14 DAY TRIAL // An expert has used Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity to prove that spaceships and people will not be able to travel at the speed of light without suffering disastrous consequences. The physicist shows that moving through space at the speed of light would expose both the crew and the hardware to massive level of radiation, coming mostly from the hydrogen atoms that exist in interstellar spaces. It would appear that, at high speeds, these atoms turn into real land mines, which can kill any bunch of humans attempting to reach other stars faster, Space reports.
According to William Edelstein, who is a physicist at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), accelerating to nearly the speed of light, or beyond, would make the small concentration of hydrogen atoms in the space between galaxies (just two of them per cubic centimeter) into explosives. Based on advanced calculations derived from Einstein's famous formula, a ship ramming into such an atom at the speed of light would trigger the production of massive amounts of radiation that would penetrate the hull and kill all living things in their path.
The announcement was made on February 13 in Washington DC, at the conference of the American Physical Society. For more than 20 years, the expert has been investigating the possible effects and obstacles in creating spaceship capable of going at nearly the speed of light. The goal was to investigate whether the creation of a ship that could go halfway around the Milky Way within ten years is feasible or not. In theory, this is perfectly possible, as Einstein's principle states that time slows down, and distances become smaller, as speed increases.
But actually traveling at such high speeds would expose the crew to a radiation dose of 61 sieverts per second. Considering that only one tenth of this amount is fatal, it's safe to say that nothing would live on the ship. In addition, it's also possible that the electronic systems on the spacecraft would be severely affected as well. "Getting between stars is a huge problem unless we think of something really, really different. I'm not saying that we know everything and that it's impossible. I'm saying it's kind of impossible based on what we know right now,” Edelstein concluded.