It's been going 40 years.

[cee-dee]

Voyager I mean.

https://news.sky.com/story/nasa-fixes-voyager-1-deep-space-probe-by-firing-thrusters-not-used-in-37-...

It's travelling at aroung 40,000 MPH and in 40 years has "only" gone about 12 billion miles so a lot of work needs to be done before space travel will become a possibility.

40,000 MPH is just too slow. Travelling at the speed of light would take 4½ years to get to the nearest star so that's a bit too slow?

The "trouble" with travelling so fast is that if a bit of space debris got in the way there'd be castrophic damage. We've seen meteors burning up in our atmosphere and most of those are only the size of a grain of sand so imagine hitting a bigger bit?

Most meteors we see burning up are remnants of comets or are from collisions between debris in the Asteroid Belt but some are from out in Space and it's these that might cause a problem in interstellar space travel so I suppose space travellers would need to coin a phrase from Star Trek, "Shields up"?

[mustard-tree]

I know it is science fiction, but is there any indication of the MPH of the warp speeds?

[cee-dee]

Warp factor 3 is 27 times the speed of light..................... Warp factor 9 was over 800 times the speed of light!

[jd.linklater]

I watched a 90 minute documentary on the Voyager mission a couple of nights ago. It left me in complete awe at the dedicated people who have the technical brilliance to put a project like this together.

It is incredible that something so relatively fragile and carrying so many delicate instruments has survived this long without colliding with something in the far reaches of space.

Good to know that even when its fuel has run out it will not come to any grief, just keep circulating along with everything else in the Milky Way. A real tribute to the abilities of human kind.

[astrologica]

' A real tribute to the abilities of human kind'.

Absolutely tue JD...but at the same time isn't it tragic that we can neither live in Peace, or take good care of our Earth.

[jd.linklater]

I agree wholeheartedly Astro. It's a sad fact of life that despite our undoubted abilities, human beings are bad news for the world we live in. We have colonised virtually ever inhabitable space on the planet and at every juncture it has been at the expense of other species and others of our own kind. I often wonder if we will ever be able to live in peace with each other and the world that sustains us all. We've had 95,000 years to learn how to get along with each other and yet every new day that dawns brings further examples of how little progress we've made.

[fallen-archie]

Excellent posts above^^^ I too fear for the future of our planet and the wildlife we share it with. Barely a day goes by when we don’t see yet more land being gobbled up to build more houses at the expense of our wildlife. And yet technology is so far advanced that we are now on a position to explore new planets within our solar system, Time and time again I am called out over my concerns about immigration, yes I feel sorry for those who are destitute and living in squalid conditions and yes we should be ashamed of the way the world has developed often under our stewardship but I yearn for a country which has lots of wide open spaces where animals and birds can coexist with man and we can all marvel in nature and the natural world. If we can send a man to the moon and beyond surely we can do something to preserve our planet for all?

[**bustysinclaire**]

You Archie and many others express anxiety over what the future holds yet none wish to accept that there is a wonderful future not so far away for the animals and mankind where we will cohabit in peace and security.
If you wish to know how to be a part of that wonderful future do some reading from jw.org the official website. Many topics and serious questions about our future on this planet are discussed and answered.

[**bustysinclaire**]

Specifically look for a wonderful new tract that has been published "How do you view the future?"
Look under publications>brochures.
It offers great hope and answers to your kind of worries and wishes. Well worth a read. 🙂

[margaret*e]

In the small town I live in every bit of green is getting bought up to build houses, but not social housing.

l fear by the time my great grandchildren grow up there won't be a blade of grass anywhere in the town.

[fallen-archie]

Thanks for that Busty, sadly I cannot take your well meaning advice because I am no longer affiliated with any religion my faith having lapsed some time ago. But if it works for you i am delighted👍
Marge it’s the same everywhere, if only our government would address the problem of second home ownership and absentee landlords I am certain that there would be far less demand!

[astrologica]

It's the same here...every school with a playing field is being demolished and new houses built on the land. This country is totally and irrevocably bu**ered. And our world as a whole is doomed too. Overpopulation will be the death of us. Just imagine this country in 30 years time. An ever increasing population, with newcomers arriving from countries where large families are the norm. That's not going to change. And more cemeteries needed for people of a certain religion who do not believe in cremation. So that's more land required for the living and the dead. This country is not going to be a green and pleasant land for much longer. And immigration is not going to stop, no matter what we the public want. The Euro-Mediterranean Barcelona agreement of 1995 spells out quite clearly what the intentions are. And it's not going to be very pretty. I'm glad I'm old. I watched the Blue Planet series over the last few weeks....it brings me to tears...we humans do not deserve this priceless jewel of a planet.

