2000plus - What lies beyond the year 2000?Space Travel

What lies  beyond the year 2000?

Future Travel

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Future Space Travel Technologies

 

There are quite a few technologies that could be used in the future for space travel that we know about now.  These technologies would make space travel faster, more efficient and safer.

Ion Propultion DiagramOne of them is called an ion propulsion system.  It has already been used on NASA's Deep Space 1 Probe and on some satellites.  This new propulsion system can be in use for very long periods of time without the need to re-fuel.  It uses solar energy collected by large solar panels to shoot electrons out extremely fast.
It uses xenon gas electrons, as it does not corrode the jet nozzles.
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The problem with travelling to nearby stars, is that according to relativity, you can't travel Warping Space - Expand the space behind you, and contract it in front of youfaster than the speed of light.  So, a method that would not violate relativity, yet it would get you somewhere faster than the speed of light would, would be to 'warp' space.  This means that you 'collapse' the space in front of you and then it will expand behind you.  Theoretically this should get you instantly to the nearby star.  The only problems with this theory is that you have to send some sort of a signal to where you want to collapse space, which means that the fastest we can get that signal to go is at the speed of light and that the amount of energy required would be more than all the energy in the universe.
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Another possibility is a wormhole.  A wormhole is a black hole connected to a white hole.   In a black hole, nothing can escape, including light (comes the name black hole) once it has passed the event horizon.  So if you were to enter a black hole that was connected to a white hole, you would not be able to exit on the other side because you cannot exit the event horizon on the other side.  The entry of the wormhole is the singularity.   So, if you could get the singularity to stretch outside the event horizon, you should be able to enter the singularity without passing the event horizon, and without getting trapped in.  This could happen if a black hole was electrically charged.  Geoffrey Landis discovered this.  According to relativity electrical charge distorts space-time.  This would be strong enough to stretch the singularity into a ring type object, so you could pass through the singularity and also would be strong enough to stretch the singularity out passed the event horizon.  You should then be able to enter the wormhole, and providing it was the same condition on the other side, exit the wormhole without passing the event horizon and getting stuck inside a black hole.
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