Don't I have a nerve, I am talking about long distance space travel and we haven't sent anyone past the moon yet? Well lets try and forget that for the moment

Apollo Launch
Photo Source: NASA

Want to travel to the nearest star? Sorry, you can't because we have no way of getting there in your lifetime. But is there anything that we can to to remedy this? We have two sure choices, the first is to slow down your body's functions and put you in some sort of suspended animation and hope that the machinery doesn't break down in the 80,000 years it would take to get there, traveling at the same speed as Voyager II. We have a second choice and that is figuring out how to make our spaceship travel faster, so fast that we could reach the star system in less than a year. Anything longer doesn't seem to be practical. I say this because of the amount of supplies that we would have to cart along on the trip just to feed and water the crew.

If we examine the prospects of suspended animation we are surprised to find that we have actually succeeded in some experiments. Scientists have taken Zebra fish embryos and used a technique that starves them of oxygen to put them into a state of suspended animation. In this state they had no observable metabolic activity, not even a heartbeat. The amazing thing was that when they were revived they developed normally and had normal growth. Someday our space ships may use a method of suspending life for very long voyages.

Suspended animation is not just the purview of the lab. Yogis have claimed that they could lower heartbeats from 140 per minute to 40 and yes even stop their heart without ill effects. They claim to be able to cause a trance where the body's functions simply stop and the body is put into true suspended animation. It is claimed that this ability can be traced back to the ancient Egyptians. Another form of suspended animation is accidental. When someone drowns in very cold water, they can sometimes be revived hours later. The same thing has happed to some people that were reported to have died from freezing but recovered. There are about 70 species of animals that go into suspended animation. Going a step further, scientists need to find out why some animals that put themselves into suspended animation through hibernation can go for so many months and not be skinny. An example of this is the garter snake which can hibernate for eight months and yet lose less that 10% of it's body weight.

So, can we put humans in suspended animation? We are getting very close. Scientists at North Carolina State University have just discovered two key genes that produce two key enzymes that make hibernation possible, and guess what boys and girls, humans also have them. The genes involved are responsible for regulating how the body uses it's stores of energy. The first gene is responsible for regulating the breakdown of fats and using them for energy. Usually the body will use glucose for energy but in hibernation it also uses fats. The second gene helps to conserve the glucose supply so it isn't used up. Another duty of this gene is to ensure that remaining supplies of glucose are used to maintain the brain and central nervous system. We now need to find the genes that begin hibernation The data cited above is from running tests on squirrel hibernation

Now lets look at increasing our speed so that we won't need to use suspended animation or hibernation There is no denying the fact that our space vehicles have been increasing their speed capabilities. Using the speed of the Apollo spaceship that traveled to the Moon it would take us 900,000 years to reach the nearest star system but going as fast as Voyager II that time is reduced to 80,000 years. But I don't think a passenger would notice the difference since in both cases he or she or them would be long dead. By the time the ship reached the star, the Earth might no longer exist and even the star they are traveling to might blow up before they get there, anything is possible. So what do we do? We go faster.

Scientists have recently tested a form of energy known as Zero Point Energy. They were able to measure the energy as it pushed two metal plates together. But is this energy strong enough to give us the speed that we need? You can contain enough Zero Point Energy in a box the size of your pinky tip to bring all the oceans on Earth to a boil. The potential boggles the mind. This type of energy may hold the most promise, but can you imagine if you have an accident? A vehicle powered by Zero Point Energy should be constructed and maintained far out in space. We wouldn't to blow up the Earth by mistake. This energy might even be too dangerous to use.

Nuclear explosions have been proposed as a means of propulsion. They would power our vehicle much faster than anything we have now. It is estimated that if you could generate 250 tiny explosions per second you could get your vehicle up to about 12% of the speed of light. I call this flight by contamination. We could zip around the universe radiating everything that we pass. Not a very friendly way to travel if there is anyone else out there. And if there is, they would probably have to destroy our ship to stop it from polluting the universe.

Wormhole
Picture Source: NASA

Wormholes. We have all heard about them, but do they really exist? I don't think that anyone has ever seen one. They have been predicted to exist though. Assuming that they do exist, we would have to know exactly where they were and find out their properties. You wouldn't want to jump into one and find out that there was a small black hole in it or some other force that would crush you out of existence. If wormholes do exist and we can figure out how to use them it may be possible to enter one here and come out at the other end near our star having traveled very quickly to our destination.

One thing that we are rapidly finding out is that there are way more energy sources than we ever suspected. Even the Earth's rotation can be used for energy. The problem is that many of these source are not suitable for space travel. Another problem is that our spaceship can not carry enough fuel to go to the nearest star It has been calculated that there isn't enough resources on Earth if we used everything available to power a rocket ship to the nearest star in 1,000 years. But maybe some combination of energy sources will be able to do the trick. But as I said, it isn't just getting there, it is getting there in about a year that we want.

We are moving very fast in all fields of science right now and the pace is accelerating. Each day brings the chance of new discovery. So lets hope that that the solution to this problem will happen within our lifetime.