Oort Cloud question.

Rubecula

Given the current state of modern technology, about how long would it take for a space craft launched from Earth take to reach the Oort Cloud?

Beeker

Rubecula wrote: »

Given the current state of modern technology, about how long would it take for a space craft launched from Earth take to reach the Oort Cloud?

The oort cloud is about 1 light year away. so say we were to travel using the fastest unmanned space craft yet built, the New Horizons spacecraft which is travelling at 157,000 mph. At that rate, there and back would take only 8,500 years.:eek:

djhaxman

Voyager 1 is travelling at 10.5 miles/sec or 38,000 mph and the Oort Cloud is estimated to begin at about a light year out, so that works out at around 10,000 years if Voyager was to continue at it's current speed (according to different wiki pages).

We need better propulsion systems, don't we?

Rubecula

Good lord that long?

The reason I asked was something I saw on TV.

Steven Hawking says we must leave the Earth in order to survive. I thought that if we can not reach the next star system with a habitable planet, our best bet would be to go to an Icy world. We can produce heat artificially a lot easier than we can keep cool artificially. So why not move to the outer reaches of the solar system to ensure species survivability.

OK a crazy idea but at the Oort cloud, the sun going Nova in 5 billion year is not going to be a problem. Spread out a bit and comet or asterroid impact will not wipe us out.

Just for a moment I thought I had come up with a good idea. But 10,00 years? Grief!

djhaxman

Beeker wrote: »

The oort cloud is about 1 light year away. so say we were to travel using the fastest unmanned space craft yet built, the New Horizons spacecraft which is travelling at 157,000 mph. At that rate, there and back would take only 8,500 years.:eek:

You sure about that? Seems pretty fast.

Rubecula

While you mention speed, is Apollo 13 still the fastest man has travelled?

djhaxman

Rubecula wrote: »

While you mention speed, is Apollo 13 still the fastest man has travelled?

Apollo 10, again according to wiki so I won't vouch for the accuracy

According to the 2001 Guinness World Records, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle at 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph) during the return from the Moon on May 26, 1969.

Rubecula

I bow to your great knowledge, it was something I remembered from my youth that Apollo 13 had been faster due to not actually stopping at the moon. But at my age memory is not the most reliable method of storing data:D

Sykk

Beeker wrote: »

The oort cloud is about 1 light year away. so say we were to travel using the fastest unmanned space craft yet built, the New Horizons spacecraft which is travelling at 157,000 mph. At that rate, there and back would take only 8,500 years.:eek:

I'm pretty sure it's 57,000 MPH.. Not 100% tho..

Edit: Copied from Wikipedia

New Horizons was launched on January 19, 2006 directly into an Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory. It had an Earth-relative velocity of about 16.26 km/s or 58,536 km/h (10.10 mi/s or 36,373 mi/h) after its last engine shut down. Thus, it left Earth at the fastest launch speed ever recorded for a man-made object. It flew by Jupiter on February 28, 2007 at 5:43:40 UTC and Saturn's orbit on June 8, 2008 at 10:00 UTC. It will arrive at Pluto on July 14, 2015 and then continue into the Kuiper belt.

Beeker

djhaxman wrote: »

You sure about that? Seems pretty fast.

Sorry my booboo:eek::o That should be 55000kph {34000mph}:(
Well spotted:)

djhaxman

Beeker wrote: »

Sorry my booboo:eek::o That should be 55000kph {34000mph}:(
Well spotted:)

I wish we could travel that fast. Earth to Moon in an hour and a half! Quicker than it takes a lot of people to get home from work in the evening.

Beeker

djhaxman wrote: »

I wish we could travel that fast. Earth to Moon in an hour and a half! Quicker than it takes a lot of people to get home from work in the evening.

Oh one of these days..........................................:):pac::pac::pac:

Enkidu

Well assuming that one could travel at the top speed ever achieved by a man-made craft thus far it would take:
4,475 years to get the Oort Cloud
19,555 years to get to Alpha Centauri
116 million years to get to the Galactic Core
11 billion years to get to the Andromeda Galaxy
and
208 trillion years to cross the Universe!

Hunchback

Enkidu wrote: »

Well assuming that one could travel at the top speed ever achieved by a man-made craft thus far it would take:
4,475 years to get the Oort Cloud
19,555 years to get to Alpha Centauri
116 million years to get to the Galactic Core
11 billion years to get to the Andromeda Galaxy
and
208 trillion years to cross the Universe!

i don't know very much about this topic, but isn't the universe expanding outwards much faster than the fastest ever built man made object making it theoretically impossible to ever cross the universe?

Rubecula

Well the Oort Cloud is out then. How about a more local trip to the Kuiper Belt?

Are there many objects of the same order of size as Pluto there that we know about?

Kidchameleon

Rubecula wrote: »

OK a crazy idea but at the Oort cloud, the sun going Nova in 5 billion year is not going to be a problem. Spread out a bit and comet or asterroid impact will not wipe us out.

Well millions of years before the Sun goes nova we'll be off earth (too hot). Id imagine the first stop will be Mars (will be considerably warmer in the future) then perhaps some of Jupiter's / Saturn's moons (Titan will be allot more hospitable as the Sun warms up)

Would I be right in saying when the Sun goes nova the Ort cloud will be destroyed?

