The Physics of Interstellar Travel ~ By Dr. Michio Kaku

 

 

Excerpt from mkaku.org

 To one day, reach the stars.

Similarly, investigations into UFO’s that may originate from another

planet are sometimes the “third rail” of someone’s scientific career.

There is no funding for anyone seriously looking at unidentified objects

in space, and one’s reputation may suffer if one pursues an interest in

these unorthodox matters. In addition, perhaps 99% of all sightings of

UFO’s can be dismissed as being caused by familiar phenomena, such as

the planet Venus, swamp gas (which can glow in the dark under certain

conditions), meteors, satellites, weather balloons, even radar echoes

that bounce off mountains. (What is disturbing, to a physicist however,

is the remaining 1% of these sightings, which are multiple sightings

made by multiple methods of observations. Some of the most intriguing

sightings have been made by seasoned pilots and passengers aboard air

line flights which have also been tracked by radar and have been

videotaped. Sightings like this are harder to dismiss.)

But to an astronomer, the existence of intelligent life in the

universe is a compelling idea by itself, in which extra-terrestrial

beings may exist on other stars who are centuries to millennia more

advanced than ours. Within the Milky Way galaxy alone, there are over

100 billion stars, and there are an uncountable number of galaxies in

the universe. About half of the stars we see in the heavens are double

stars, probably making them unsuitable for intelligent life, but the

remaining half probably have solar systems somewhat similar to ours.

Although none of the over 100 extra-solar planets so far discovered in

deep space resemble ours, it is inevitable, many scientists believe,

that one day we will discover small, earth-like planets which have

liquid water (the “universal solvent” which made possible the first DNA

perhaps 3.5 billion years ago in the oceans). The discovery of

earth-like planets may take place within 20 years, when NASA intends to

launch the space interferometry satellite into orbit which may be

sensitive enough to detect small planets orbiting other stars.

So far, we see no hard evidence of signals from extra-terrestrial

civilizations from any earth-like planet. The SETI project (the search

for extra-terrestrial intelligence) has yet to produce any reproducible

evidence of intelligent life in the universe from such earth-like

planets, but the matter still deserves serious scientific analysis. The

key is to reanalyze the objection to faster-than-light travel.

A critical look at this issue must necessary embrace two new

observations. First, Special Relativity itself was superceded by

Einstein’s own more powerful General Relativity (1915), in which faster

than light travel is possible under certain rare conditions. The

principal difficulty is amassing enough energy of a certain type to

break the light barrier. Second, one must therefore analyze

extra-terrestrial civilizations on the basis of their total energy

output and the laws of thermodynamics. In this respect, one must analyze

civilizations which are perhaps thousands to millions of years ahead of

ours.

The first realistic attempt to analyze extra-terrestrial

civilizations from the point of view of the laws of physics and the laws

of thermodynamics was by Russian astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev. He

based his ranking of possible civilizations on the basis of total energy

output which could be quantified and used as a guide to explore the

dynamics of advanced civilizations:

Type I: this civilization harnesses the energy output of an entire planet.

Type II: this civilization harnesses the energy output of a star, and

generates about 10 billion times the energy output of a Type I

civilization.

Type III: this civilization harnesses the energy output of a galaxy,

or about 10 billion time the energy output of a Type II civilization.

A Type I civilization would be able to manipulate truly planetary

energies. They might, for example, control or modify their weather. They

would have the power to manipulate planetary phenomena, such as

hurricanes, which can release the energy of hundreds of hydrogen bombs.

Perhaps volcanoes or even earthquakes may be altered by such a

civilization.

A Type II civilization may resemble the Federation of Planets seen on

the TV program Star Trek (which is capable of igniting stars and has

colonized a tiny fraction of the near-by stars in the galaxy). A Type II

civilization might be able to manipulate the power of solar flares.

A Type III civilization may resemble the Borg, or perhaps the Empire

found in the Star Wars saga. They have colonized the galaxy itself,

extracting energy from hundreds of billions of stars.

By contrast, we are a Type 0 civilization, which extracts its energy

from dead plants (oil and coal). Growing at the average rate of about 3%

per year, however, one may calculate that our own civilization may

attain Type I status in about 100-200 years, Type II status in a few

thousand years, and Type III status in about 100,000 to a million years.

These time scales are insignificant when compared with the universe

itself.

On this scale, one may now rank the different propulsion systems available to different types of civilizations:

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The Physics of Interstellar Travel ~ By Dr. Michio Kaku