Will humans ever achieve light speed?

[Bigsmoothlee]

Originally Posted by pothole

There's no reason why you couldn't get so close as to be essentially the speed of light.

99.9999999999999% is possible (though would require epic amounts of energy). That said, accelerating to large fractions of the speed of light in a conventional manner is not the solution to travel large distances in cosmic terms!

Originally Posted by JFP in PA

The mathematics implies that to obtain and sustain just 50% of light speed in a vessel massive enough to be practical for inter galactic travel, the total amount of propulsive energy needed would become staggering to the point of absurdity.

You've both got the right idea, although a recent discovery from the particle accelerator in Sweden showed that the "speed limit" is 99.999% of the speed of light, and time slows down dramatically in the vessel to prevent you accidentally tripping over the the speed of light.

You could hypothetically end up in the future when traveling at almost the speed of light. Two years may pass by outside, while a few minutes go by in the vessel.

Will we ever get there? Well, we'd need an enormous amount of energy... but possibly. I hope Im alive to see it.