DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH ON INTER-STELLAR TRAVEL: Assume a modest-sized spacecraft carrying three crew members and everything they would need for a journey that would consume on their watches 5 years enroute to a nearby planet thought to be sufficiently like Earth to support life. How much energy would be required to make the journey?

Writing in Evolution News and Science Today, Retired Physics Professor Eric Hedin did the calculation and concluded that 140 quadrillion kWh would be required:

“Believe it or not, it’s equivalent to 4,800 times the total energy consumption of the United States in the year 2022. This means all the electricity, petroleum, natural gas, and any other form of energy used to power everything in the U.S. for one year would be 4,800 times too small to get our modest-sized spaceship to a relatively nearby star in a reasonable amount of time. I think it’s fair to say that interstellar space travel isn’t even remotely possible with our current understanding of physics and technology.”

I hope either Hedin is wrong or such a vast amount of energy becomes feasible at some point in the future, as I’d like very much to be part of a astronomical Lewis & Clark expedition.