Myths and Truths about Interstellar Travel

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Interstellar travel is a topic with such a wide range of myths and truths. So much so, 

In fact, that unless you’ve researched on this topic professionally, it is difficult to wrap one’s  

Mind  around what is real and what is simply made up. Especially in this day and age on the internet, 

So many things being made up and it is easy to believe them without evidence. 


An article written by Bianca Nogrady, featured on BBC.com, there are some prime questions that are being asked. Some of those questions include: 

  • How would humans survive on an interstellar voyage? 

  • Can’t we sleep all the way there? (A whole mood) 

  • How would we get there? 

 

While I’m sure some professionals can answer these questions with ease, I, on the other hand, am not here to answer these questions (though, I wish I could). Some examples of the myths and truths about interstellar travel are: 

 

Myth 1: Faster than light travel. According to Gizmodo.com, Phil Plait (writer of Bad Astronomy) says that planets are so far apart, that while it doesn't take years to get to them, it does take a long time. So no, interstellar travel is not faster than light.  

 

Myth 2: Objects in space are bunched together. In the same article, it mentions that if you were to watch any scientific or space-related show or movie, space is usually represented in an over-dramatic, unrealistic way. And that much is true. Everything in outer space is SPACED OUT. Pun intended. In this section of the article, there are examples of how everything in space is separated due to how far the planets are from each other.  

 

Myth 3. You can communicate with aliens. I don't mean to burst anyone’s bubble, buuuuut… I don't think aliens exist. This one is a little more light-hearted than the first two myths. Throughout my elementary school days, I had a friend who just adored all things Sci-Fi and space related, and some of the things he came up with in his head were some of the most absurdly hilarious things I’ve ever heard.  So much so, that he was 100% convinced that he wanted the whole class to go to space. Yeah, no thanks!

 

Next, I will be listing some truths about interstellar travel. By doing so, you will see the contrast between what is clearly made up and what is the truth. All of these facts are from the website, interestingengineering.com  

 

Truth 1: New methods and theories for interstellar travel are always in development. This is proven by a book written by astronaut, Buzz Aldrin, in which he wrote: “I believe that space travel will, one day, be as common as airline travel is today.” The full quote, then proceeds to talk about how the future of interstellar travel should be relied on by the government, and how he hopes that one day private companies will be able to fulfill the desire of space travel to become more common.  

 

Truth 2: Solar sails could, one day, potentially take us beyond the stars. According to the Planetary Society, they have launched and tested a solar sail that was proven to be able to change its orbital trajectory.  

 

Truth 3: NASA is working on developing a real-life warp drive. Interesting Engineering mentions that the Alcubierre drive was first originated in 1994, by Miguel Alcubierre, who was a physicist at the University of Wales, located in Cardiff. This specific drive would indicate that the use of exotic matter, in the sense that a negative mass, would need to be used. This exotic matter could potentially distort space-time, as well as making space behind the spacecraft to expand it.  

 

 

With these myths and truths proven to be true or not, I feel like this could really change the way we view space and travelling within space. I am sure there are many more myths that need to be debunked, but these are the ones I found most interesting to research on, and therefore why I included them in this blog post.  

Author Bio:

Rose-Angela Pizzuto is a future professional writer, lover of Poetry & Biographies, and is a student of Algonquin College Professional Writing ‘23.

Image source: Advanced Science News