Interstellar Travel

and the Fermi Paradox

(Chapter 13)
 The Challenge of Interstellar Travel
Why is interstellar travel so difficult?

• distances are simply so large as to be beyond

current rocket technologies (under the assumption
that trips should occur within a human lifespan!).

• humankind's most distant planetary probes,

Pioneer 10 and 11 (left), and Voyager 1 and 2
(right) are only about 100 AU from the Sun after
decades of travel.

13.2
 The Challenge of Interstellar Travel
• the nearest star to the Sun, alpha Centauri is about
270,000 AU from the Sun.
• It would take the Voyager probes over 100,000 yr to
reach alpha Centauri, 4.4 light-years away (even if
aimed in that direction).
• on their current trajectories, it will take millions of years
to pass in the vicinity of a star system.

Trajectories of the
Pioneer and
Voyager
spacecraft
13.3
 The Challenge of Interstellar Travel

• probes will remain in tact during their journey.

• Pioneer 10 and 11 have plaques (below) that provide

information about humankind in case an ET were to
find it.

• Voyager 1 and 2 also have more sophisticated

messages, including pictures and music.

13.4
 Cosmic Speed Limit

• if one could increase the speed of a spacecraft by

100,000 times, it would take only a year to reach the
nearest star.

• can this be done?

• not according to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity

which sets the speed of light, c, about 300,000 km/s,
as the maximum speed in the universe.

13.5
 Cosmic Speed Limit

• even at this speed, it would take over four years to

reach the nearest star.

• can Einstein's theory be circumvented?

• not likely, given the number of sensitive tests it has

passed in the last century.

• even if Einstein's theory should be superseded one

day (as Einstein’s theory did to Newton’s Theory) the
cosmic speed limit would likely remain in place.

13.6
 Energy Issues

• not only the time required, but also the energy

required is a challenge to space travel.

• energy requirement depends on an object's mass and

speed.

• energy depends on [Mass × speed2].

• a "starship" carrying a few

thousand people (to colonize an
extrasolar planet) would have a
mass of about 100 million kg.

13.7
 Energy Issues
• if it moved at 10% speed of light, it would still take 40
years to reach the nearest stars.

• This would require an energy equivalent to 100 times

the world's current annual energy use.

• (also need to slow the ship down upon reaching the

planet taking almost the same amount of energy
again).

• at current energy costs, would take 2.5 quintillion

dollars (about 40,000 times the world's current GDP).
• clearly, there is a problem travelling to the stars!

13.8
 Rocket Technology
• Newton's 3rd Law of motion is the basis of rocket
propulsion (left): "for every action there is an opposite
and equal reaction" (the conservation of momentum).

• a squid (right) uses this propulsion technique; takes in

water and squirts it out rapidly behind it.

13.9
 Rocket Technology
• a rocket vaporizes on-board fuel that is directed out
the back (nozzle), propelling it forward.

• can work in the vacuum of space (unlike propeller or

jet aircraft).

• the concept of a rocket has been known for centuries

e.g., Tsiolkovsky (Russia, left) and Goddard (USA,
right).

Pause to Answer Quiz 13.1

13.10
 Rocket Equation

• rocket equation (below) relates the initial mass of the

rocket (Mo) divided by its final mass (M) - the mass
ratio - to the ratio of the final speed of the craft (v) to its
initial exhaust speed (ve) (where e is 2.718…).

• ve is typically 2-4 km/s for chemical rockets.

𝑀𝑜 𝑣�
= 𝑒 𝑣𝑒
𝑀
• scientists learned that it would be very difficult for a
single rocket to reach the escape speed of Earth, over
11 km/s; that's why a multi-stage rocket is used.
13.é
 Rocket Technology
• modern era began with the German rocket (V2, left) in
WWII, followed by Soviet/Russian (Proton, middle) and
American (Saturn V, right) efforts in the second-half of
the 20th century.

• today's rockets permit us to explore the solar system

on reasonable timescales.

13.12
 Limitations of Chemical Rockets
• interplanetary rockets work in
basically the same way as
rockets almost a century ago.

• engines burn a chemical fuel

such as kerosene and oxygen.

• the gases are expelled through

a narrow nozzle propelling the
spacecraft forward.

• cannot be significantly upgraded

for interstellar travel.

