Could We Ever Travel to New Earths?

(Canvas Staff Reports) - NASA's Kepler space probe may have discovered five new solar systems and up to 140 Earth-like planets – but is there any hope we could travel to them someday?

The probe found more than 706 potential new planets and possibly five new solar systems. At least five of the 150,000-plus stars studied may have two or more planets in orbit around them that appear similar to Earth, according to the newspaper. Up to 140 are rocky and contain both land and water, conditions that could allow simple life forms to develop and survive.

But what’s needed to reach them? At NASA, breakthrough propulsion is the term used for concepts like space drives and faster-than-light travel. It is being studied as physics rather than technology because the laws of nature that apply first have to be discovered to enable such technology to be built.

To make such space travel possible NASA stated that its propulsion physics program requires at least three breakthroughs to make such technology possible:

1. Discover new propulsion methods that eliminate or drastically reduce the need for propellant, which means discovering new ways to create motion, possibly by manipulating gravity or inertia or any other interactions between matter and space time.

2. Discover how to reach the ultimate achievable transit speeds that would enable man to dramatically reduce deep space travel times.

3. Discover fundamentally new on-board energy production methods that could power propulsion devices.

"Objectively, the desired breakthroughs might turn out to be impossible, but progress is not made by conceding defeat," according to NASA’s Glenn Research Center . "Reciprocally, breakthroughs have a habit of taking pessimists by surprise, but can equally remain elusive."

The agency stated on its website that relevant and dependable knowledge would result from taking small, incremental steps that focus on immediate questions and emphasizing the reliability of the findings. Financial support to pursue these possibilities was withdrawn in 2008.

What is man up against?

The blog The Big Bang to Now states that the closest known habitable planet so far is more than 20 light years away. In a year light travels 5,874,589,152,000 miles.

The fastest astronauts have traveled is 7 miles per second, which would mean it would take more than 26,000 years to travel the distance of a light year. Though, according to the blog, some scientists believe the speed of human space travel could be multiplied by 100. That would narrow it down to 260 years to travel the distance of a light year. That would make it between 2,600 and 5,000 years to reach the nearest planet that could have life.

So, the blog suggests, volunteers would be needed to spend the rest of their lives and their offspring would have to do the same for thousands of years in hopes of finding land. It would also take a space ship with the ability to fuel itself for 5,000 years and generate food for its passengers.