Minimum Travel Times To Other Parts Of The Universe (or: The Pauli Paradox)

Minimum travel times are calculated assuming the travel involves
continuously accelerating over the intervening space at 9.8
meters/second^2 or about 1G, and then at the halfway point decelerating
at the same rate.

You can get anywhere in 50 years, so a ship doesn't need to store any
more fuel than is required to do a continuous 50 year long burn at 1G.
The amount of fuel required varies exponentially with the propellant
velocity, so long-distance travel requires propellant which leaves the
ship at light speed (i.e. a photonic drive). Anything less is out of
the question for a continuous burn longer than a few minutes or hours.

(For Newtonian Physics, the 50 year time limit doesn't get you much
beyond Antares, and you're stuck within a 600 light year radius; see
below).

Minimum travel time to the moon
3h 23m - 3h 34m

Minimum travel times to the planets in the solar system
1d 10h 50m - 3d 18h 40m Venus
1d 17h 30m - 4d 16h 20m Mars
2d 01h 20m - 3d 11h 40m Mercury
5d 16h 10m - 7d 06h 40m Jupiter
8d 02h 00m - 9d 12h 40m Saturn
11d 21h 10m - 13d 03h 20m Uranus
15d 08h 20m - 16d 00h 10m Neptune
15d 07h 40m - 20d 07h 00m Pluto
17d 01h 00m - 28d 03h 20m Xena (3.3 - 9.0 billion miles away)

The times required to get to any other solar system by this means are
on the the same order as those to get to anywhere else in the universe
that can be reached at all. (You can get anywhere in the visible
universe in 50 years ship time at 1G).

Distance & minimum travel times to selected stars
4.4 LY 3.59y Rigel Kentaurus alpha Centauri
9 LY 4.68y Sirius alpha Canis Majoris
25.3 LY 6.46y Vega alpha Lyrae
34 LY 7.00y Pollux beta Geminorum
431 LY 11.83y Polaris alpha Ursae Minoris
604 LY 12.48y Antares alpha Scorpii
773 LY 12.96y Rigel alpha Orionis
1523 LY 14.27y Sadr gamma Cygni
1791 LY 14.58y Wezen delta Canis Majoris

For all practical purposes, any engineering solution to accomplish
travel by these means to ANYWHERE outside the solar system will also
mean the ability to accomplish travel to EVERYWHERE in the universe.

Minimum travel times for larger distances
22.38y 100,000 LY (Across the galaxy)
28.19y 2,000,000 LY (To Andromeda)
31.31y 10,000,000 LY
35.77y 100,000,000 LY
40.24y 1,000,000,000 LY
53.63y 1,000,000,000,000 LY
67.02y 1,000,000,000,000,000 LY

This completely debunks the idea of colonies spreading in
island-hopping fashion. As seen below, the only barrier to spread is
the Solar System Barrier; not the "stellar distance barrier". So,
whatever colonization or exploration has taken place from elsewhere, by
these means, will have been immediately to every star system in every
galaxy, not just to nearby star systems in this one.

This puts the question of alien visitations (or the absence thereof) in
even starker form. They can literally come from anywhere -- assuming
they can come from anywhere at all. This means -- barring the
possibility of a nearly universal Dead Zone that's kept alien
civilizations everywhere else from existing or getting aloft -- we
must, in fact, already be teeming with visitors from everywhere, their
probes, or both.

.... which means: either the barrage of UFO sightings that have existed
for at least a half century or more are for real and a good number of
them must be of bona fide alien vehicles or alien probes; or otherwise,
the only conclusion left is that that a massive number of people (the
large majority, by any recent survey) are deluded; the Universe is a
Dead Zone: something's prevented spacefaring civilizations from
existing anywhere in the Universe and (since the Earth is about to go
spacefaring), the Earth is next on the Dead Zone list.

Take your pick.

NOTE:
The expression for travel time T over distance X with uniform
acceleration and deceleration A is T = (2C/A)*ln(z + sqrt(z^2 - 1)),
where z = 1 + AX/(2 C^2), and C = light speed. In Newtonian Physics, it
would have been T = 2*sqrt(X/A), which is exponentially worse, for
large distances, X.

Comparisons to times based on Newtonian Physics are as follows:
The moon & planets -- the same.

Selected stars
4.4 LY 3.59y -> 4.13y Rigel Kentaurus alpha Centauri
9 LY 4.68y -> 5.91y Sirius alpha Canis Majoris
25.3 LY 6.46y -> 9.90y Vega alpha Lyrae
34 LY 7.00y -> 11.48y Pollux beta Geminorum
431 LY 11.83y -> 40.88y Polaris alpha Ursae Minoris
604 LY 12.48y -> 48.40y Antares alpha Scorpii
773 LY 12.96y -> 54.75y Rigel alpha Orionis
1523 LY 14.27y -> 76.85y Sadr gamma Cygni
1791 LY 14.58y -> 83.33y Wezen delta Canis Majoris

Larger distances
22.38y -> 623y 100,000 LY (Across the galaxy)
28.19y -> 2,785y 2,000,000 LY (To Andromeda)
31.31y -> 6,227y 10,000,000 LY
35.77y -> 19,691y 100,000,000 LY
40.24y -> 62,269y 1,000,000,000 LY
53.63y -> 1,969,134y 1,000,000,000,000 LY
67.02y -> 62,269,492y 1,000,000,000,000,000 LY

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