With the power of modern technology, how long will it take to reach the planet a light-year away?

I've seen people succeed hundreds of times . in movies. What about in real life?

We are excited to find planets that can support life, both inside and outside the Solar System. We want to find the answer to "Is man alone in the Universe?". Everyone wonders what the next step of finding life is, will we visit them, will they visit us or both never have the opportunity to meet?

On Quora, there are people who assume that if we see a planet 1 light-years away and are inhabited by humans, how long will it take to get there with current technology?

James Swingland, who holds a bachelor of science degree in Physics, Ph.D. in computer biologist, with two years of experience in data science, answers the question.

With current technology, people will not be able to reach the planet one light-year away.

The artificial farthest probe ever traveled 0.2% light-years, taking 40 years to make the "short" distance, 2/1000 light-years in 40 years. Before it reaches its final destination, a light-year round, the ship will decay over time and due to collision with Cosmic dust.

With current technology, we can give the aircraft a little faster but it is still a probe, not able to carry people.

In order to fly an astronaut, a ship is large enough to support life, food and energy to operate the ship. Unlike a probe, a passenger ship will need fuel, a lot of fuel.

Hibernation technology can bring people to another planet intact, but we do not yet possess this advanced technology.

We will not be able to go one light year in a lifetime, humanity has not possessed the technology of freezing that allows people to sleep a few hundred years. To solve this problem, we will need a very large ship with enough space for several generations of people. The complexity of the trip will increase, as more and more people of many generations participate. Social conflict will be unavoidable.

Just creating an isolated living environment, meeting all the needs of everyone, is a big challenge. Current technology is hard to meet the difficult needs.

In the past, there was a pilot program called Project Biosphere 2, with the aim of maintaining a small scale terrestrial habitat with all the necessary elements. The testing process is rife with failures, both in ecosystems and in social factors. The project's time record is only 2 years, not enough for a light-long journey.

Certainly there will be other problems that arise, which we cannot foresee.

Maybe the next few years will make a breakthrough: the Breakthrough Starshot project plans to use laser power to send a probe to Alpha Centauri 4.37 light-years away. It is expected that the train will reach 20% of the speed of light and it will take only 20 years, but it must be repeated: this is a probe, designed to be as light as possible. The project of putting people in the distance of light is still "fiction".

Has ambitions similar to the Orion project, using atomic bombs to propel the rocket forward; The travel time will be shortened to several decades. But using a bomb to push a train to "neighbor's house" seems not a reasonable way, maybe it will be a provocative act, starting the Space War.

Even when finding clean, efficient engines, it will only work to a certain limit. The journey will continue for several decades, and who knows for decades, what more problems will emerge.

Scores of technologies that have the potential to be transferred to other star systems include:

Fusion energy, the clean potential technology of the future. It can fly faster, provide power on board during the trip, but it has "been on the scene" for several decades now.

Antimatter is also a possible way out for the energy problem. But storing antimatter is extremely difficult; With current technology, it is not possible to store antimatter enough to sustain a full light-year journey. Even creating antimatter enough to go is already impossible.

If lucky, people in the future will have the answers, but this prediction will deviate from the focus of the question, only revolving around "current technology".

Humans have not yet evolved far enough to experience the distance of light years.