fastest manmade spacecraft), we’d reach Proxima Centauri in about 6633 years. Now for us, that’s a VERY long time. Better pack some interesting books!
With photonic propulsion, we’d arrive to Proxima Centauri WAY faster meaning WAY sooner.
Just think about it for a quick second. The speed of light travels at a speed of 299,792,458 meters per second. This converts to 670,616,629 miles per hour or 186,282 miles per second.
I don’t know about you, but to me, that 👆 is just insane. Insanely fast. And very difficult to comprehend. How the heck can something travel that fast?
Given that Proxima Centauri is 4.246 light-years away, if we travel at the speed of light, we’d reach the bright star in 4.246 years.
Now of course there are some limitations. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, it isn’t possible for objects with mass to travel at the speed of light.
Well at least not yet 👆
The speed of light is essentially the speed limit of the universe.
We would have to settle for traveling at a fraction of the speed of light.
Let’s use traveling at 10%, 20%, and 30% of the speed of light as examples.
If we travel at 10% of the speed of light, we would reach speeds of
- 29979245.8 meters per second
- 67061662.9384 miles per hour
- 18628.239705122 miles per second
If we travel at 20% of the speed of light, we would reach speeds of
- 59958492 meters per second
- 134123326 miles per hour
- 37256 miles per second
If we travel at 30% of the speed of light, we would reach speeds of
- 89937737 meters per second
- 201184989 miles per hour
- 55885 miles per second
At 10% we would reach Proxima Centauri in about 42.5 years
At 20% we would reach Proxima Centauri in about 21.6 years
At 30% we would reach Proxima Centauri in about 14.17 years
Compared to 6633 years, this is a blessing 🙌.
Imagine what this type of space travel could do for us! We’d be able to explore the cosmos like we’ve never done before. We could potentially explore beautiful planets, capture colorful nebulas, and surpass current limits of human understanding 🤯. Did I mention aliens?
Even better yet, the future of humanity would remain safe and secure.
Although we don’t have to worry about this in the present moment, at some point, earth will become inhabitable. Either due to the sun exploding, an asteroid hitting the earth, or aliens invading our planet (I mean who knows?), photonic propulsion could provide us a way to find a new home and reach habitable planets.
Also, who doesn’t want to be faster than flash?
⚡️🚀
Stay tuned for Part 2.