13.13
 Rocket Limitations

• mass ratios cannot be increased, even with multistages.

• Saturn V used to carry the Apollo astronauts to the

moon is the most powerful rocket yet built.

• even if one could build a 100-stage rocket like the

Saturn V with a more efficient fuel, only 1% the speed of
light would be possible, making a trip to the nearest
stars take thousands of years.

13.14
 Spacecraft for Interstellar Travel

• a different approach is needed.

• in principle, there are technologies that could allow us

to travel to the stars.

• let us first begin discussing “conventional”

technologies; i.e., adapting existing technologies with
enough time and money…

• a chemical rocket uses the energy that binds electrons

to the atomic nucleus.

13.15
 Nuclear Rockets
• a nuclear powered rocket uses the energy that binds
protons and neutrons to the nucleus (nearly a million
times more efficient).

• maximum amount of energy (E) that can be extracted

from a mass m is: E = m c 2 where c is the speed of
light.

• the nuclear energy from 1 kg of matter is equivalent to

the chemical energy from 8 billion litres of gasoline!

• in practice, such differences are not achieved.

13.16
 Nuclear Rockets
• nuclear fission involves the splitting of large nuclei into
parts, while nuclear fusion involves the merging of
lighter nuclei into heavier.

• fission, where about 0.07% of the mass is converted to

energy, requires special matter as a fuel source and
can result in dangerous waste (if unprotected).

• fusion, where about 0.7% of the mass is converted to

energy, requires water as a fuel source, and its waste
is not dangerous.

• very difficult, however, to achieve temperatures (10

million C) on Earth required to sustain nuclear fusion.
13.17
 Nuclear Rockets

• scientists have been

working on using nuclear
energy to power spacecraft
since 1955 (Project Rover).

• NASA hoped to send a

manned mission to Mars
using this technology, but it
was cancelled in 1973
because it did not prove
technically feasible.

13.18
 Nuclear Rockets

• another project in the 1960's, Project Orion,

envisioned a rocket propelled by mini-nuclear
bombs detonated just behind the rocket (note the
rear plate above).

• was the model for the first real starship.

13.19
 Nuclear Rockets
• Project Daedalus in the 1970's would have used
nuclear fusion for propulsion; though unfeasible at this
point, it could reach 10% speed of light.

• would still take decades to reach the nearest stars.

13.20
 Ions, Sunlight and Lasers

• instead of a rapid acceleration using chemical or solid

fuel, can use an ion engine.

• emits charged particles as the exhaust; a gentle, but a

continuous acceleration.

• can fire for long periods of time because of the

efficiency of the process and a very high exhaust
velocity.

• Anticipated to reach about 1%

speed of light.

13.21
 Solar Sails
• possible to use a "solar sail"; a highly reflective, very
thin "sail" could accelerate a craft through radiation
pressure from a star (the Sun).

• with a sufficient number of sails, could possibly be an

inexpensive way to propel a craft within the solar
system.
13.22
 Solar Sails
• could possibly reach a few percent the speed of light
and then coast to the target.

• (Space is a vacuum to a good approximation, so there

would be no deceleration in space).

• would reach the nearest stars in just under a century.

• problem is, solar intensity decreases with distance, so

there are limits to this technique.

13.23
 Interstellar Arks
• as in many science fiction stories, if the crew could be
put in "suspended animation" (or "hibernation"), could
use more conventional technology to reach nearest
stars.
• Some have suggested that arks would be the most
cost-effective way of relocating humankind in the event
of a wide-spread catastrophe.

13.24
 Interstellar Arks
• would use a very large crew who, when a destination
is reached, would be "awakened" to carry out their
orders.

• in practice, humans can't hibernate; would require

great leaps in medicine.
• as well, the sociological implications of such large
crews in cramped quarters for centuries are unknown.

Pause to Answer Quiz 13.2

13.25
 Near Light-Speed Travel

• things would be a lot easier to explore at least the

nearest stars if we could travel close to the speed of
light.

• could reach these stars in years - decades; i.e, within

a human lifetime.

• at these speeds, the (beneficial) effects of Special

Relativity (Einstein) become important.

13.26
 Special Relativity

• as speeds increase (relative to Earth), time slows

down (relative to Earth).

• as you can see from the next slide (Table 13.1), this
effect is very pronounced the closer one gets to c.

