can mankind create the technology that  travel's at the speed of light, use it to venture into space?
351358
The first answerer is right about the mass increase.  As a mass approaches the speed of light, one of the effects is that the more energy you provide it in order to increase its velocity, the more the mass increases, according to Einstein's famous formula E=mc^2.\n\nThe speed of light is the absolute limit for velocity.  A mass can approach closer and closer to this speed, but can never surpass it.  So, to answer your question, mankind can and likely will build spaceships which can go significantly faster than the present-day ones can, but we will never be able to travel at the speed of light.
436694
Technically no.  As you get closer and closer to the speed of light the weight of objects grows and grows so that eventually it will stop accelerating.\n\nOne thing that is possible is subspace, freespace, or wormhole travel, all of which are the same thing.  This is where space bends so that the distance is made shorter.  An example of this is traveling to the other side of the world.  You can go around the world, or you can go straight through the center (this is impossible), which distance is shorter.  To achieve subspace travel you must open up a big enough portal of quantum foam, or the space between the nucleus of an atom and its electrons.  We can not currently do this because we do not have the ability to make cold fusion which is the only 'safe' way to supply enough power.  Navigation, however, is a completely other story.\n\nhope this helps answer your question.
591715
No. First, matter can't get to the speed of light because it would be infinitly massive and would take an infinite amount of energy to do it so the question starts out with a bad premiss.\n\nHowever, if a plane were traveling at half the speed of light and turned on it's headlights, they would be going the speed of light to him and the speed of light for someone on the ground watching. You see the speed of light is constant for all observers in a non-Newtonian reference frame.
709216
Hmmmm, in the future you might be right, but I think the cost of sending anything into space is quite goppingly high at present - and until we can travel SIGNIFICANTLY faster than light, I'm afraid the ex-con would have died a fair few tens of millenia too early to note anything of value.\n\nEven our own galaxy (a teeeeeny spec in the universe) is roughly 100,000 light years wide. At 1000 times the speed of light, an 18 year old criminal would need to live to be 118 year old just to see one side of our galaxy to the other. He would also be going a little fast to make the most accurate of observations.\n\nIt really is awfully big.\n\nInteresting idea though - and with suspended animation / faster than light travel it may one day be a plan.
376581
Theoretically it is possible to build a spacecraft with that speed. Nasa came to me with that proposal. I gave them a design and asked them to design an engine that would generate INFINITE amount of energy. They are working on that.[you see an object offer more and more energy as it nears speed of light till at c it needs infinite e. Sure a body can theoretically have speed GREATER than light.
505155
I think everyone else has answered this pretty clearly.  NASA looked into constructing 'solar sail ships' for space travel.  A solar powered laser placed near the sun would generate a focussed beam of mono-phasic laser light that would be directed onto an extremely light ship which maximised surface area to mass/volume by use of a special sail.  This would provide a small forward acceleration away from the laser.\n\nHowever, on Earth.. as indicated.. its a bit impracticle with present power source technologies.  You may want to think about approaching to problem of fusion power and then minimizing the technology for youur application ( a long time field of research.. not an overnight job!!).\n\nGood luck!
42712
It isn't possible speed wise, the closer you get to the speed of light, the larger your mass, until it becomes infinitely large - there is not enough power in the universe to acellerate you that fast.  The only way to travel faster than light is to take a shortcut, find a way from point a to point b that doesn't involve a direct course - like a wormhole or some other type of spacial rupture. If you think of 3D space as a sheet of paper, light can only travel over the surface - if you fold the paper, you get to the other side quicker by going right through the paper. Technically, you dont go as fast as light (which would have to travel the length of the 'paper'), but you get to your destination before light going the normal space-path would, so in that respect you do go faster than light.
148002
It's technically impossible for something with mass (like a spacecraft) to go the speed of light in our universe under the laws of physics.  As something approaches the speed of light, it gains mass.  In theory, if something were to actually go the speed of light, it would have infinite mass, which is impossible.  \n\nOf course, no one can say for sure.  Science fiction on television and in books have gotten around these rules by using wormholes, subspace, etc., none of which are known to actually exist.
349427
no, anything that travels close to the speed of light becomes more massive as it goes faster, and would actually become infinitely massive at the speed of light. this means it would take an increasing amount of energy just to get close, and an infinite amount to reach that speed. the only reason light can reach that speed is because it is made of photons which have no mass. even a tiny particle like an electron can never actually reach the speed of light.\n\nHowever, faster than light travel may be possible by warping space-time itself, using phenomena like wormholes or even black holes.
455984
Photons because light travels at 300000km/s, it would be called teleportation if an human was able to travel at such a speed.