Captain Chaos

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Would I be right in saying when the Sun goes nova the Ort cloud will be destroyed?

The Sun won't go nova, it will swell up out the orbit of the Earth and after a few billion years it will shrink back down to the size of the Earth.

Mars will be cooked too and the outter gas giants will be left behind. They will drift out as the Sun loses it's mass.

dbran

Kidchameleon wrote: »

Would I be right in saying when the Sun goes nova the Ort cloud will be destroyed?

As the Ort cloud is thought to reside more then 1 light year out from the sun the increase in size of the sun in its red giant phase would have negligible effect.


dbran

Enkidu

CKonetheonlyone wrote: »

i don't know very much about this topic, but isn't the universe expanding outwards much faster than the fastest ever built man made object making it theoretically impossible to ever cross the universe?

Yes, it's not so much of an issue now, but since the expansion is accelerating it will eventually overtake any object. The number I quoted is simply the time taken to cross the universe if it stayed at its current size.

dacogawa

could we not just 'hitch' a lift from some asteroid ? then hop off and on to the next passing one, I only say this because of the speed 433 Eros travels at! there might be some others going our way


433 Eros: Found in the main asteroid belt, this odd-shaped near-earth asteroid has an average orbital velocity of 24.360 kilometers per second. With a size twice that of Manhattan island, the asteroid was first discovered by Gustav Witt on August 13, 1898. It is the first asteroid to have been visited by a NASA spacecraft, Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker. The spacecraft landed on Eros’ surface on February 12, 2001.

Rubecula

Captain Chaos wrote: »

The Sun won't go nova, it will swell up out the orbit of the Earth and after a few billion years it will shrink back down to the size of the Earth.

Mars will be cooked too and the outter gas giants will be left behind. They will drift out as the Sun loses it's mass.

Surely the sun swelling up to that size is another way of saying it is going to go Nova? As opposed to Supernova, for which the sun is not nearly massive enough. Or am I mistaken?

Captain Chaos

A nova (pl. novae) is a cataclysmic nuclear explosion caused by the accretion of hydrogen onto the surface of a white dwarf star, which ignites and starts nuclear fusion in a runaway manner. . Novae are not to be confused with supernovae or luminous red novae. A luminous red nova (abbr. LRN, pl. luminous red novae, pl.abbr. LRNe) is a stellar explosion thought to be caused by the merger of two stars. They are characterised by a distinct red colour, and a light curve that lingers with resurgent brightness in the infrared. Luminous red novae are not to be confused with standard novae, explosions that occur on the surface of white dwarf stars.

That's what wiki has to say about the term Nova anyway. Our star will transition from it's main sequence yellow dwarf stage to a red giant and back to become a brown dwarf. Nothing nova about it at all, it won't explode in any major fashion.

djhaxman

http://www.universetoday.com/18431/the-suns-future/

Rubecula

I stand corrected, either way it is going to get a little bit warm on old planet Earth.

rccaulfield

Beeker wrote: »

Sorry my booboo:eek::o That should be 55000kph {34000mph}:(
Well spotted:)

I was wondering aswell? I was sure voyager(1 is it) is by far the fastest man made object made because of the slingshot effect from the outer planets!

dacogawa wrote: »

could we not just 'hitch' a lift from some asteroid ? then hop off and on to the next passing one, I only say this because of the speed 433 Eros travels at! there might be some others going our way

Interesting idea! Might be of use if were sending probes in an asteroids direction!
Op- i cannot see anyway of surviving without sunlight/gravity out that far?

Rubecula

Unable to survive without sunlight or gravity?

Not thought of that before. If gravity is really needed the only celestial body that can provide it to a proper amount apart from Earth is Venus, and I wouldn't want to go there. Mars has less, and none of the moons have any more as far as I am aware. As for sunlight, wouldn't a nuclear reactor provide the energy required for that?

Gravity though is a different matter. Not sure how you could get around that one.

rccaulfield

Rubecula wrote: »

Unable to survive without sunlight or gravity?

Not thought of that before. If gravity is really needed the only celestial body that can provide it to a proper amount apart from Earth is Venus, and I wouldn't want to go there. Mars has less, and none of the moons have any more as far as I am aware. As for sunlight, wouldn't a nuclear reactor provide the energy required for that?

Gravity though is a different matter. Not sure how you could get around that one.

Yea without the gravity that we roughly have on earth its difficult to last without bone density problems etc!

djhaxman

Artificial gravity we could create by using something similar to those rotating limbs that fighter pilots train in, except have it rotating at 1g instead of the 5 or more the pilots train in.

rccaulfield

djhaxman wrote: »

Artificial gravity we could create by using something similar to those rotating limbs that fighter pilots train in, except have it rotating at 1g instead of the 5 or more the pilots train in.

I've seen that on the mars preparation missions. It's all too artificial and reliant on Huge resorces for me, a natural planet nearer to what we're used to is more feasible....imo!

Rubecula

As far as I am aware there is nothing in the immediate vicinity with Earth like gravity. (I include the Oort Cloud in that, but nobody knows for certain I don't think)

On the same idea would an increased gravity improve survival? Say 2 or 3 times G?