• this effect is called time dilation - moving clocks are

slower relative to stationary clocks.

13.27
The following equation relates time measured
on the rocket, compared with time measured
on Earth. The speed with which the rocket is
moving is given by v. It can be seen that only
for speeds approaching the speed of light, c,
are the clocks ticking at significantly different
rates.

tEarth
trocket =
 v2 
1 −  2 
c 

13.28
13.29
 Special Relativity

• time dilation has been demonstrated in numerous

experiments and follows directly from the principle
(adopted by Einstein) that nothing may exceed the
speed of light.

• [it is important to note that while time "slows down“ in

moving frames, lengths or distances "contract" - called
"length contraction"].

13.30
 Special Relativity
• the ramifications of Special Relativity are important for
space travel.

• on the one hand, the time elapsed for a person

travelling near the speed of light is much shorter than
one might have expected because of time dilation.

• on the other hand, those who have been left behind

will have aged “normally.”

• for example, a crew making a 500 light-year round-trip

near the speed of light may age only 24 years during
the trip, while those left behind on Earth would have
aged 1,000 years (if they were alive!).
13.31
 Near Light-Speed Travel
• the other challenge to travel near the speed of light is
to recall that as a ship’s speed increases, so does its
mass, leading to greater and greater energy
requirements for acceleration.

• formally, it would take an infinite energy to accelerate

any mass to the speed of light.

13.32
 Matter-Antimatter Rocketry

• the most efficient energy source possible relies on

matter-antimatter annihilation.

• scientists refer to the microscopic constituents of our

world, protons and electrons, for example, as "matter."

• physicists discovered in the 20th century the existence

of "antimatter“, e.g., antiprotons and antielectrons.

13.33
 Matter-Antimatter Rocketry
• in particular, fundamental particles which are identical
to relevant matter particles except with the opposite
charge.

• for example, the electron has a negative charge while

its antimatter equivalent, the positron (or “anti-
electron), has a positive charge.

13.34
 Matter-Antimatter Rocketry
• when a matter particle and its antimatter cousin collide
(e.g., an electron and a positron), they annihilate,
turning their entire mass into pure energy/photons (via
E = mc2) which could be used to power a rocket to
90% the speed of light with modest mass ratios.

• the trouble is that antimatter is very difficult to make at

this point, certainly not in amounts useful for this
purpose, let alone solve the difficulties of storing such
fuel (in a magnetic field).

13.35
 Interstellar Ramjets
• interstellar space is not a perfect vacuum but contains
some hydrogen gas.

• one might imagine a ship that scooped up this

hydrogen, use it as fuel, before expelling it at high
velocity.

13.36
 Interstellar Ramjets
• this interstellar ramjet would not have to carry its own
fuel and could achieve very high speeds with
continuous acceleration.

• the two major problems with this idea are:

(i) the scoop would have to be hundreds of
kilometres across to collect sufficient fuel, and,
(ii) the impact of any debris at near-light speed could
have disastrous consequences for the ship.

• (This is a problem for all high-speed travel; at 99%

the speed of light, a grain of sand would strike a ship
with the equivalent energy of 100 kilograms of TNT.)

13.37
 “Far Out” Options
• some have suggested that it may be possible
to circumvent the limitations imposed by the
speed of light, usually involving extreme
masses such as black holes and the
“wormhole” connecting them, but these are
sheer speculation at this point.

Pause to Answer Quiz 13.3

13.38
 Manned vs. Unmanned

• all of the previous scenarios were concerned with

transporting a human crew interstellar distances in a
reasonable time.

• but why would we need to send humans when

machines are so much more efficient... and
expendable.

• this is a major reason (as well as the cost) why NASA

has preferred unmanned missions to manned
missions since the mid-1970s.

13.39
 The Fermi Paradox

• in 1950, Enrico Fermi, a Nobel

laureate physicist, posed a simple
question to a room full of
scientists who were speculating
on the existence of
extraterrestrial intelligence: he
asked, "so where is everybody"
which has come to be known as
the Fermi Paradox.

13.40
 The Fermi Paradox
The paradox can be articulated:

1. neither we nor our planet is in any way special

suggests that some (existing) species should
have colonized the Galaxy by now.

2. we should be surrounded by evidence of this

civilization.

