Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to present the five major scientific and technological challenges for human beings to carry out space and interstellar travel in the face of the need for human colonization in other worlds to prevent the extinction of humanity based on the conclusions of our book “The humanity threatened and the strategies for its survival” published by Editora Dialética in this year of 2021[1]. In this book, it was demonstrated: 1) the need to adopt escape strategies of humans to habitable places within the solar system (Mars, the moon of Saturn, Titan, and of Jupiter, Callisto) where space colonies would be implanted in the case of large volcano eruptions like those 250 million years ago that ended a life cycle on Earth, if Earth is threatened by gamma-ray emission from supernova stars, when Earth’s climate becomes lethal to human life with continuous distancing of the Moon from Earth and if orphan planets collide with planet Earth; 2) the need to adopt escape strategies for human beings to habitable places outside the solar system, such as the exoplanet “Proxima b” orbiting a star that is part of the Alpha Centauri planetary system, the closest to the solar system, located 4.2 years -light distance from Earth if the collision on planet Earth of planets in the solar system occurs and before the death of the Sun; 3) the need to adopt human beings’ escape strategies to habitable locations in other closer galaxies to save humanity before the Andromeda and Milky Way galaxies collide such as the Big Dog Dwarf Galaxy located 25,000 light-years from Earth or in the Large Magellanic Cloud, located 163,000 light-years from Earth; and, 4) the need to adopt escape strategies from human beings to parallel universes before the end of our Universe.
To implement all these strategies, it is imperative: 1) scientific and technological advancement to enable the escape of human beings to habitable places inside and outside the solar system; 2) the increase in the biological capacity of human beings so that they are able to challenge the limits imposed by nature in order to survive the threats to their survival on planet Earth and, especially, in outer space; and 3) the constitution of a world government to coordinate the actions of national governments to face the threats against the survival of humanity existing on planet Earth and those existing and coming from outer space [1]. All of this means to say that humanity will have to face the challenge of scientific and technological advances that provide the conditions for: 1) the development of rockets that have the capacity to reach speeds close to that of light to carry out interstellar travels; 2) the colonization of Mars. 3) the promotion of interstellar travel towards the exoplanet Proxima B belonging to the Alpha Centauri planetary system; 4) performing space and interstellar travel at speeds corresponding to the speed of light (300,000 km/s); and, 5) human beings escape to parallel universes to the end of the Universe in which we live.
Humanity’s first major scientific and technological challenge is represented by the development of rockets that have the capacity to reach speeds close to that of light to carry out interstellar travel. As far as rockets are concerned, their role is to create the conditions for human beings to move towards habitable places inside and outside the solar system. At the Earth’s surface, Earth’s escape velocity is about 11.2 km/s, equivalent to 40,320 km/h, or about 30 times faster than the speed of sound at 25 °C. The escape velocity is the minimum necessary speed that a rocket needs to be able to escape the Earth’s gravitational attraction.
The big challenge behind space exploration is not for the rocket to reach great altitudes of hundreds of kilometers, but rather to reach great speeds to stay in orbit or escape the gravitational pull of our planet. And one of the biggest barriers to achieving this feat is the need to accelerate the payload attached to the rocket, as well as its tanks and propellants. To stay in Earth orbit, for example, a spacecraft or satellite needs to acquire enough speed to escape the Earth’s gravitational pull [8]. At the moment, rocket propulsion is done with chemical fuel and solid fuel, and there are no new forms of propulsion for interstellar travel. Neither chemical and solid rocket fuel, nor nuclear energy, nor the solar panels that may be used will cover, in an accessible time, the distances of more than 40 trillion kilometers to the nearest stars. Some alternative ideas for rocket propulsion are the use of nuclear fusion and matter and antimatter explosions, which have not yet been developed. For long-distance interplanetary missions, physicists will have to find more advanced forms of rocket propulsion if they hope to reach distances of hundreds of light-years since rockets powered by today’s chemical and solids fuels are limited by the maximum velocity of exhaust gases, according to Michio Kaku [7]. Another alternative is to develop a solar/ionic motor. Another possible solution would be to create a fusion reactor, a rocket that extracts hydrogen from interstellar space and liquefies it, releasing unlimited amounts of energy in the process.
The second great scientific and technological challenge for humanity is represented by the colonization of Mars, whose journey would last from six to twelve months. In addition, the crew would need to stay there for at least 15 months, hoping that Mars and Earth are on the same side of the Sun and closer together so they can return home. NASA and space agencies from several countries (China and Saudi Arabia) are currently with active missions on Mars, investigating the planet, preparing the ground for the arrival of human beings. Low temperatures, carbon dioxide, and cosmic and solar radiation are threats against humans on Mars [10]. The extremely low temperatures, from -120ºC to +20ºC, the atmosphere practically non-existent and made almost only of carbon dioxide and the very high incidence of radiation, both in the form of ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, and in the form of particles, produced in solar explosions and cosmic rays are big problems to solve for humans to colonize Mars. Despite this, the main technological and sanitary challenges to take man to Mars on a mission that would last up to three years were almost all solved.
