Can Interstellar Travel Be Possible Without Spaceships?

It may not be possible just yet, but in the future it likely will be!  

From time to time, I wonder if it’s possible to travel through space... without a spaceship. 

In a Forbes article titled, “Could we achieve interstellar travel using only known physics?” written by Ethan Siegel, one part in particular caught my eye. It reads, “With the right technology, we could vastly improve how efficient it is to get a large-payload mass, perhaps even one that carried humans on board, to unprecedented distances across the Universe.” I found this to be very intriguing.  

The three options in which this article states that this could be possible are: 

1. The nuclear option.  

1. A space-based laser array 

1. Antimatter fuel  

I believe that with the right technology, and research, along with professionals, this can and will be done in the future. Maybe not in my lifetime, but in future generations to come.  

With resources and technology constantly evolving, the future of interstellar travel without a spaceship is looking more and more possible.  

While the future of space travel is definitely uncertain as of right now, The San Diego Union says that space travel may just one day become a commercial reality.  

I wonder if this is something people genuinely are interested in. Not to get too off topic, but Pete Davidson was considering going to space, and even he backed out... which really says something.  

A question that has come to mind is, what would be needed to make this possible? Besides the obvious: water, food, oxygen, and space suits... how would the flight take place and what would the plane need to add to make this possible?  

Again, I am sure we will find out in the decades to come, but it is an odd thing to consider in our current generation. I, for one, am excited to see what the future of space travel will have in store for us all.  

With that being said, let’s look at what www.space.com has to say about this. The article, written by Paul Sutter, is written in a light-hearted context. I can tell from the text under the title that says, “Interstellar flight is a  real pain.” which made me laugh out loud.  

This article starts off with a short bio about who the author is and includes some of this works. The first thing that stands out to me in this article is a statement within the first paragraph that reads as follows, “Interstellar space travel. Fantasy of every five-year-old within us.” I mean, truer words have never been spoken.  

Interstellar travel through space is a concept beyond comprehension. It is unreal that something can take us somewhere that is beyond all of us. It blows my mind to think such a place exists, but it does.  

Research on this topic is ever-evolving and happening as we speak. The information we read on Interstellar travel will change for years to come, and who knows? Maybe the information in this blog post will be proven wrong one day.  

But for now, let’s take heart in knowing that eventually, commercial flights to outer space will exist. The future can certainly be surprising, as we all know from the coronavirus pandemic that took effect in March 2020. So, why shouldn’t we have a reason to believe we can all go to space?  

Speaking of the future of space travel, let me tell you what Nasa has to add to this subject. This article, which titled “NASA: 60 Years and Counting,” shows a glimpse of what space travel and the future of it could potentially look like.  

The first sentence catches my attention, and instantly, I already want to read the whole article. The sentences reads as, “NASA’s future will continue to be a story of human exploration, technology, and science.” What a way to start an article!  

The rest of that paragraph talks about what the ISS has been working on and what will be created from those ideas.  

In conclusion, space travel and the way we view it is vastly changing every day, and the new technologies that are being designed to help with that are also improving.  

We learned in this blog post that as of right now, no, space travel is not YET possible on a commercial flight, but adjustments are being made to make this possible in the long-time future.  

About the Author: Future Professional Writer. Lover of Poetry & Biographies. Algonquin College Professional Writing ‘23.

Myths and Truths about Interstellar Travel

Interstellar travel is a topic with such a wide range of myths and truths. So much so, 

In fact, that unless you’ve researched on this topic professionally, it is difficult to wrap one’s  

Mind  around what is real and what is simply made up. Especially in this day and age on the internet, 

So many things being made up and it is easy to believe them without evidence. 

An article written by Bianca Nogrady, featured on BBC.com, there are some prime questions that are being asked. Some of those questions include: 

• How would humans survive on an interstellar voyage? 

• Can’t we sleep all the way there? (A whole mood) 

• How would we get there? 

While I’m sure some professionals can answer these questions with ease, I, on the other hand, am not here to answer these questions (though, I wish I could). Some examples of the myths and truths about interstellar travel are: 

Myth 1: Faster than light travel. According to Gizmodo.com, Phil Plait (writer of Bad Astronomy) says that planets are so far apart, that while it doesn't take years to get to them, it does take a long time. So no, interstellar travel is not faster than light.  

Myth 2: Objects in space are bunched together. In the same article, it mentions that if you were to watch any scientific or space-related show or movie, space is usually represented in an over-dramatic, unrealistic way. And that much is true. Everything in outer space is SPACED OUT. Pun intended. In this section of the article, there are examples of how everything in space is separated due to how far the planets are from each other.  

Myth 3. You can communicate with aliens. I don't mean to burst anyone’s bubble, buuuuut… I don't think aliens exist. This one is a little more light-hearted than the first two myths. Throughout my elementary school days, I had a friend who just adored all things Sci-Fi and space related, and some of the things he came up with in his head were some of the most absurdly hilarious things I’ve ever heard.  So much so, that he was 100% convinced that he wanted the whole class to go to space. Yeah, no thanks!

Next, I will be listing some truths about interstellar travel. By doing so, you will see the contrast between what is clearly made up and what is the truth. All of these facts are from the website, interestingengineering.com  

Truth 1: New methods and theories for interstellar travel are always in development. This is proven by a book written by astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, in which he wrote: “I believe that space travel will, one day, be as common as airline travel is today.” The full quote, then proceeds to talk about how the future of interstellar travel should be relied on by the government, and how he hopes that one day private companies will be able to fulfill the desire of space travel to become more common.  

Truth 2: Solar sails could, one day, potentially take us beyond the stars. According to the Planetary Society, they have launched and tested a solar sail that was proven to be able to change its orbital trajectory.  

Cara Goodwin

Truth 3: NASA is working on developing a real-life warp drive. Interesting Engineering mentions that the Alcubierre drive was first originated in 1994, by Miguel Alcubierre, who was a physicist at the University of Wales, located in Cardiff. This specific drive would indicate that the use of exotic matter, in the sense that a negative mass, would need to be used. This exotic matter could potentially distort space-time, as well as making space behind the spacecraft to expand it.  

With these myths and truths proven to be true or not, I feel like this could really change the way we view space and travelling within space. I am sure there are many more myths that need to be debunked, but these are the ones I found most interesting to research on, and therefore why I included them in this blog post.  

Author Bio:

Rose-Angela Pizzuto is a future professional writer, lover of Poetry & Biographies, and is a student of Algonquin College Professional Writing ‘23.

Image source: Advanced Science News