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Can We Travel To That Exciting New Exoplanet?
An anonymous reader writes "The news last week that exoplanet Gliese 581g may be in the 'Goldilocks zone' and could therefore hold liquid water and alien life got everyone all excited, with good reason. A potentially habitable planet — and only 20 light years away! But to put things in perspective, here are a couple of estimates on what it would take to travel to Gliese 581g. One scientist puts the travel time at 180,000 years based on current space flight technology, while another explains that it could be quite quick if we build a matter-antimatter drive, and can figure out how to bring along 530 times as much mass in fuel as is contained in the ship and cargo itself."
This is a huge fantasy. The planet is 4 times the mass of earth; so because of its gravity, I'd weigh 600 pounds. Most of the fat bitches at Wal-Mart would weigh about half as much as my car, and they'd all outweigh a 1000CC motorcycle.
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why do we a shit about another planet when we can't even control the shit that happens on our own come on people.....
If so, the US will be more than happy to inva^H^H^H, bring democracy and free trade to it's inhabitants
Ah, arrogance, always the first accusation leveled against scientific incredulity by the crackpot or woo-addled moron.
Don't worry, I'm sure if you wish hard enough you conjure an FTL reactionless drive that contradicts both Newton and Einstein. And we'll see who's laughing then!
So if I throw myself against this wall enough times, do you think I'll eventually learn to walk through it?
No. More likely the laws of physics say it's impossible. Or at least highly improbable (if I lived a million years, and threw myself against the wall constantly, there's a 1 in googleplex chance I'll pass through the wall). The same is true about crossing the space between stars.
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