compared to the speed of light i would like to now how fast the current space shuttle travels, how fast the space craft winner of project X travels and how fast the successor to the space shuttle will travel.
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Light is the physical speed limit of the Universe (as far as we know) (scientists take great pains not to declare anything conclusively because things have a habit of being disproven) and the answerer was right, that’s about 186,000 miles per second – or – 300,000 kilometers per second.
The shuttle travels at about 17,500 – 18,000 miles per hour when in orbit, pretty fast but nowhere near approaching light speed.
There are various theories about how we could bump up the volume so to speak. There’s the famous solar-sail theory. A very large and very thin sail will unfold from the craft when in orbit, this will catch the stream of photonic particals emmited by the sun which will push the craft to higher speeds. Not anywhere near Light though.
Then there’s the nuclear explosions. One a second for an hour. I don’t think the wold has enough nuclear devices to make that one work.
Then there’s the laser theory. You build a powerful laser … well two because you’ll need another on your destination planet/moon. These fire off and meet in the middle, one pushing, one pulling and the craft sails along the laser, exchanging pushing for pulling at the half way mark.
None of these ideas will approach even half light speed. We need to cheat. In theory, wormholes can exist but they would be miniscule and too unstable to allow a craft to pass through.
Then there’s warping space (think Star Trek) but unlike my favourite TV series of all time, you won’t travel through the universe, rather you will be still and the universe will move around you by folding in on itself.
No-one knows how to do this and we won’t have the technology in our lifetime which sort of is a let down for Trek fans as Zephraim Cochrane is set to break the warp barrier and make contact with the first extra-terrestrial species (or the Vulcans in particular) on 5th April 2063. I’ll be 97 then so lots of you will still be kicking your heels and having a whale of a time. But I digress … in a fun way but I’m still digressing (I should be sleeeeeping, I’ve been on nightshift).
Light is the fastest thing there is and we’ll never beat it in a race.
Re: Space Shuttle
compared to 299,792,458 metres per second for light in vacuum.
Re: Future craft
It’s anyone’s guess, but technology that appears feasible in the near future is looking at about 10% the speed of light