[fallen-archie]

So going back to the OP perhaps we need to accelerate our quest for inter galactic travel in order that we might find another planet to trash. Would we expect to travel for free or would it be subjected to a means test? Seriously who would decide who gets to go? And shouldn’t we look at our history first, learn lessons from it and attempt to get it right for a change, do the elderly get to travel or will they be left at home assuming of course they have one! And what about animals and birds do they get to go as well or will there be none left by the time we have the technology? It won’t happen in my lifetime and I suspect that the future holds little for the young and we will be blamed for it quite rightly!

[cee-dee]

Fiction would write that there'd be a space version of the Ark taking animals and Earthlings to a New World someplace else as this Planet faces it's destruction by the Sun.

However, were that at all possible there'd have to be some vast inventions in both fuel and metals? Still, they've got around 4 billion years to conquer it?

With Star Trek and their warp speed, were they acrually "travelling" at such speed or did they warp space and time instead? I used to say that if Man could think of something, one day he'd be able to do it but as far as interstellar space travel, I think that's a a Final Frontier too far?

[**bustysinclaire**]

---

@fallen-archie wrote:
So going back to the OP perhaps we need to accelerate our quest for inter galactic travel in order that we might find another planet to trash. Would we expect to travel for free or would it be subjected to a means test? Seriously who would decide who gets to go? And shouldn’t we look at our history first, learn lessons from it and attempt to get it right for a change, do the elderly get to travel or will they be left at home assuming of course they have one! And what about animals and birds do they get to go as well or will there be none left by the time we have the technology? It won’t happen in my lifetime and I suspect that the future holds little for the young and we will be blamed for it quite rightly!

---

Could it would it, be justifiable to spend billions on a quest that could very possibly come to nothing when there are so many poor and starving on this planet?

[fallen-archie]

As you asked busty, yes I think there is the justification for science in all its forms, whilst there are people dying one needs science to assist, who knows what lies out there in the galaxy?
Would you not also Agree that where there is massive poverty there is also a massive breeding issue, where is the responsibility being shown for all these children hanging around their parents necks starving to death yet soon to be joined by another. Who is responsible for this, you? Me? Or those who procreate so freely? If you cannot afford to feed a child why keep making them?

[**bustysinclaire**]

I certainly agree with you on the issue of parent responsibility.

[astrologica]

Poverty and the over production of children goes along with ignorance and medieval attitudes. The poor children that we see regularly on our TV screens in appeals for more and more money from charities that pay their executives grossly inflated salaries, mostly are born into families of certain religions. They have no thought for the future of this Earth, or the health and happiness of their children. They just follow the rules of their religions and just keep on churning them out. They are born to die. Or, if they survive, they live in poverty and endure war and conflict. These people are medieval and barbaric, and this is what we are importing to our lovely island. I have long suspected that there was some sort of world plan to bring people from other religions and races to Europe and the UK, and now it is becoming quite clear that the Plan is there. And it has a name...The Kalergi Plan.

Humankind could halt this plan, but because the people who formed this plan, and the present day followers, suppress information about its existence, it has been creeping along nicely, under the Guise of the EU. But it is being uncovered, and the game is up. It is up to us to fight back and try to save our country and its green spaces, indeed to save our world. Travelling to another planet is not the answer...we have a beautiful planet here, we just need to fight back and save it. But I fear it is too late.

[j_uk643]

There aren't many places where you could 'warp' from old bits of space hardware, to immigration and the Kellogs kalahari'plan
A little known fig biscuit of fantasy outside of the confines of certain psychiatric wards, designed it is said to secretly flood the world with cheap breakfast cereal

It does of course take real 'civilisation' to kill tens of millions in several world wars, and to leave the ability to kill lots more
in the hands of a dotard somewhere in DC

The moral questions of society are not answered by science, it has nothing much to say.Arguably religion or some alternative  might provide something of a framework within which to determine morality and fairness etc

We as a species are probably more likely to run out of time before we kickstart the dilithium crystals,and warp into studio 1

Oh and in terms of counter intuitive ideas, certain aspects of science are arguably more counter intuitive than religion