How long an interstellar journey will take
Channel: Improbable Matter
Date: 2022-11-11

No technobabble, realistic look at travel to other star systems. Maybe watch this if you're a science fiction writer.

Contents
00:00 - Introduction
00:50 - Wait/start problem
01:27 - Acceleration
03:12 - Relativity
05:10 - Trip duration
08:03 - Interstellar propulsion
13:03 - Energy
15:20 - Efficiency ideas
17:15 - Conclusion


References
[1] Alpha Centauri system by Pablo Carlos Budassi
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alpha_centauri_system.png
[2] Stars Over Cape Town by Omaranabulsi
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stars_Over_Cape_Town.webm
[3] RAF Typhoon Flight Over the UK, Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
[4] Air Force 9.0 g Centrifuge by Lance Cheung
https://www.flickr.com/photos/10278322@N02/4104391619
[5] Alpha Centauri and the Southern Cross by the European Southern Observatory
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ESO_-_Alpha_Centauri_and_the_Southern_Cross_(by).jpg
[6] Denver International Airport, Report by United States General Accounting Office, GAO/T-RCED/AIMD-95-184
[7] Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg (BER), Terminal 2 by Günter Wicker
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flughafen_BER_Terminal_2.jpg
[8] A depiction of the wheat and chessboard (or rice and chessboard) problem by User McGeddon
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wheat_and_chessboard_problem.jpg
[9] 3D cut of the LHC dipole , CERN, OPEN-PHO-ACCEL-2014-003-8
https://home.cern/resources/image/accelerators/lhc-images-gallery
[10] View of LHC Tunnel, CERN, CERN-SI-0107014-01
https://home.cern/resources/image/cern/views-cern-images-gallery
[11] Sapphire Capillaries by Marilyn Chung/Berkeley Lab
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2019/02/25/laser-drill-sets-a-new-world-record-in-laser-driven-electron-acceleration/
[12] Log fire burning by Zouavman Le Zouave
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_burning.ogv
[13] Video of a Cloud chamber of the LMU by Michael F. Schönitzer
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nebelkammer-LMU-1.ogv
[14] The ASACUSA experiment's RFQ by CERN, CERN-EX-1102074-05
https://home.cern/resources/image/physics/antimatter-images-gallery
[15] Zoom in onto the stellar black hole NGC 300 X-1, ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/P. Crowther/L. Calçada
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1004b/
[16] A ‘fly to’ WASP-76, the star around which WASP-76 b orbits, ESO/L.Calçada/spaceengine.org
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso2005b/
[17] Dipole animation, CERN-FOOTAGE-2014-024-003
https://home.cern/resources/video/accelerators/dipole-animation