How Hard Can It Be

Speaking of living among the stars.

In a previous post, I went on like a schoolboy who just received the new PlayStation 12 with cupholders, about the prospect of exploring — and possibly even living among — the stars one day.

Something I might have neglected to mention — purely for entertainment value — is just how jarring such an undertaking would be. I mean, surely it's obvious to most, but in the interest of "insert decently see-through object here" levels of transparency, I thought I might delve into the monumental struggles that would precede my fantasy balcony with a view of the Crab Nebula.

First and foremost: distance.

As the great Douglas Adams once said, "Space is big... Really big." The man was a visionary.
The distances between even our closest neighbors defy reasonable comparison.

Just between us and the Moon? Every single other planet in our solar system could fit — snugly, end to end — in that space. Yes, Jupiter and Saturn included. All of them.

To the Moon! That gets us to roughly 300,000 km.
Our next nearest neighbor sits comfortably at a minimum of 54 million km.
There do not exist enough rest stops and roadside bathrooms on Earth to make that journey worthwhile.

Secondly, and still foremost: DISTANCE.

Mankind's inevitable goal will, of course, be to one day travel beyond the reaches of our solar system and explore the beauty and wonders the galaxy has in store.

Now, "beyond the reaches of our solar system"...
It is widely agreed upon that this “beyond” sits somewhere between 299 billion and 14.9 trillion km. Out there — by the Oort Cloud.

Just to put that into perspective: 1 million seconds is about 11 days, give or take...
1 billion seconds is closer to 32 years...
............Yeah.

In September 1977, NASA launched its Voyager spacecraft, which is traveling at an eye-popping 61,000 km/h.
At that speed, you can travel from New York to London ten times within a single hour.

Now, even at that speed, and having been traveling for 48 years, Voyager 1 still has about 30,000 years to go before it will be out of the Sun's gravitational reach.

Thirdly — and not foremost anymore — but: DISSSTAAANCE…

After leaving the Oort Cloud, there sits about a 37.84 trillion km gap of cosmic no-man’s-land before we reach the next solar system.

Let’s just leave it at that.

The sheer scale of this poorly constructed universe is mind-boggling — especially when considering the fact that we dream (or at least, I do) of one day seeing what’s out there.

The unfathomable amount of energy and power it's going to require to just traverse our own little solar system — within a human lifetime — is, in itself, a pipedream.

And yet, as we sit here, suffering aneurysms and cold sweats contemplating the immense size of it all…

  • 12 humans have set foot on the Moon.

  • There are remote-controlled cars on Mars — 54 million km away.

  • We’ve taken high-resolution photos of Pluto.

There is hope yet. And as long as there is, we will see the heavens.

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