There is no escaping the solar system, not at speed anyway

12 August 2026

The Voyager 1 space probe is almost one light-day away from Earth. But the craft has been on its trajectory since being launched in 1977.

Deep space flights carrying people will need to move at far greater speed if they are to, for example, reach Alpha Centaur, the star system closest to the Sun, in a reasonable amount of time.

But travel at high speed, even relatively high speed, such as twenty-percent the speed of light, poses another set of problems. Minute particles litter the interstellar voids, and could severely damage a vessel, should a collision occur.

An object the size of playing marble would strike a ship with bullet-like impact given the speed involved. Vessels could be fitted with shielding of some sort, but the sheer volume of particle strikes would eventually destroy any protective cladding.

Unless a way can be found to overcome this problem, or the laws of physics can (somehow) be bent, humanity may well not be able to venture too far from the solar system.

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astronomy, physics, science, space exploration