• the first premise of the paradox implicitly suggests

that a technologically intelligent civilization should
have arisen long before our own.

• but is this reasonable?

13.41
 The Fermi Paradox
• our Sun is a relative newcomer to the universe, being
only 4.5 Gyr old (recall the universe is nearly 14 Gyr
old).

• while stars formed 10 Gyr ago may not have had the
appropriate metal abundance to generate terrestrial-
like planets, stars formed a few Gyr before the Sun
could have had terrestrial planets.

• if evolution proceeded on a time-scale anything like

that on Earth, numerous civilizations should have
arisen before our own in the Galaxy. 13.42
 The Fermi Paradox
• using the Drake equation, can speculate there could
have been 100,000 civilizations that have arisen
older than our own, essentially all of which are/were
more advanced than ours.

• this is the essence of the Fermi paradox: where is the

evidence for the multitude of technologically
intelligent civilizations that have arisen in our Galaxy?

12.43
 Von Neumann Machines

• we have seen that there is good reason why a

civilization would send unmanned probes to explore
the Galaxy rather than manned rockets.

• a probe that is self-replicating is called a "von

Neumann machine" (or probe) after the 20th century
American mathematician, John Von Neumann.

13.44
 Von Neumann Machines
• (NB: humans are biological
von Neumann machines).

• a self-replicating probe
means that it could
duplicate itself, given the
appropriate resources,
both “hardware” and
“software.”

• a set of von Neumann

machines could be
launched at various stellar
targets.
13.45
 Von Neumann Machines
• on reaching a planetary system, a probe would
search for life.

• if it found life, it would send a message back to its

home world, providing details.

• if it didn't find life, it would use the resources from a

terrestrial world to make copies of itself, with
instructions.
• the copies would search other targets, etc.

13.46
 Von Neumann Machines
• it can be shown mathematically that even with fairly
crude rocket technologies, the entire Galaxy can be
explored in less than 1 Gyr.

• it is estimated that we are within 1-2 centuries or so

of being able to construct an (artificial) von Neumann
machine and so begin exploration of our Galaxy.

• this seems to strengthen the Fermi Paradox… but not

so fast!
Pause to Answer Quiz 13.4
13.47
 Implications for the Fermi Paradox
• Remember: “Absence of evidence is not evidence
of absence.”

Colonization Models

• are the motives and the technical capabilities for

colonization shared by all intelligent civilizations?

• assuming an ETI decides to colonize our habitable

planets, how long would it take to colonize the
Galaxy?

• the conclusion does not strongly depend on the

speed of the spacecraft.
13.48
 Colonization Models

• what strategies would

be used?

• having reached the

target star, would take
some time to establish
a colony and grow
sufficiently before
launching their own
colonization initiative.

• this type of colonization

is called the coral
model.
13.49
 Colonization Models
• e.g., at 10% c, one could travel 5 light years, a typical
separation between stars, in 50 yr; with a “pause” of
150 years to build up the colony, the process would
appear like a wave crest that expands at about 1% c,
allowing the entire Galaxy to be colonized in this
manner in 10 million years.

• at 1% c, the time to colonize would be about 100

million years, much less than the age of the Galaxy
(and universe).

13.50
 Motives for Colonization

• will ETIs want to colonize the Galaxy, or is this desire

unique to Homo sapiens?

• if our civilization is "representative," then other ETIs

should also want to colonize / explore the Galaxy.

• our species has always engaged in colonization, from

Africa 150,000 years ago, until now (by 10,000 yr
ago, humans had already occupied almost every
suitable place on Earth).

13.51
 Motives for Colonization

• does humankind continue to harbour this tendency;

e.g., would we colonize Mars if we had the
capability? It is likely a small number would be
interested, continuing our own (modest) colonization
of the Galaxy.

• more motives than simply curiosity; ensure

survivability, escape war or persecution, economic
interests, etc. 13.52
 A Harder Look at Motives for Colonization

• colonization to control Earth's population or for

conquest (of other civilizations) are unlikely to be
viable.

• by no means cost effective to shuffle people from

Earth elsewhere to stabilize Earth's population.

• we are unlikely to prevail (either internally or

externally) in any aggression towards a more
advanced species; a modern army would almost
certainly decimate an army from WW II, for example.