To face the temperature of Mars, the solution would be to warm the planet with the human capacity to cause the greenhouse effect. The solution would involve the use of energy sources such as fission or nuclear fusion, or even more efficient and durable solar panels. To deal with the lack of oxygen and the thin atmosphere made almost entirely of carbon dioxide, scientists believe it is possible to extract elements from the Martian rocks and produce the gases necessary for humans to breathe inside domes or space colonies. Because it does not have a magnetic field like Earth, or a thick atmosphere, Mars is much more exposed to solar and cosmic radiation, whose consequences for human beings would invariably be health problems such as cancer and other injuries. To protect themselves from radiation, humans must shelter in natural caves or housing structures that need to be airtight. In the future, airgel bricks placed with very strong acrylic could be used to make a pressurized dome for humans [3]. In addition, there is already engineering available to make radiation-proof protective suits and shelters for astronauts. It is necessary to continue studies to make these protective suits lighter and less expensive.
If someone develops a health problem or gets injured during the nearly two years they have been on the planet Mars, they need to be attended to there [5]. The first case can be resolved with a battery of detailed and intense tests to discover any predisposition to develop any disease. The second would be easier to resolve and therefore there are no absolute medical obstacles to colonizing Mars. It is already known which is the ideal place to build a human settlement. There is a place called Deuteronilus Mensae where there is water in the planet’s underground. If you deploy a space colony at this location you will have water close to the surface. The researchers are also already working on the possibilities of plantations with the cultivation of plants in a simulation of the soil and climatic conditions of Mars, inside greenhouses. Tests will soon begin in airgel-based greenhouses [3]. It’s no coincidence that billionaire Elon Musk wants to be one of the first to colonize the planet Mars with his ambitious plan to get more than a million people there by 2050.
The third great scientific and technological challenge for humanity is represented by the need to promote interstellar travel towards the exoplanet Proxima B belonging to the Alpha Centauri planetary system located 4.2 light-years from Earth. The colonization of Mars and the moons of Jupiter (Callisto) and Saturn (Titan) which are the most viable habitable places for humans in the solar system represents a great challenge for humanity, but a greater challenge is represented by the need to promote interstellar travel towards the exoplanet Proxima B belonging to the Alpha Centauri planetary system. NASA studies an interstellar mission for 2069 [5] aimed at exploring Proxima B Centauri, an Earth-sized habitable planet, which could take nearly a century. A ship capable of traveling at 10% the speed of light would reach Proxima B in 40 years. The first images taken from there would reach Earth about four years later, in 2113, almost a century from now. This means that the engineers and scientists analyzing these images will not even have been born when the spacecraft is launched, and likely most of its original designers will already be dead. No space mission has faced that kind of time horizon – and that’s exactly one of its biggest challenges. When the spacecraft arrives at Proxima B, the technology of the time will already be much more evolved. This probe will be able to update, reprogram and transform itself without having to receive all the instructions from Earth, using 3D printers and artificial intelligence systems capable of creating new software programs. His goal would be to make images taking advantage of the phenomenon of gravitational lenses, as if it were a magnifying glass to enlarge the image of the star to be observed.
Humanity’s fourth great scientific and technological challenge is represented by the need to carry out space and interstellar travel at speeds corresponding to the speed of light (300,000 km/s). At this speed level, it would be possible to reach the Moon in 1.3 s, the Sun in 8min20s, Pluto in 5h21s and it would take 100,000 years to go from end to end in our galaxy, 163,000 years to go to the nearest galaxy and 93 billion years to traverse the visible Universe. For that purpose, we would need a spacecraft that travels at an absurdly high speed to reach our neighbors – something close to the speed of light. In addition to not having rocket technology that develops speeds close to that of light, interstellar travel would be unfeasible even if we had these rockets because with a speed close to that of light there would be negative consequences for the lives of human beings and the spacecraft themselves.
What would happen to a person’s body on a trip at the speed of light [9]? For every cubic centimeter of interstellar space, scientists believe there are about two hydrogen atoms. This scarce gas can harm humans on a trip close to the speed of light. Based on Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, it is believed that hydrogen in interstellar space would be transformed into intense radiation that could, in seconds, kill spacecraft crew/passengers and destroy electronic equipment. Since hydrogen atoms have only one proton in the nucleus, they could expose the spacecraft crew/passengers to dangerous ionizing radiation that would break chemical bonds and damage DNA. The fatal dose of radiation for humans is 6 sieverts. The crew of a spacecraft close to the speed of light would receive the equivalent of 10,000 sieverts in just one second, which would also weaken the spacecraft’s structure and damage electronic equipment.
