5 ms·
> Have there been any spacecraft besides Voyager even launched beyond the boundaries of our solar system? No. > So how long to get there with conventional tec
by simfoo 14y ago
> Have there been any spacecraft besides Voyager even launched beyond the boundaries of our solar system?
No.
> So how long to get there with conventional technology?
I don't have any precise numbers but I guess it would be in the neighborhood of 100000 years one-way with today's technology (if even possible)
- Tichy 14y agoI just looked it up on Wolfram Alpha, apparently the speed of Voyager is 17km/s, or ~1/18000th the speed of light? So it would take Voyager 216000 years to make the journey? Bummer :-( We probably couldn't even build a probe that would last long enough?
- simfoo 14y ago50 km/s is a speed I think we could reach (by clever gravitational maneuvers for example). Even then the trip would take 72000 years. Better wait another few hundred years until we hopefully can launch a probe at a significant fraction of the speed of light.
- uvdiv 14y agoIon engines have been tested at effective exhaust velocities of 90 km/s [0], which allows delta-v's up to 500 km/s or so. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Power_Electric_Propulsion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Power_Electric_Propulsion