Interstellar Travel Theory - "Hitching a Ride" - "Behind Elenin...a UFO" and "lied to" threads

This will not be a lengthy OP as I just want to throw a theory out that just popped into my head, just to get some feedback on the plausibility thereof. I have been periodically following these two threads and where the overall basis of this theory stems:

Chinese Scientists State That Behind Elenin Comes a UFO

Inside info on comet Elenin (yes, you're being lied to)

I was thinking, this would be an ideal way to travel interstellar-ly. First, considering that most of the Comets, Asteroids, and other "stuff" flying around in our own solar system have (for the most part) an elliptical orbit. This wouldn't really be a feasible theory unless used within the solar system BUT, after you get through reading this post, you may agree how all of the objects in our solar system would in fact be perfect candidates once "the traveler" hopped off (that will make sense at the end of this).

Now, Science has claimed that there are potential Comets, Asteroids, and other "stuff" flying through space on parabolic and hyperbolic orbits (here is also another very detailed link that goes into these orbits among other things, my brain started to freeze up on that one though ) then this theory becomes completely plausible in my opinion and could incorporate any and every Comet, Asteroid, or other flying debris in our solar system and beyond as a cheap means of travel. Where most of the travel is thanks to the gravity and known trajectories of said flying objects.

To do so, I feel one would really only need to know and possess a few things, albeit an advanced knowledge thereof presumably. None the less, rather simplistic in it's own right:

A) Know the destination.

B) Know the trajectory and paths of the parabolic and hyperbolic objects floating around space. More, if their trajectory would in fact get one near their desired destination.

C) Have a ship (obviously) capable of withstanding interstellar travel and all that goes with it (in our case oxygen, water, food, sleep, and protection from the elements) and perhaps some pretty wallpaper.

D) Design that ship's capability to reach a velocity to match said object's floating through space velocity. Once "hitched" energy consumption would only be needed to support the above 5 survival requirements. I thought of the debris field but, if the ship was made of strong material debris would bounce right off, or you could go way out and suggest some sort of protective energy shield could be in place to thwart that. Being that the ship's velocity would be matched to the object's debris tail (I would think) it wouldn't be all that detrimental. Or, the position one placed the ship behind the object may be ahead of and otherwise free of debris field, there is alway that notion.

E) Last but not least all one would need is patience and the mental/emotional wherewithal to handle the trip, as well as, and depending on the duration, maintaining the ability to re-populate "the crew".

It's not speed of light travel by any means but, Comets, Asteroids, and the like can be known to move at a pretty quick click through space. It would be the interstellar version of a public bus line system in that one's trip could be planned by hopping off of one object and on to another to reach ones final destination. Seemingly, these trips could be planned as one way, or round trip provided one had the correct knowledge of the trajectories of said objects flying around in space.

Plausible?

Great, you can attain a top speed of maybe 60,000 mph, a NASA sun probe has already topped over 100,000 mph.

So you wont be leaving in a cloud of dust, but IN one.

There is actually quite a much larger chance that an alien would be extracting from the tail of the Comet, or extracting from the highly magnetic nature of the Comet.

One of the major issues with interplanetary travel is radiation, I would be inclined to think that the strong magnetics of a Comet could be used to deflect this in the same way our own magnetosphere on Earth is our only protection from the Sun.


There is so many possiblities of technology that could circumvent mortality during deep space travel. Who knows what an alien species without such moral clouding could have accomplished.

Take this thought for example, we are fully capable of freezing sperm and using it later. Could the same idea not be applied to an automated hatching process for an alien species.

I'm talking about full blown growth via an automated process, hell they could probably teach the newly birthed alien everything it needs to know instantly via a microchip.

We just don't know what's possible.

reply to post by Illustronic


Great point!

However, where does that probe get it's energy? I presume from solar panels? Get it away from the Sun and into interstellar space and the backup batteries will only last so long before it ends up being just another floating piece of space debris.

One of the biggest hurdles to interstellar space travel is being able to maintain a viable source of energy for these long hauls. The fact that gravity would for all intents and purposes be your propulsion system, one would only need to have an energy resource to handle the 5 survival thingies for extended travel duration. This means of travel, significantly reduces the energy requirements for interstellar travel imo.

reply to post by Tephra


I had considered the moving object as the source of energy. You make a good point as to using it as the protective shield though. That as well is perfectly plausible to me at least.

reply to post by UberL33t


So what's his point behind a comet then?

