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A Crude Guide To Travel Times in The Solar System
(This is background information only - you do not need to know this to play "6 Billion™")
How fast does light travel? At 100% of the Speed Of Light (100 psol) the speed is as follows:
300,000 kilometres per second (close
enough for our purposes)
18,000,000 kilometres per minute
1,100,000,000 (1.1 billion) kilometres per hour
(In fact, the question is relative - it depends whether you are looking at things from the perspective of a photon or not. A photon, travelling at the speed of light, can travel an infinite distance in absolutely no time at all. Hence, a photon is both a quantum energy particle and a wave at the same time.)
Given that all the planets travel elliptical orbits, what are their minimum and maximum distances from the Sun? And how long does it take light to reach them from the Sun?
| 100 % Speed Of Light | Minimum in millions KM (Perihelion) |
Maximum in millions KM (Aphelion) |
| Mercury | 45.9 (2.55 Light Minutes) | 69.7 (3.87 Light Minutes) |
| Venus | 107.4 (5.97 Light Minutes) | 109 (6.05 Light Minutes) |
| Earth | 147 (8.17 Light Minutes) | 152 (8.44 Light Minutes) |
| Mars | 206.7 (11.48 Light Minutes) | 249 (13.83 Light Minutes) |
| Jupiter | 741 (41.17 Light Minutes) | 816 (45.34 Light Minutes) |
| Saturn | 1,347 (1.22 Light Hours) | 1,507 (1.37 Light Hours) |
| Uranus | 2,735 (2.49 Light Hours) | 3,004 (2.73 Light Hours) |
| Neptune | 4,456 (4.05 Light Hours) | 4,537 (4.12 Light Hours) |
| Pluto | 4,425 (4.02 Light Hours) | 7,375 (6.70 Light Hours) |
(Distances sourced from the 1997 edition of "Philip's Atlas Of The Universe" by Patrick Moore)
This is a reasonable speed for travelling regularly within the Solar System. It has been estimated (Adrian Berry, "The Giant Leap: Mankind Heads for the Stars.") that we could reach 1 psol as early as 2070. If a spaceship were to travel that fast, how long would it take to get around the Solar System? Here are some approximations of travel times from the Sun (ignoring acceleration & deceleration times) at 1 psol, good enough to give an idea of potential travel times in the solar system in the future. At 1 psol you would be travelling:
3,000 kilometres per second
180,000 kilometres per minute
11,000,000 kilometres per hour
264,000,000 kilometres per standard day (24 hours)
To put today's year 2000 speeds in perspective:
Space Shuttle - 11,000 kilometres per
hour
Interplanetary Probes - 80,000 kilometres
per hour
| 1 % Speed Of Light | From the Sun (Perihelion) | From the Sun (Aphelion) |
| Mercury | 4.17 Hours | 6.36 Hours |
| Venus | 9.76 Hours | 9.91 Hours |
| Earth | 13.36 Hours | 13.82 Hours |
| Mars | 18.79 Hours | 22.64 Hours |
| Jupiter | 2.81 Days | 3.09 Days |
| Saturn | 5.1 Days | 5.71 Days |
| Uranus | 10.36 Days | 11.38 Days |
| Neptune | 16.88 Days | 17.19 Days |
| Pluto | 16.76 Days | 27.93 Days |
To reach Alpha Centauri (4.3 Light Years away) would take roughly 430 years (time dilation effect negligible).
It has been estimated (Adrian Berry, "The Giant Leap: Mankind Heads for the Stars.") that we could reach 5 psol as early as 2140. If a spaceship were to travel that fast, how long would it take to get around the Solar System? Here are some approximations of travel times from the Sun (ignoring acceleration & deceleration times) at 5 psol, good enough to give an idea of potential travel times in the solar system in the future. At 5 psol you would be travelling:
15,000 kilometres per
second
900,000 kilometres per minute
55,000,000 kilometres per hour
1,320,000,000 kilometres per standard day (24 hours)
| 5 % Speed Of Light | From the Sun (Perihelion) | From the Sun (Aphelion) |
| Mercury | 51 Minutes | 1.26 Hours |
| Venus | 1.95 Hours | 2 Hours |
| Earth | 2.67 Hours | 2.76 Hours |
| Mars | 3.76 Hours | 4.52 Hours |
| Jupiter | 13.47 Hours | 14.83 Hours |
| Saturn | 1.02 Days | 1.14 Days |
| Uranus | 2.07 Days | 2.28 Days |
| Neptune | 3.38 Days | 3.44 Days |
| Pluto | 3.35 Days | 5.59 Days |
To reach Alpha Centauri (4.3 Light Years away) would take roughly 86 years (time dilation effect negligible)
At 10 psol, time dilation would mean only the loss of less than a second per hour for any intrepid traveller, so we can basically ignore the affects of time dilation. If a spaceship were to travel that fast, how long would it take to get around the Solar System? Here are some approximations of travel times from the Sun (ignoring acceleration & deceleration times) at 10 psol, good enough to give an idea of potential travel times in the solar system in the future (the Min / Max columns relate to Minimum and Maximum distances of the planet from the Sun):
At 10 psol you would be travelling:
30,000 kilometres per second
1,800,000 kilometres per minute
110,000,000 kilometres per hour
2,640,000,000 kilometres per standard day (24 hours)
| 10 % Speed Of Light | From the Sun (Perihelion) | From the Sun (Aphelion) |
| Mercury | 25.5 Minutes | 38.72 Minutes |
| Venus | 59.7 Minutes | 1 Hour |
| Earth | 1.34 Hours | 1.38 Hours |
| Mars | 1.88 Hours | 2.26 Hours |
| Jupiter | 6.74 Hours | 7.42 Hours |
| Saturn | 12.24 Hours | 13.7 Hours |
| Uranus | 1.04 Days | 1.14 Days |
| Neptune | 1.69 Days | 1.72 Days |
| Pluto | 1.68 Days | 2.79 Days |
To reach Alpha Centauri (4.3 Light Years away) would take 43 years, less roughly 1 second per hour in time dilation for the travellers thus making 42.66 years - a saving of only 0.34 years!.
