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Earlier quoted context omitted.
For the next 300-500 years, yes. But there is plenty of things to do, stuff to build and room to expand within a light-day from Sun.
No other place is habitable within a light day of the sun.
It's expected never to encounter any other object in all eternity. Unless of course someone deliberately aims for it. I heard once it will eventually lose it's form entirely and just drift through space as a melted lump of metal. For some reason that reminds me of Red Dwarf. We are going to lose it before long i wonder if it will be possible to find it on a future date in theory.
No chance of it ever being hit by anything?
Supplied headline will be true in 1 year. Actual headline: On November 13, 2026 Voyager Will Reach One Full Light-Day Away From Earth
Humanity’s greatest journey so far has only reached the closest world to us: the Moon ... in a universe that stretches endlessly in every direction and is seemingly infinite. It's kind of wild to think about: we might end up collapsing our own civilization before we ever make it beyond our solar system. At this point, I suspect the next real explorers won't be us, but probes carrying intelligent machines..our robotic…
Given what I see in the past 15 years, I don't particularly see that as a problem, honestly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No other place is habitable within a light day of the sun.
A good argument for making sure our planet stays habitable. Caring about the environment isn't just for hippies anymore!
Humanity’s greatest journey so far has only reached the closest world to us: the Moon ... in a universe that stretches endlessly in every direction and is seemingly infinite. It's kind of wild to think about: we might end up collapsing our own civilization before we ever make it beyond our solar system. At this point, I suspect the next real explorers won't be us, but probes carrying intelligent machines..our robotic…
"we might end up collapsing our own civilization before we ever make it beyond our solar system." Given what I see in the past 15 years, I don't particularly see that as a problem, honestly.
Obital mechanics are a funny thing however. You see this with the complicated BepiColombo trajectory to Mercury [1] that requires multiple passes on Venus. Mercury orbits at ~48km/s (compared to Earth's 30km/s). Fun fact: the escape velocity of the Sun is 42km/s so it's easier to leave the Solar System than intercept Mercury.
One difficulty is there aren't large gas giants to slingshot or brake around.
Uranus's orbital velocity is ~6.8km/s so it's both really far and requires a ton of delta-V to slow down to intercept.
Anyway, I digress.
So Voyager 1's speed seems to be ~17km/s, I guess relative to the Sun. People talk about the time required for interplanetary (let alone interstellar) travel but we can do much better than this with relatively near-future technology.
We need a whole bunch more Earth-orbit space infrastructure and industry to do anything, really. Lower launch costs in particular. I think this future is orbital rings [2]. This would revolutionize getting stuff into orbit but also launching vehicles to other planets. Basically you accelerate on the inside of the ring at ~2G with magnetic levitation to counter the linear momentum. You can reasonably get ~15km/s with this, adding to the EArth's 30km/s ideally so even without fuel you can get to ~45km/s.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
No other place is habitable within a light day of the sun.
ISS is one such place.
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/space-technologies/arti...