There were two in the series, Helios I and Helios II. They were launched into heliocentric orbit to study solar processes. They set a speed record for the fastest man-made objects ever at 252,792 km/h, 157,078 mph (launched in 1974). New Horizons is the fastest earth launched spacecraft to defeat the earth's escape velocity but I'm not sure (and quite positive it wont) break the Helios speed records going to Pluto.

The speed record for a manned spacecraft was reached by Apollo 10 returning to earth, something like 24,780 mph.

I can't see the point in "having to hitch" a ride on a comet, firstly due to its speed. In cosmic terms a comet is quite slow, averaging about 150,000 mph, at these speeds it would take a thousand lifetimes to reach even our closest star.

Also its highly likely that ET's would be coming from outside our solar system and since it most comets come from the Oort cloud, what would be the point of them traveling the vast distants of intersteller space, just to "hitch a ride" for the last mile (as it were).

Of coarse there is the argument that they are hiding behind the comet or even that the comet itself is a spaceship.

ALS

reply to post by Tephra


Exactly where would you get radiation problems in INTERSTELLAR space from?

reply to post by ALOSTSOUL


Site us a link of a comet going that fast please, did they time it near the sun?

reply to post by Illustronic

They travel in the range from 2 - 40 kilometers per sec depending on how close to the Sun they get. When they are very far away from the Sun, their speeds can be as low as a few kilometers per second. Close to the Sun, they can get well into the double-digits. At about 40-70 km/sec they are actually 'interstellar' because the Sun's escape speed is of this size, and the comets must be in hyperbolic orbits.

www.astronomycafe.net...

The 1910 passage was at a relative velocity of 70.56 km/s (157,838 mph or 254,016 km/h)

en.wikipedia.org...'s_Comet#Orbit_and_origin

ALS

reply to post by ALOSTSOUL


This is in fact the only drawback to the theory. I concur that the time alloted would be an investment for "the crew" that decided to travel by this means. However, lets take out a few instances. Let's remove interstellar travel and keep it limited to just our solar system and the objects that are flying around it. Honestly, the point you just made does for the most part put the theory in regards to interstellar 6ft under as the time for travel is a HUGE factor.

What if we instead, limited the theory to our solar system and the possibility of inter-planetary travel using the same concept. Energy/Resource-wise it wouldn't be a bad way to get around, and I don't think our current advancement is very far from being able to achieve it. As long as we knew all the paths and orbits of said objects we wouldn't need rocket fuel to get to these planets. Still a reach of a theory I agree but...somewhat plausible still imho.

reply to post by UberL33t


I will agree that in the terms of a Human endeavour, your purposed "Comet travel" would be a great and highly efficient way of traversing localised space. But when it comes to advanced beings, I would have thought that they would have far better ways to get around, even in terms of solar travel.

I guess all we can do is wait and see.

ALS

reply to post by ALOSTSOUL


Yeah, so the portion in your above reply holds water in that perhaps... The comet and related threads in question is a cloak of sorts. That to me, is a sign of what an advanced species may do to hide their arrival. But, the fact that we may very well have spotted them behind said cloak begs the question... Are they really so advanced? ...which begs an even bigger question...

I would think that an advanced species wouldn't have a "negative agenda" as I would assume that with their advancement would also come an air of understanding life and the purpose thereof. So the bigger question then becomes (for me)...

If we spotted them with our minimal technological means, are they advanced enough to have made it to the aforementioned or could there very well be room for a "negative agenda"?

The saving grace I think would be that we spotted them, and with that perhaps we are advanced enough to thwart any intended "negative agenda" with our own technology and/or weaponry.

If and when contact ever does occur, I hope it is with a species that is on the side of "good" as it were.

reply to post by Illustronic


Interstellar space is loaded with tons of radiation for which we have no protection from. Stars, our own for example put out incredible amounts of radiation, without a magnetosphere you have no protection from it.

Here is one article that talks about it from NASA, this isn't exactly a topic that comes up a lot.

LINKY

Traveling with a comet would, in fact, be a less efficient means of getting around the solar system. Say you have a comet in a certain orbit. The amount of energy it takes to put a spacecraft on that comet is the same as it would be to put the spacecraft in the same orbit without the comet there. In fact, it would actually take more energy as you would have to adjust velocity to intercept the comet, whereas you would not if you just wanted to be in the same orbit.