Question 26
To venture into outer space, man first of all has to develop an efficient means of travel. Despite the rockets and space shuttles that man has now that can travel at many kilometers per second, the speed is still very slow. It takes months just to reach Venus, our next door planetary neighbour. To go to planets further away, it would take years. Interstellar travel is definitely out of the question now. According to current science, there is a speed limit in the universe. This limit is the speed of light which is an astounding 300,000 kilometers per second. Even at this speed, it still takes about eight minutes for light from the Sun to reach our planet. So at the snail-pace 10 kilometers per second of our rockets, it is obvious why our speed is grossly inadequate. Even if we have the means of travel, we still have to know the place we are going to. We have to know the conditions and thus devise steps to handle any situation that may crop up. It is foolish just to go to, say, a planet and land there. The space travelers will surely perish if they do not know how to cope with the conditions of the planets.
