{"id":18792,"date":"2018-07-30T00:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T00:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/?p=18792"},"modified":"2018-07-30T00:49:02","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T00:49:02","slug":"science-dr-karl-future-space-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/uk\/discover\/science\/space\/science-dr-karl-future-space-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Science with Dr Karl: Future space travel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.creatureandcoagency.com\/uploads\/2018\/07\/drkarl_space.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-18795\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.creatureandcoagency.com\/uploads\/2018\/07\/drkarl_space.jpg\" alt=\"space\" width=\"635\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.creatureandcoagency.com\/uploads\/2018\/07\/drkarl_space.jpg 635w, https:\/\/cdn.creatureandcoagency.com\/uploads\/2018\/07\/drkarl_space-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 635px) 100vw, 635px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>FUTURE SPACE TRAVEL!<\/h2>\n<p>We humans are set to become a space-going race. At some stage in the future, there will be more humans living off the Earth, than on it. The Earth has been our cradle \u2013 but, like all babies, at some stage we have to leave the nest!<\/p>\n<p>DODGING ASTEROIDS!<\/p>\n<p>The major reason for space travel is to avoid being hit by a big rock from space. Last Halloween the asteroid 2015 TB145 did not hit the Earth&#8230; it missed by 480,000km \u2013 which is just a little more than the distance from Earth to the Moon. The asteroid was about 600m across, and moving at a speed of 126,000km\/h! Had it impacted on land, it would have blasted out a crater some 10km in diameter. That impact would have wiped out a significant percentage of the human race. We had only three weeks warning of the approach of 2015 TB145. With our current level of technology for space travel, our only option would have been to evacuate all people from 1,000km around the impact site. But if we had a three-year warning, we could have got to 2015 TB145 and gently nudged it off course. The earlier we could have got to it, the smaller the size of the nudge needed. The Earth is about 12,700km across so, at most, we would have to shove it a touch over 6,000km. A near miss is still a miss!<\/p>\n<p>A LADDER TO SPACE? <span style=\"text-decoration: line-through;\"><br \/>\n<\/span>To become a space-going race, we will have to develop better ways to leave Earth\u2019s surface (such as a \u2018Ladder to Space\u2019 \u2013 yes, it\u2019s possible!). We will have to develop more powerful engines to travel at high speed through space, such as nuclear fusion engines. We will also have to develop ways to deal with the impact that the microgravity\/zero gravity of space has on the human body, such as incredibly rapid osteoporosis, changes to the shape of eyes and heart and harm to the immune system.<\/p>\n<p>I am quietly confident that we humans will be able to deal with potential Earth-impacting asteroids <em>before<\/em> a big one actually hits us. But I think that it will take several centuries before most of humanity is living away from Earth.<\/p>\n<p>Asteroids are Mother Nature\u2019s way of asking the question, \u201cHey humans, how\u2019s your space program development going these days?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DID YOU KNOW?\u00a0 Humans have been living in space since 2 November, 2000, at the International Space Station. Since then, over 200 people have been posted there, from 10 different nations!<\/p>\n<p>DID YOU KNOW?\u00a0 The International Space Station is the largest artificial body in orbit. It\u2019s about\u00a0108m wide, 73m long and 20m high. Because it\u2019s so big, it\u2019s easy to see at dusk or dawn. Just download an ISS timetable app to get the viewing times for your area!<\/p>\n<p>DID YOU KNOW?<br \/>\nIn 2015, 26 asteroids were observed zipping past Earth at less than one Lunar Distance (the distance from Earth to the Moon)!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FUTURE SPACE TRAVEL! We humans are set to become a space-going race. At some stage in the future, there will be more humans living off the Earth, than on it. The Earth has been our cradle \u2013 but, like all babies, at some stage we have to leave the nest! DODGING ASTEROIDS! The major reason &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/uk\/discover\/science\/space\/science-dr-karl-future-space-travel\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Science with Dr Karl: Future space travel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[2035,1922,947,159,2371,2372],"christmas-category":[],"class_list":["post-18792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space","tag-asteroids","tag-dr-karl","tag-science","tag-space","tag-space-travel","tag-travel","countries-australia","countries-new-zealand"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Space travel | Science with Dr Karl | National Geographic Kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Space travel is the future: humans are set to become a space-going race. 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