Wolfgang Korsus Dipl.-Ing.NT, Astrophysiker
Klingenberg 40
D-25451 Quickborn
Mobil 01625680456 FNetz 0410669295
Website: wolfgang.korsus.net
One of the worst cases imaginable would be an accident in industry, or, even worse, terrorists would come into possession of such an arsenal. It is certainly clear that the more nations can have large quantities of nuclear weapons at their disposal, the more precarious the global situation becomes. Even after the end of the Cold War, there are still enough nuclear weapons to wipe us all out, not just once but many times over. ………..
It is only to be hoped that such repugnant nuclear threats in general will suddenly eliminate themselves. Or perhaps they will gradually decrease. Only, as it is common for mankind, will other threats develop. Therefore, humanity remains vigilant, especially the younger generation.
I like to leave wishful thinking behind and think what I think is inevitable: – A nuclear confrontation or an environmental catastrophe will, I think it is almost inevitable, in one way or another devastate our earth sometime in the next 1000 years – !!!
If we look at the geological time axis, then that is of course just a moment (1000 years), a damned short moment. But if I look at the future of the people on this planet earth with a scientific point of view, then I am convinced that the people will deal with it, the future, with an irresponsible indifference………….and that will certainly break the bend in its path!
I may say without detailed consideration of the history and without exaggeration, we humans were and are discoverers from our disposition. Curiosity drives us……a specifically human characteristic. This insatiable curiosity motivated the discoverers to prove that the earth is not a disc. And it is precisely this instinct that sends us to the stars with the speed of our thoughts and urges us to go there.
And some of you may remember that every time we take a significant step forward outside of our Earth, such as during the moon landings, we bring humanity forward. People and whole nations were then brought together. New discoveries and new technologies are initiated by us scientists, quite normal.
But the project of leaving the earth, I now look at it a little differently, namely scientifically and everything is completely proven. The spiritually confused who still believe in a self-made God or some Jesus can either go to sleep or withdraw from true life. The main thing is that they keep their uneducated mouths shut or retreat into their houses of worship. These are only self-made fairy tale theatres – there they are in good hands.
Now the topic is: Can we travel to the stars? I will come back to this topic because I have written the following in Part 1,
–there must always be a few „crazies“ who think they heard the grass grow and think that the reasons mentioned before make sense to go for a walk in space
Clear answer: We do not, no human being will ever do it. We simply lack the necessary energy.
Why do people want to reach for the stars? Because they are curious. To be there when a star is formed, when it explodes, to see a black hole from close up before it pulls you in itself, or, as the highly esteemed Harald Lesch said in his programme „alpha centauri“ about star travel, „to see how pulsars pulsate or how living beings on other planets think about how to solve their big problems“.
But there can also be practical reasons: In a few million years the sun will grow into a red giant and life on earth will burn out. Save yourself, whoever can.
One thing is for sure: and yet it is currently incomprehensible and far away for most of humanity….
I’m talking about the nearest sun, or if you prefer, I’ll say star. It is „the star Proxima Centauri“ 4.24 light years from our own solar system. It is the closest destination. I will refrain from converting a representation of that distance into a human scale. But a brief, simple explanation of the distance of the star.
A spaceship that could travel at the speed of light (impossible) would take 4.24 years to get there. Let’s make it a bit easier! Let’s say the spaceship reaches one tenth of the speed of light, so the crew would only need a paltry 42 years. A return, explanation not necessary, is impossible.
But now let’s have a little „butter on the fish“, as the Westphalian would say.
This acceleration consumes as much energy as the whole planet earth in one year. To double the cruising speed, you need four times as much energy.
The calculation I just made was made official and this study is from the year 2010, …unfortunately I don’t remember which report it was …was calculated with an ideally constructed rocket engine.
And what I have not mentioned yet, the naturally existing spaceship crew must have everything on board, which is needed during the journey. ( repair tools, medicine, tools for research, food and various stuff more ). So spaceship plus various stuff equals mass, ……think ! ! !
I just want to point out: In the universe, the one we live in, the same laws of nature apply and the same chemical elements are present as on earth. Further each of you should know that there are also limits in principle. One of them is the speed of light……and nobody can exceed it, in addition there is the law of conservation of energy. We know today that there are principle limits which we cannot exceed.
„Everyone cannot use more energy than he has“
This, I’ll call it the unambiguous sentence, clearly states: Traveling to the stars is….
impossible!!!! impossible!!! impossible!!! impossible!!
Too much mass consumes perfectly too much energy.
Even future generations will face the same challenges.
Now, to complete the picture, a few words about the spacecraft that will make this journey………!?
It must have a size of about 1.5 km, turn once around itself in about one minute and have an armour of about two metres thickness. (Against the cosmic rays)
………and then of course it can start ????????????????????
