This survey about space and space travel but more specifically about speed and ultimate speed limit - speed light. you want to escape survey quickly just choose N/A

1. Here are some stepping stones on the way to achieving the kind of speed we will need if we are ever to explore the cosmos. Which of them do you find interesting?

The space probe Voyager 1 launched in 1977 was, until quite recently, one of the fastest man made objects and was moving along at 38,600 MPH. The video clip above will give you an idea how fast this is but in galactic terms it is a snails pace.

The Apollo 10 mission of May 1969 was the fastest manned craft ever at 25,000MPH

During a nuclear bomb test , a device was placed in a deep pit, capped with a manhole. The cap popped off during the explosion. To test its velocity, the test used a camera that captured one image per millisecond. Only one frame captured the iron cap. Its velocity was calculated to be around 125,000 mph — and it likely reached space, but no one knows for sure. They never found it.

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Not Interested.

2. Here are some more speed related facts that you might find interesting. Which of them are?

Voyager has been "speeding" at 38,000MPH since 1977. In November 2026 it will be as far away from us as light can travel in one day. Intergalactic distances are typically measured in light years.

Light travels 16 billion miles in one day. it will have taken almost 50 years for this spacecraft to cover a distance that light covers in just one day.

One light year is approx. 6 trillion miles. The nearest exoplanet generally considered potentially habitable is Proxima Centauri located 4.24 light-years away - you do the math.

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Not Interested

3. If we want to or have to explore beyond our solar system, we will have to find a method of propulsion much faster than we currently have. In the meantime we will have to do a better job of looking after our current planet. Here are some propulsion methods currently being studied. Which of them do you think could help humans escape if we had to? Comment if you have some other options.

If we want to or have to explore beyond our solar system, we will have to find a method of propulsion much faster than we currently have. In the meantime we will have to do a better job of looking after our current planet. Here are some propulsion methods currently being studied. Which of them do you think could help humans escape if we had to? Comment if you have some other options.

On September 21, 2023, the Parker Solar Probe, set up by a gravity-assist flyby of Venus on Aug. 21, reached 394,736 miles per hour around the Sun – a record. That's fast enough to travel from New York to Tokyo in less than a minute. It is however much too slow to explore beyond our solar system - even with a one way ticket.

Chemical rockets as used in almost all our current projects are the least efficient but provide the high thrust for launch and rapid maneuvers. They use chemical reactions to produce exhaust, achieving velocities around 11,000 MPH - then the fuel would run out.

Ion thrusters are highly efficient, using electrical power (often from solar panels) to accelerate ions to extremely high speeds. While their thrust is weak, they can accelerate continuously for extended periods, leading to significantly higher total velocity. Ion propulsion could reach about 20,000 mph in about 20 months and still keep accelerating. Again requiring a one way ticket to get anywhere.

Nuclear Electric Propulsion, powered by a nuclear (fission) reactor can provide both power and high exhaust velocities to achieve high speeds for interstellar missions but this would be spreading radioactive pollution as it went.. That would make us as welcomed as the smallpox Europeans brought to north America.

Nuclear Pulse Propulsion (Orion Project) involves detonating small nuclear bombs behind the spacecraft to generate large amounts of thrust and high exhaust velocities up to 250000 MPH. We could get to Proxima Centauri in only 75,000 years.

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Not Interested

4. Human beings as a species have not yet demonstrated the developmental maturity needed to explore other solar systems and live there. We need to find a way to get there while behaving much better to each other. Here are some rules we will have to accept, even before we develop the technology. If we can't do this we should stay where we are. Do you agree with the following framework?

Human beings as a species have not yet demonstrated the developmental maturity needed to explore other solar systems and live there. We need to find a way to get there while behaving much better to each other. Here are some rules we will have to accept, even before we develop the technology. If we can't do this we should stay where we are. Do you agree with the following framework?

We should not take religions (plural) with us - maybe a central/generic belief in one Supreme being without rituals and dogma. If we don't our space ship will arrive full of dead bodies.

We should not take political parties with us but rather one central committee to look after the various interests of all those on board. If we can't do this our space ship will arrive full of dead bodies.

Money should not be taken into space. None should be needed anyway. If we can't do this our space ship will arrive full of dead bodies.

Nations should be abolished in space travel and space travelers should owe allegiance to the space community only and not their former country. If we can't do this our space ship will arrive full of dead bodies.

Other (please specify)

Not Applicable

This survey is about space and space travel but more specifically about speed and the ultimate speed limit - the speed of light. If you want to escape the survey quickly just choose N/A