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A question most would like the answer to, and those with even a ballpark idea would like to see hastened.
No Star Trek 'Warp speed' ...alas.
How Long Would it Take to Travel to the Nearest Star?
by IAN O'NEILL
No Star Trek 'Warp speed' ...alas.
How Long Would it Take to Travel to the Nearest Star?
by IAN O'NEILL
First choice would probably be Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. Part of a triple star system called Alpha Centauri; Proxima is 4.22 light years from Earth. Alpha Centauri is actually the brightest star of the three in the system, and so the system is named after this star. Alpha Centauri is part of a closely orbiting binary about 4.37 light years from Earth.
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Slowest: Ion drive propulsion, 81,000 years
Ion drive propulsion was considered to be science fiction only a few decades ago. In recent years however, the technology to support ion propulsion has moved from theory and into practice in a big way.
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Fastest: Gravitational assists, 19,000 years
The Helios solar mission (Deep Space Network)
The 1976 Helios 2 mission was launched to study the interplanetary medium from 0.3AU to 1AU to the Sun. At the time, Helios 1 (launched in 1974) and Helios 2 held the record for closest approach to the Sun. However, to this day, Helios 2 holds the record for fastest ever spacecraft to travel in space.
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Fastest (theoretical): Nuclear Pulse Propulsion, 85 years
Project Orion, using nuclear explosions as a propellant (NASA)
Nuclear pulse propulsion is a theoretically possible form of fast space travel. Very early on in the development of the development of the atomic bomb, nuclear pulse propulsion was proposed in 1947 and Project Orion was born in 1958 to investigate interplanetary space travel. In a nutshell, Project Orion hoped to harness the power of pulsed nuclear explosions to provide a huge thrust with very high specific impulse. It is a major advantage to extract maximum energy from a spacecraft’s fuel to minimize cost and maximize range, therefore a high specific impulse creates faster, longer-range spaceflight for minimum investment.
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