JDPFu.com 2025

I read an article today that said willpower and money are the reasons humanity hasn’t launched men towards the stars.

The barrier between us and the stars is not some insurmountable technology one, its a matter of money and willpower.

This is just 1 of the misconceptions that the average person has related to scientific items. Some things can’t be solved with enough effort and money in a given timeframe.

Fastest Man-Made Object

The fastest man-made item reached 150,000 mph (41.67 mi/sec). Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is going only 38,500 mph as it leaves our solar system.

Distance

The closest star to our solar system is about 4 light years away (5,800,000,000,000,000 miles away).

How Long is That Trip?

That works out to about 3,941 years to travel there at 150,000 mi/hr.

Remaining Problems To Be Solved

We definitely do not have the technology to accomplish or even begin that goal. We’d need a multi-generational ship, capable of growing food without sunlight. It would need to survive longer than any culture or nation has by far. There are thousands of other issues that would need to be solved too. Gravity, bone loss, fuel exhaustion, genetic diversity, long term power, …

So perhaps everyone can better understand why we aren’t planning to visit other stars at all?

Did I make any simple math mistakes?

Another big misconception is the fact that there are more stars in our universe than there are grains of sand on the entire planet Earth. Average humans don’t understand this. Large numbers and distances cannot truly be understood by our human brains.