Scientists Discovered the Best Way to Travel the Universe
are incredibly powerful.
You can launch yourself into orbit, fly the moon and soon enough travel to Mars.
But to go beyond our solar system, you're going to need something else.
Solar sails.
How exactly would sales work out in space?
How long would it take you to travel to the edge of the solar system?
And why could this journey end with your slow and lonely demise?
This is what if and here's what would happen if you sailed the galaxy on solar winds to launch a spaceship, you need a rocket to push you up into the sky.
That push is called thrust.
Being launched from earth with the power of a rocket gives a spacecraft most of its momentum after this, you need more fuel to change your speed or course.
But there are no gas stations out there in space for you to refuel.
And that means you can only go as far as your fuel takes.
You.
You see more fuel means more weight and in space, your reserves are limited.
In other words, it would be really hard to get to your interstellar destination with rockets alone.
But all of that is about to change all aboard, you're set to sail across the galaxy.
You know, if anything breaks down in the debt of space, it'll be on you to fix it.
But back on earth, we don't always have that ability, not by choice, but because some of the biggest manufacturers around don't want us to have access to fix their products.
This practice allows companies to keep a lock on the market and limit your choices as a consumer.
That's a backdoor way for them to create a monopoly.
This stranglehold on the market puts the smaller more affordable repair shops out of business because they can't compete without the tools needed to do their jobs.
Currently, over two dozen state legislatures are crafting laws to defend your right to repair, making these business practices illegal.
Look to their credit.
Apple has reversed some of its policies, but they still maintain a huge amount of proprietary control and some other companies don't take this issue seriously.
So urge your lawmakers to fight for your rights as a consumer and take back control of what belongs to you after all, you paid for it.
Now, let's get back to the video on earth sails have been moving boats around the globe for centuries.
They work without any fuel, only the power of wind, but out in space, there are no air particles moving around.
So you need to harness a different kind of wind.
Solar winds carry charged particles ejected by the sun.
Uh these particles fly across the solar system at a blisteringly fast, 1.6 million kilometers per hour.
But with a special type of sail, you could take advantage of that power to get yourself across the solar system and beyond.
And no, those special sails wouldn't look much like the sails you're familiar with.
Are you ready to have your mind blown?
This is the contraption that could take you across the galaxy.
It's called electric sails or E sails.
They're kind of like an umbrella without fabric.
Only these ribs would be made of electrically charged aluminum wires and they can be as long as 20 kilometers while also being no thicker than about half of one strand of hair upon your head.
Now, all you'd need is the solar wind and you could sail across the deep dark sea of outer space.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Um There's one catch you see, you'd still need chemical rockets to launch you off into space to begin with.
That's because electric sails don't work within earth's magnetosphere.
The magnetosphere is the area around the planet that's under the influence of its magnetic field.
It's up to 10 times larger than earth itself and to escape it, you need a little boost from the old school rockets or you could build a space port around earth.
It would have to be far enough so that the planet's magnetic field doesn't reach it.
But you know, that would get too expensive and take too long to construct.
And we wanna send you on this journey right now.
So you'd launch your ship from earth and out of the magnetosphere limits from there.
It would be smooth sailing with a 1000 kg spacecraft like yours.
You'd have about 100 wires to catch solar wind particles.
You'd be a pioneer voyaging through space with this fantastic new technology.
After one year of sailing, you'd reach a speed of at least 30 kilometers per second and you might even go as fast as 150 kilometers per second.
And that's really fast, faster than Voyager one, the fastest space probe humans have ever sent off world.
The Voyager one probe is hurtling through space at about 17 kilometers per second.
After spending three years getting past Mars Jupiter Saturn and Uranus, you'd end up beyond the orbit of Neptune.
You'd navigate by simply changing the voltage levels on different wires of your electric sails.
Yeah.
Well, you'd still have to be a navigational genius to sail safely, especially when you get closer to the outer edges of the solar system.
Here, you have to pass through the Kuiper Belt.
This area is filled with icy comets and if you're not careful, these comets will do some hefty damage to your electric sales.
Yeah.
Your interstellar trip might end before you even get out of our planetary neighborhood.
After that, you've still got a long way to go to the very end of the solar system.
The helio pause.
It's four times further away from the sun than Neptune.
So fasten your seatbelts and power through a pretty uneventful view for about 10 more years.
Yeah, I know.
I know you'd prefer a view of Jupiter or Uranus instead.
But, hey, it's almost time to explore worlds you've never seen.
Oh, I just remembered, I was supposed to tell you something important.
Yeah.
You know how your electric sails need solar winds to sail.
Well, uh now you'd be the furthest from the sun you've ever been.
And that means there won't be as many solar particles pushing your spaceship forward.
Your sailing might just come to a complete stop leaving you stuck forever in the outskirts of the solar system.
Cold, lonely and hopeless.
Yeah, I'm not gonna lie.
This could be how your days come to an end.
So while you still have some life left in your sails, you'll need to navigate to another star.
If I were you, I'd head to the Alpha Centauri star system.
It's the closest one around and it has not one but three stars.
Now, you should also know that not all stars are equal in providing you the powerful solar winds.
You so desperately need passing by a red dwarf star like Alpha Centauri c also known as Proxima Centauri.
You'd experience luminosity.
That could be anywhere from 1/10 to 1 10/1000.
As strong as our own sun.
But despite this, you might be able to gain enough accelerating power to reach super high speeds once again and all this without any chemical fuel.
Yeah, going green is the cool new thing everyone's talking about.
Ok.
Now that you've made it further into space than any human has ever dared to go.
Well, you should probably explore what else is out there, like some of the planets scientists have discovered that might be even better for life than earth.
But that's a story for another.
What if?