Space travel theory.

[styley]

Do you think this would be possible.
Situation: You want to travel to a distant planet. My thought is, instead of trying to build a craft and propel it toward said planet, you try to create an imaginary beam which would act like an elastic band between the two points, then when you release from here you are pulled to the other end. I know its not possible presently but do you feel it is a credible theory for space travel??

[jake-the-peg]

No

Leaving aside what this magic beam is made of it would take the beam over 3 years to get even to the closest star.

Then assuming that it accelerates you at 1g so that you're not squashed it would take a year to accelerate you to light and over 2 years more to get you to the nearest star before splatting you into it at 300,000,000 meters per second.

Sounds a bit more Itchey and Scratchy than NASA

[squarebear]

How would you get to the other star to attach this elastic band type beam?

[kujawski]

plus you'll need a hell of a lot of elastic,

what if it snapped?

[dunr]

kujawski - an elastic repair kit could be sent up ( or down ) on another imaginary beam

[styley]

As it's imaginary, you simply have to imagine that it is fixed, or better still, imagine that it never snapped in the first place.

[squarebear]

lol.

In that case, I will just imagine I am on the distant planet.

[jojojojoanne]

we are reliably informed that man has already travelled into space, so its just a case of man researching if time travel is possible.

[styley]

Hey squarebear, you are seriously jeapardizing any chance of my beam becoming reality with your superior imaginating abilities.

[squarebear]

Hehe! What about a giant catapult thing that could TWANG you to a distant planet? If the elastic band snapped, you could use that.