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Interstellar Flight: Perspectives and Patience

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101 points JPLeRouzic | 3 comments | 25 Jun 25 16:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.427s | source
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d_silin ◴[25 Jun 25 18:53 UTC] No.44380695[source]▶
Developing propulsion technology to reach 0.1c velocity will move the needle on interstellar propulsion from impossible to just barely feasible. Although that is at least 100-200 years away, we can absolutely start expanding into our Solar System, starting with nearby bodies, like Moon and Mars.
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pfdietz ◴[25 Jun 25 21:51 UTC] No.44382130[source]▶
However, travel at 0.1c is not needed for the Fermi Argument to bite. Much slower speeds would allow a colonization wave to sweep a galaxy in time << the age of the universe.
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1. thechao ◴[26 Jun 25 10:15 UTC] No.44385912[source]▶
Even at .0006c (our current tech), the galaxy would be filled with (weakly self propagating) robotic probes after just 750 million years. Unless extremely long lived self-propagating probes just ... die out ... that implies no aliens older than 750 million years from our galaxy. It implies no aliens from the nearby galactic neighborhood within 3 billion years. That kind of implies we're all alone.

I have three wild-eyed theories: (1) eukaryotism is an unbelievably exotic step; (2) and/or the moon is required and ultrarare; or, (3) advanced civilizations eschew yellow stars for being inconveniently short-lived: maybe they prefer brown dwarfs, white dwarfs, or black holes for their energy gradient.

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2. qiine ◴[26 Jun 25 12:29 UTC] No.44386763[source]▶
you want a funny one I am starting to like more and more ?

We are simply the first.

3. nradov ◴[26 Jun 25 19:37 UTC] No.44390535[source]▶
Long-lived self-propagating probes are probably impossible. Even out in deep space, mechanisms eventually decay. Building in redundant systems or automated repairs doesn't allow you to cheat the inevitable increase of entropy in that closed system.