If you’re ready to leave Earth behind and hit the cosmic highway, a new travel calculator designed to help you plot your next distant planetary journey may be able to help.
From sorting out how long your journey will be to how many books and movies you’ll need to pack, the Exoplanet Travel Planner Calculator is a hilarious tool for your next big space adventure.
Interstellar travel remains one of the most ambitious goals of human space exploration. Unlike trips within our solar system, reaching an exoplanet requires crossing vast interstellar distances, often measured in light-years. Current propulsion technologies make these distances daunting, necessitating significant advancements in space travel technology. And while this handy little travel calculator won’t get you very far, it’ll put a smile on your face.
Designed by Steven Wooding and Álvaro Díez, and the company Omni Calculator, the Exoplanet Travel Planner is a unique way for astronomy enthusiasts, researchers, and the just plain curious to hypothesize viable journeys toward exoplanets, which are celestial bodies that exist outside our solar system.
Essentially, you plug in your age and select one of seven exoplanets and the calculator crunches these parameters and outputs theoretical details about their journey. Now, a big caveat here is that our theoretical ride can travel near the speed of light.
For example, a trip to the nearest exoplanet, LHS 475 b, would take over seven years at near light speeds, requiring substantial food and water. The calculator also accounts for in-flight entertainment needs and illustrates the discrepancy between travel time and the passage of time on Earth. This tool not only highlights the logistical challenges of such voyages but also brings a touch of reality to the concept of space exploration.
Near light speed travel is not practical for flesh and blood emotional beings like ourselves. That's not how the Visitors are doing it.
To view the YouTube video, click here.