A microchip with wings……crew ?……unfortunately without humans……a little story
What did physicist Steven Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg say about the topic mentioned above? They call their „spaceship“ – Breakthrough Starshot – translated it means „Breakthrough Starshot“, for the curious, it is the following idea behind it. We take a computer chip, it has very little mass. It must also be able to send signals and a few photos home. The chip is equipped with so-called light sails, which have to reflect laser beams or sunlight and accelerate the mini-computer-with-lens to a fifth of the speed of light. In a very effective 20 years it could reach its goal, but remember, to accelerate and decelerate it needs another ten years. They are just necessary. This mentioned micro-light creature is then ready and you see, also dreaming can be beautiful.
Which of course is an important prerequisite for such new actions, a global concerted action, everyone should be involved. The enthusiasm of the early days of space travel in the 1960s must be rekindled.
The technology needed for such valuable experiments is almost within reach. Remember, we must explore other solar systems. The departure into space is perhaps the only way for us humans to save ourselves…..from ourselves, of course!
Humans, I am convinced, must leave the Earth. We risk being wiped out if we stay.
…….that was……a little sarcasm……..excuse me…….must be easy……it helps immensely……..before it comes to a scientific cramp!!!!!!!
The secret hope of „science fiction“ for a future humanity’s exploration of outer space is guaranteed to remain just a hope forever.
Although future science, technology and society will reach a state of almost perfect perfection, I do not believe in this idea today and I wonder if we humans will ever reach a final, stable state in science and technology.
Well now, the most interesting topic for me at the moment : growth of the earth’s population ! No, two factors will continue to grow in direct dependence.
The growth of the earth’s population and global warming !
Over the last 200 years or so, the growth of the world’s population has been remarkably exponential, that is, it is increasing by the same percentage every year.
This growth rate is about 1.9 percent per year. Sounds especially not very strong, but it means that the world population has grown by leaps and bounds from one billion to about 7.6 billion people in the period mentioned above.
Global warming is heating up our planet. This has happened more often in the history of the earth. But not at the same rate as in the past 200 years. Man is irrevocably to blame for this climate change !
Climate change, what is it?
The climate has always been changing since the Earth has existed. Over millions of years, cold and warm periods alternated again and again. These changes had natural causes. Nowadays, when we talk about climate change, we mean the changes caused by man, and let’s summarize this: it is only man’s fault that the earth is getting warmer and warmer.
First and foremost, by consuming energy in almost everything he does. Factories have machines rattling. Cars drive with engines. Computers and mobile phones need electricity. This energy is mostly generated by combustion, for example of coal, oil or gas. Among other things, this produces the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO² ). The forest areas in which CO² could be stored are shrinking. They give way to arable land. In addition, people all over the world are eating more and more meat – this, too, heats up the earth! Because cattle and pigs belch vast amounts of methane into the air, also a greenhouse gas… Finally, unlimited air, car and ship traffic is added.
So to sum up, the incredibly strong growth of the earth’s population brings us the steadily increasing global warming.
I turn to another measure, and that is the one that has been used in the recent past. These are technical developments that have to do with electricity consumption and the amount of scientific articles. There is also an exponential growth rate here, with a doubling of the time taken to achieve this in just under 40 years.
Our now exaggerated expectations mean that some people feel cheated by politicians and scientists. For they are surprised that they have not already been caught up by the utopian visions of the future. Characteristic for this is, for example, the film from 2001: „Odyssey in Space“, which tells of a base on the moon and of a manned flight to Jupiter. It must be mentioned that absolutely nothing shows that the development of science and technology will slow down drastically in the near future or reach an end point.
I can only warn that the rate of growth taking place will not continue at all in our millennium. In the year 2500 the world population would otherwise be in a very strange position, shoulder to shoulder, and the electricity consumption that would then take place would make the globe glow.
One could give a few more examples in addition to those already mentioned. I shall refrain from doing so, because it is also possible to exaggerate.
It would have to be delivered daily to every citizen of the earth, – what?
Ultimate annihilation through exponential growth !!!
Humanity is multiplying on some continents and in some countries, uncontrolled on a massive scale. I am not addressing specific countries, because the countries that hear my opinion would never confirm it anyway.
Why not?“….Because they themselves have no idea about the immense increase of CO² for our earth’s climate…..through exponential growth of people on this planet.
But the question remains, what will happen, how will humanity finally become extinct? So what will happen?
One of the most pertinent possibilities: We wipe ourselves out by some catastrophe, such as almost worldwide nuclear war.
But even if we do not completely destroy ourselves, we could fall back into a state of brutality and barbarism.
Go on ! ….How will we develop science and technology in the course of the next millennium ? Surely I find it very difficult to find a certain correct answer myself. But I don’t want to hide myself, so I will make some predictions or much more accurate than that, also contribute a small part to the past of science.