NASA, the JPL at Caltech, and other space agencies plot robotic missions to the planets all the time. As far as I can see, despite the fact that we can confidently predict the positions of the planets way into the future, and even a non-scientist such as myself can calculate crude travel times (ignoring acceleration and deceleration) nobody else has even bothered to publish any guide to travel times in our Solar System. That makes mine the first. If you are aware of any others I would be grateful for the details.
The fact that mine appears to be the first confirms my view that most people are either too wrapped up in all the Earth's woes (fair enough, there are many), or off to the stars without a backward glance at our own Solar System (some days this is quite an appealing thought). It's time to at least explore a few basic concepts relating to attaining Kardashev Level-2. I hope that by publishing this brief article it will make it easier for people to think in terms of our future in our own Solar System.
Many think that it is not worth even considering travelling to the stars until we can travel at least as fast as 10 psol otherwise, in the time it would take to get there, technology is likely to provide a faster solution. If people do set off to the stars at 10 psol, it's going to take a special kind of person with even more advanced technology to travel so far for so long...
6 Billion™ is based in the Third Millennium, from 2001 to 3000 (see Per Ardua Ad Astra article). The planets will therefore have plenty of time to travel their orbits, and will thus be found in numerous configurations during this timeframe. If you don't have your own orrery, then I can recommend the online Solar System Live by John Walker.
Remember, when considering travel times between two planets, the destination planet could be on the far side of the Sun to planet of origin. Then you have to allow for whether each planet is at perihelion or aphelion. Still, using this as a rough guide (ignoring acceleration and deceleration), you should be able to visualise space ships travelling right across the Solar System!
Earth-centric examples (with both planets on the same side of the Sun):
| Earth To/From Mars at 1psol ( in hours) |
Mars (at perihelion) | Mars (at aphelion) |
| Earth (at perihelion) | 18.79 - 13.36 = 5.43 Hours | 22.64 - 13.36 = 9.28 Hours |
| Earth (at aphelion) | 18.79 - 13.82 = 4.97 Hours | 22.64 - 13.82 = 8.82 Hours |
| Earth To/From Saturn at 1psol (in days) |
Saturn (at perihelion) | Saturn (at aphelion) |
| Earth (at perihelion) | 5.10 - 0.56 = 4.54 Days | 5.71 - 0.56 = 5.15 Days |
| Earth (at aphelion) | 5.10 - 0.58 = 4.52 Days | 5.71 - 0.58 = 5.13 Days |
| Earth To/From Pluto at 5psol (in days) |
Pluto (at perihelion) | Pluto (at aphelion) |
| Earth (at perihelion) | 3.35 - 0.11 = 3.24 Days | 5.59 - 0.11 = 5.48 Days |
| Earth (at aphelion) | 3.35 - 0.12 = 3.23 Days | 5.59 - 0.12 = 5.47 Days |
Earth-centric examples (with both planets on the opposite sides of the Sun):
| Earth To/From Mars at 1psol ( in hours) |
Mars (at perihelion) | Mars (at aphelion) |
| Earth (at perihelion) | 18.79 + 13.36 = 32.15 Hours | 22.64 + 13.36 = 36.00 Hours |
| Earth (at aphelion) | 18.79 + 13.82 = 32.61 Hours | 22.64 - 13.82 = 36.46 Hours |
| Earth To/From Saturn at 1psol (in days) |
Saturn (at perihelion) | Saturn (at aphelion) |
| Earth (at perihelion) | 5.10 + 0.56 = 5.66 Days | 5.71 + 0.56 = 6.27 Days |
| Earth (at aphelion) | 5.10 + 0.58 = 5.68 Days | 5.71 + 0.58 = 6.29 Days |
| Earth To/From Pluto at 5psol (in days) |
Pluto (at perihelion) | Pluto (at aphelion) |
| Earth (at perihelion) | 3.35 + 0.11 = 3.46 Days | 5.59 + 0.11 = 5.70 Days |
| Earth (at aphelion) | 3.35 + 0.12 = 3.47 Days | 5.59 + 0.12 = 5.71 Days |
You might also want to read a brief overview about the planets and their possible future roles in the future presented by 6 Billion™ - The Planets & The Asteroid Belt - Design Notes For 6 Billion™ and A Crude Guide To Energy Levels In the Solar System.
For a list of articles by me, see the Articles page.
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