Pause to Answer Quiz 13.5

13.53
 Possible Solutions to Fermi Paradox

• many explanations have been proposed to account

for the Fermi Paradox.

• group them into 3 categories:

1. We are alone: we're the first technologically

intelligent civilization to have arisen.

2. Civilizations are common, but none has colonized

the galaxy. There are 3 reasons why this might be
so;

13,54
 Possible Solutions to Fermi Paradox

(i) technological difficulties: interstellar travel is much

harder and more expensive than we think.

(ii) sociological difficulties: our desire to explore is

unusual; colonizers give up before colonizing
much of the Galaxy.

(iii) self-destruction: civilizations that arise destroy

themselves before significantly colonizing the
stars.

3. There is a Galactic civilization, but it has deliberately

avoided revealing themselves to us
13.55
 1. We are Alone

• simplest solution, but this is at odds with Principle of

Mediocrity or Copernican Principle, that we're not
special in any significant way.

13.56
 1. We are Alone
• each time we've advanced the idea that we are
special, the conjecture has proven false.

• the "Rare Earth" hypothesis may indeed be correct

(i.e., the circumstances that led to life on Earth may
be highly improbable for at least one factor).

• some consider this philosophically unappealing, but

why should this be so?

13.57
 2. Civilization but no Colonization
(i) technical difficulties

(a) perhaps we are underestimating the technological

difficulties; while the energy requirements may be
prohibitive today, any civilization that could harness
nuclear fusion or construct a Dyson Sphere should
be able to attain near-light rocket speeds.

(b) perhaps an unknown (to us, currently) biological or

physical barrier exists; e.g., an unknown interstellar
danger.

13.58
 2. Civilization but no Colonization
(ii) sociological difficulties

• there could be sociological reasons why civilizations

do not become (or choose to become) technological.

• perhaps our association of "curiosity" or "desire to

explore" with "intelligence" is uncommon.

• difficult to believe, since "competition" and “filling

niches” is closely associated with natural selection.

13.59
 2. Civilization but no Colonization
• moreover, all it takes is one curious civilization to
colonize the Galaxy; hard to believe at least one
advanced civilization would not have had the desire
to explore the Galaxy.

• on the other hand, because colonization of the

Galaxy would take millions of years, perhaps the
desire simply wanes before this happens.

• perhaps the focus of an intelligent civilization is

channeled in other directions. 13.60
 2. Civilization, but no Colonization
(iii) self-destruction

• perhaps it is inevitable that the existential challenges

facing all technologically intelligent civilizations are
too much to bear.

• for example, nuclear or environmental holocaust are

an inevitability.

13.61
 3. There is a Galactic Civilization
• perhaps there is no paradox because there is a
Galactic civilization, we're just blind to its existence
(visitations).

• for a sufficiently advanced civilization, it would take

little effort to hide from us while monitoring us.

• the "zoo hypothesis" suggests that an ETI could be

monitoring us without revealing themselves to us.

13.62
 3. There is a Galactic Civilization
• but would we not "hear" their communications as they
travel among the stars?

• we have only explored a small fraction of the

reasonable electromagnetic bandwidth that we think
ETI's would be using.

• another suggestion is that an ETI would only reveal

itself to us once we've reached a certain level of
sophistication; this is called the "sentinel hypothesis."

13.63
 Implications of the Fermi Paradox

• If we are alone, astonishing that we’re the first

species to know the universe exists; through us, the
universe has become self aware.

• “…if we are alone, then the destruction of our

civilization and the loss of our scientific knowledge
would represent an inglorious end to something that
took the universe some 14 billion years to achieve…
humanity becomes all the more precious, and the
collapse of our civilization would be all the more
tragic.” [p. 464 of the text].

13.64
 Implications of the Fermi Paradox
• If other civilizations arose but failed to achieve
interstellar travel, “what hope do we have?”

• If we are being monitored for whatever reason, “our

entire species might be on the verge of beginning a
journey every bit as incredible as that of a baby
emerging from the womb and coming into the world.”
[p. 465].

13.65
 Implications of the Fermi Paradox
• “… if we survive long enough… the possibilities seem
almost limitless” [p. 465].

• It may be that our generation will be recorded in

history as that which marked ‘the turning point,
steering us from the dangers of self-destruction onto
the path to the stars.’

Pause to Answer Quiz 13.6

13.66