The speed of 300,000 km per second would greatly facilitate space exploration [2]. It would take four years and three months to reach the Alpha Centauri system, the closest planetary system to Earth. In the beginning, these trips will be made by probes, telescopes and robots, due to the physical and psychological limitations of man. A journey at that speed to another habitable planet would take tens of thousands of years. Even if the traveler survived, the psychological impact of the long isolation could drive him mad. This means that manned missions would still be restricted to our immediate “neighborhood”, ie, the solar system. Einstein proved that the faster someone moves, the less time flow will be for the traveler because there would be time contraction. Minutes for a person traveling at the speed of light can be years for someone on Earth. If a person travels at close to the speed of light and arrives at a star that is 150 light-years away, the problem is that when they return to Earth, more than 300 years will have passed by here. This is one of the main interstellar travel dilemmas.
General relativity theory imposes severe restrictions on interstellar travel. One of them is the most obvious: nothing can be accelerated to speeds above that of light, which is about 300,000 km/s [4]. Even if we could travel at that speed, it would still take us a long time to reach other stars and their respective planetary systems. General relativity theory opened up new fields of science and allowed ideas such as creating a warp engine to travel to any corner of the Universe. The concept of warp space is not new. It is a kind of engine that allows the spacecraft to travel faster than light. It is a technology that would make it possible to create a “bubble” in space-time. This bubble could create a kind of bridge between two points in space. Travel to destinations light-years away from Earth will still be beyond our reach, but warp-space technology, should it ever exist, could be the solution for conducting interstellar travel.
The fifth great scientific and technological challenge for humanity is represented by the need for human beings to escape to universes parallel with the end of the Universe in which we live. Regarding the existence of parallel universes, it is worth highlighting the latest research by physicist Stephen Hawking [6] which points out that our universe may be just one of many others similar to it. Hawking’s theory points a way for astronomers to look for evidence of the existence of parallel universes. Michio Kaku [7] states that it is necessary to overcome a series of major obstacles for human beings to escape to parallel universes. The first hurdle would be to complete a theory of everything or a unified field theory when we would be able to verify the consequences of using advanced technologies. Among other alternatives, Kaku proposes to build a warp drive machine capable of crossing immense stellar distances, using negative energy from compressed states with the use of laser beams that can be used to generate negative matter to open and stabilize wormholes and wait for quantum transitions to escape to another universe.
Facing up to all these challenges will only be successful with the existence of a world government capable of coordinating the actions of national governments aimed at promoting scientific and technological advancement and increasing the biological and psychological capacity of human beings to carry out space travel and interstellar and live off-Earth.
REFERENCES
1. ALCOFORADO, Fernando. A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência. São Paulo: Editora Dialética, 2021.
2. BARBOSA, KLEYSON. E se o ser humano pudesse viajar na velocidade da luz? Disponível no website <https://super.abril.com.br/mundo-estranho/e-se-o-ser-humano-pudesse-viajar-na-velocidade-da-luz/>.
3. CAVALCANTE, DANIELE. Cientistas descobrem como tornar Marte habitável para seres humanos. Disponível no website <https://canaltech.com.br/espaco/cientistas-descobrem-como-tornar-marte-habitavel-para-seres-humanos-146061/>.
4. CAVALCANTE, DANIELE. Tecnologia de dobra espacial pode possibilitar coisas incríveis, sugere estudo. Disponível no website <https://canaltech.com.br/espaco/tecnologia-de-dobra-espacial-pode-possibilitar-coisas-incriveis-sugere-estudo-183656/>.
5. DOMINGUEZ, NUÑO, NASA estuda missão interestelar para 2069. Disponível no website <https://brasil.elpais.com/brasil/2018/01/02/ciencia/1514919058_767605.html>.
6. GHOSH, Pallab. A teoria dos universos paralelos no ainda inédito último trabalho de Stephen Hawking. Disponível no website <https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/geral-43979777>.
7. KAKU, Michio (2005). Mundos paralelos. Rio: Editora Rocco Ltda.
8. MUNDO EDUCAÇÃO. Velocidade de escape. Disponível no website <https://mundoeducacao.uol.com.br/fisica/velocidade-escape.htm>.
9. TERRA.COM. O que aconteceria ao corpo em uma viagem à velocidade da luz? Disponível no website <https://www.terra.com.br/noticias/educacao/voce-sabia/o-que-aconteceria-ao-corpo-em-uma-viagem-a-velocidade-da-luz,2708859fd53ea310VgnCLD200000bbcceb0aRCRD.html>.
10. UOL. Frio, gás carbônico e radiação: dá para um ser humano viver em Marte? Disponível no website <https://www.uol.com.br/tilt/noticias/redacao/2021/05/18/da-para-um-humano-viver-em-marte.htm>.
* Fernando Alcoforado, 81, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência (Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021) .
[1] Website for book purchase: https://loja.editoradialetica.com/humanidades/a-humanidade-ameacada-e-as-estrategias-para-sua-sobrevivencia-como-salvar-a-humanidade-das-ameacas-a-sua-extincao
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