Shedding More Light on Speed of Interstellar Travel

I was recently bemused by reader W. H. Brooke’s assurance that a spaceship that would travel at near the speed of light is “scientifically plausible,” and that it would enable humans to travel to other planets, for hundreds of light-years, because at that speed time is compressed, and they would not age.

Unfortunately, when they returned to Earth they would find that hundreds of years had passed, and they would be aliens.

However, we need not worry that this is about to happen soon, or ever.

“You would not enjoy the trip at that speed,” writes Dr. Nicholas Der of Desert Hot Springs, “because you’d travel like a statue. With that speed the inside of the spacecraft is dead. The electrons around the atoms will not rotate any more, the current won’t flow through the conduits, commands couldn’t be executed and the retrorockets wouldn’t work even if activated. Radio signals, traveling the same speed as the craft, could not overtake the ship, ever.

“You see, Mr. Smith, although you’ll live forever, you won’t be able to move or feel, see, smell or hear anything.

“The theory would be, however, an excellent solution to get rid effectively and elegantly of the murderers who are sentenced to death. They wouldn’t be able to complain of cruel and unusual punishment any more. What they’d get is eternal life.”

Der’s scenario validates my belief that no extraterrestrial travelers have ever reached the Earth because they couldn’t have stood the boredom, much less the loss of all their senses.

An even bleaker picture of speed-of-light travel is offered by Stephen Mills of Glendale, who identifies himself as a rocket scientist and physicist at Rocketdyne.

“I must argue with Mr. Brooke,” he says. “His assumption is extremely simplistic, though it is often used in first-year physics courses. What he does not consider is human engineering. First, in order to experience time dilation as proposed by Einstein requires accelerations of several thousand G--that is, the space traveler would experience an apparent pull of gravity several thousand times what it is on Earth.

“This sort of force would melt many metals, and would flatten a human body like a sheet of paper. Even if a human could somehow survive this, the amount of energy required for such a spaceship would rival the output of the sun!

“Simply stated, space travel as shown in Star Trek or Star Wars is impossible for any being remotely resembling humans. Your original assumption was correct. Interstellar space travel would be impossibly long and uncomfortable. The only way I see that it could be possible would be by cryogenically putting the astronauts into suspended animation to be revived upon arrival at their destination.”

One would think that such realistic assessments of interstellar travel would quiet the UFO fanatics who trot around the globe investigating so-called spaceship landings and reporting interviews with humans who have been taken aboard and actually conversed with their alien crews.

Of course creatures from other planets would not be “human,” but unless they were some other kind of life form altogether they would not likely have survived the trip in a very good mood.

Meanwhile, Der questions my use of the phrase “suspended maturation” in describing the state I fall into while watching daytime television--a state I compared with that experienced by space travelers who would not age.

“Being a Hungarian,” he says, “I wouldn’t dare to challenge you on the usage of maturation , which has, according to Webster, quite a different meaning than what you intended. I’d rather call it suspended animation, although that’s not correct either.”

My dictionary defines maturation as “the act or process of maturing, especially of becoming full grown or fully developed.” I meant that while watching daytime television I do not mature, especially intellectually. I suspect that while traveling at the speed of light one does not age, but one also does not mature.

Alas, however, as I suggested, while watching daytime TV I may not mature, but I do getolder.

The magician James Randi has offered a reward of $10,000 to anyone who can produce scientific proof of paranormal phenomena, such telepathy or psychokinesis, the ability to affect objects through the mind.

I hereby offer $10 to anyone who can prove that we have been visited by creatures from space.

By the way, if we ever do develop speed-of-light travel, I don’t want to go.