• Question: Is it possible that a spaceship can go to the speed of light

    Asked by gummy bear to Niamh on 1 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Niamh Shaw

      Niamh Shaw answered on 1 Mar 2016:


      Hmm,

      Maybe someday in the future, but right now? I’m afraid not. Right now,we can get spacecraft to travel at max 160,000 miles per hour, which is the Voyager spacecraft (and just to remind you that the speed of light is 600000000 miles per hour). Now that’s because its taking advantage of the gravitational pull of the different planet to propel it faster and faster. But engine wise, we can’t get anything to travel faster than about 36,000 km/hour at the moment. So we need to figure out another way of travelling really don’t we to be able to travel faster than the speed of light.

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