560353
Not we as humans, but scientists are working on the technology to send atoms back in time.  The logic to behind this makes no sense.  Here's part of an article I read once on the website Space.com:\n\nTaught in physics classes the world over, Albert Einsteins theory of special relativity holds that no object or information can move faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, or 186,000 miles (300,000 kilometers) per second. But NECs Lijun Wang says he created an experiment in which a light beam raced through a gas-filled chamber so quickly, it exceeded the speed of light by a factor of 300. Whats more, the light pulse appears to have left the confines of the chamber before it even entered a seemingly impossible occurrence according to theories of causality, which predict that causes must always precede their effects.\n\nSo, this possibly hints that the light is going back in time, but if this is what it means it violates laws of causality and sends quantum physics into disrepair.  \n\nTraveling to the past is impossible given our current views of the universe and physics.  However, if the universe isn't a universe, but rather a multiverse of infinite parallel universes we could jump to another universe that exists simulatneously at an earlier time.  This would not violate causality or the grandfather paradox (which is that if you could go back in time you could kill your grandfather  which would mean you would never be born to kill your grandfather).  YOu could kill your grandfather in another universe and you would never exist in that universe, but you would still exist because in your universe your grandfather had never died.
409498
By traveling faster than the speed of light.  As velocity approaches the speed of light, time slows down.  Traveling faster than light speed then - would make you travel back in time.  Theoretically, it is possible (according to the theory of relativity) but scientifically, it doesn't seem possible.
532772
nothing but light can travel at light speed.  the faster you go, the more energy it requires to accelerate.  at speeds that are close to the speed of light, you would need what is basically an infinite amount of power to accelate.  with current technology, it is impossible.  the only reason light can travel that fast, is because when it is created it is already traveling that fast.  it doesnt have to accelerate.
246486
I'm sure physicists around the world ponder these questions on a daily basis.\nFirstly,astronomers believe that there is a super-massive balck hole at the center of our galaxy, the Milky wave. Through spectrometric measurements, they have shown that the large amounts of gamma rays emitting from it are due to the huge chunks of nearby stars and matter that it sucks in each second. It is believed that this matter is absorbed by the black hole and compressed into nothingness. However, some believe that some of this matter (including people) could be transported through some sort of tunnel into another part of space\n\n2. No one knows for sure if wormholes exist. But if they do, it could provide a way to travel faster than the speed of light like in star trek or other shows, the so called "hyperspace".\n\n3. Yes, if you dug through the earth, you'd emerge into space, with nothing under your feet. If you were to travel in such a "hollowed-out" tunnel, as you approach the center of the earth, the gravity would gradually decrease until it would be zero at the exact center. If you drop a ball into this tunnel, it would oscillate forever, assuming no air is present, like a spring with simple harmonic motion since the gravity is a function of depth.
445790
there is a design for a "starship" that IS theoretically feasible.\n\nit is known as the "Bussard RamJet" and you might look it up in the wikipedia.com ( it is also mentioned in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos".)\n\nthis ship can theoretically travel at 10 % the speed of light ( i.e 18,600 mi/sec .)  it is technically possible to build it NOW if the motivation ( and funds) existed.  \n\nif you traveled on this ship, "relativistic effects" would slow your aging in comparison with the earth.  In other words, when you return, hundreds of years may have elapsed in relation to only a few of your own.  because of this, any trip must be considered "one way" in the social sense.  \n\nto answer your question,  the technology is here but no one is trying becuase the time paradox is too real.  besides, we wouldnt know where to go anyway.  ( it would be hit or miss ).  the landing part is quite simple.... the hard part is getting there !
313161
about 186,000 miles per second.  With our present technology, it would take hundreds of thousands of years. At the speed of light, it would only take thousands of years.
323531
Communicators?  We already have walkie-talkies.\n\nPhasers?  Don't know what exactly those are.\n\nSpeech recognition?  Already have some rudimentary stuff.  Don't know how well they work though.\n\nTransporter?  I wish.  No one would ever have to waste time commuting to work.\n\nWarp drive and faster than light travel?  Theoretically possible, but perhaps a practical impossibility.  With a huge energy source (gravity of a black hole?) you could distort space-time such that relativity no longer applies (the warp drive "warps" space-time).  Could a matter-antimatter reactor do it?  I don't know.\n\nArtificial gravity?  Don't know.  Doubt it, other than little centrifugal force tricks (rotating space station).  Manipulating gravity for the warp drive would be hard enough.  Trying to somehow localize its influence to floor plating on a space ship is probably asking too much.\n\nInertial dampeners?  Nothing really fancy about this in theory.  Just need little thrusters that respond super-quickly to undesired accelerations.  There might be other tricks you could try if you've already got that warp drive.\n\nMeeting women from different planets?  I'm not convinced I haven't already.