Fundamental Limitations to Achieving Interstellar Flight

Abstract

Many have argued that even if you could build a probe to travel to the nearby star systems, it would take so long and require so much energy that this would be an obstacle for going in the first place. In this chapter we address this question head on and consider what the velocity and energy requirements are for sending a robotic probe across the vastness of space. This analysis is necessary so that we may understand the challenge of interstellar flight and how it measures up technically compared to an interplanetary mission. Before a spacecraft can embark on such a journey however, it first must reach Low Earth Orbit.