When Will Have the Tech to Leave the Solar System?

Today President Obama said that he wanted us to be able to reach and orbit Mars by 2035. 
 
With that being said, when do you think we will have the technology to leave the solar system and sustain life? Right now there is tech being created that would allow a space shuttle/ship to reach Mars in 39 days. Until that gets perfected, there is no way we could even think about reaching the edge of the solar system in a decent amount of time, let alone Mars. 
 
So, what do you think? Do you think we will even be close to a Mass Effect kind of future in our lifetimes?

Its likely that we'll get to Mars at some point in our life time; given if there is no apolcaplyse in 2012. A question of exactly when is unknown. 2030-2050 sounds like a reasonable date for us to reach to Mars, not like there's really much for us to do there other than set up a scientific colony.
 
Reaching Mass Effect level of technology is probably impossible. We'll have to hope that when we die we'll be born as new babies in that setting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I would absolutely adore being in outerspace. Its just so gorgeous outside.

Technically, haven't some of our earlier probes already left?

" Technically, haven't some of our earlier probes already left? "

" Technically, haven't some of our earlier probes already left? "

 @Meteora: 2012 apocalypse is bunk. There's also lots of potential for colonisation on Mars. Given that we know that Mars contains some amount of water, it stands to reason that Mars either has the potential or at one time did support life.
 
@Hailinel said:

" Technically, haven't some of our earlier probes already left? "

Probes were launched towards the outer planets of the solar system in the last decade or two. However, the space between galaxies is so large that even if a probe were to find relevant information, it would take hundreds of years for us to receive the information. "

I'm really hoping we can get a working space elevator within the next couple of decades. It'll be the quickest way for the common man, such as you and I, to be able to go to space. Without it, we're constantly throwing away resources every time we sent a shuttle up through the atmosphere.

" I'm really hoping we can get a working space elevator within the next couple of decades. It'll be the quickest way for the common man, such as you and I, to be able to go to space. Without it, we're constantly throwing away resources every time we sent a shuttle up through the atmosphere. "

tomorrow I would assume.

" Technically, haven't some of our earlier probes already left? "

" As for the moon, we could go back there tomorrow with the tech we have. But, there really isn't much reason for humans to go back to the moon. "

Personally I don't see us using spacecraft to travel to different stars, ftl travel is simply too complex. Having said that, the use of wormholes could well be in our grasp, provided we simply work out the physics behind it. Artificial wormholes will be the future of space travel, and what's more we have the resources to make them now, we simply don't have the theory.

As far as leaving the solar system goes, several probes are already out there. If we're talking humans, I doubt we'll see anything within our lifetimes. 
 
And if you're talking other systems, well, Voyager 1 would take about 30,000 years (rough estimate) to reach the nearest star. I don't think humanity will even exist by then.

2235 im calling it

400 Years max.  We won't start space travel until we, as a race, are content with the level of colonization of the inhabitable planets in this Solar System.  

" 400 Years max.  We won't start space travel until we, as a race, are content with the level of colonization of the inhabitable planets in this Solar System.   "

" Today President Obama said that he wanted us to be able to reach and orbit Mars by 2035.  With that being said, when do you think we will have the technology to leave the solar system and sustain life? Right now there is tech being created that would allow a space shuttle/ship to reach Mars in 39 days. Until that gets perfected, there is no way we could even think about reaching the edge of the solar system in a decent amount of time, let alone Mars.  So, what do you think? Do you think we will even be close to a Mass Effect kind of future in our lifetimes? "

How do you know we havent been to mars, or other planets already?

I think we have the technology now, but it would just take so long the people might die of old age before they get there.

Yep Titan, Europa and Mars are the most likely candidates for terraforming for Human Colonization. Now if we can just introduce an Ice asteroid to the Martian Atmosphere, some say Jupiter has some we can hijack. 
 
Now we have to build a ship that can transport a fucking asteroid large enough to create an atmosphere of an entire planet! 
 
Very scary thinking about all the things that would need to be done in order to sustain Human life. Doubly so considering that none of it is proven.

" 2235 im calling it "

" @Alex_Murphy: Or you know, run out of air and food, those kinds of things. "

realistically we don't need to think about leaving the earth anytime soon as we'll be able to exploit Earth's fossil fuel resources for another 200-300 years through the use of the Bakken Formation (google it) and there is absolutely no reason to leave the solar system until we have achieved FTL travel, because, let's face it, a light year is a long way and there are thousands of them between us and the nearest star, and i don't mean the sun.

" Yep Titan, Europa and Mars are the most likely candidates for terraforming for Human Colonization. Now if we can just introduce an Ice asteroid to the Martian Atmosphere, some say Jupiter has some we can hijack.   Now we have to build a ship that can transport a fucking asteroid large enough to create an atmosphere of an entire planet!   Very scary thinking about all the things that would need to be done in order to sustain Human life. Doubly so considering that none of it is proven. "

I suspect once we colonize the solar system we will send out a colony ship that would likely be at a percentage of the speed of light. Something like a 100 years to reach a different solar system. This is all theory but the speed of research is improving faster than what practical things allow. For instances if we decide to colonize Mars at our technology level it would take a 1000 years or so. However about 2 decades ago that thought was entirely fictional. In a few decades the idea of colonizing Mars might be doable in 500 years and a few decades after that it would take a lifetime. So I would take any estimate with a grain of salt because future tech is something that is highly unpredictable. With in a few years from analogue we have gone to a digital medium in most of our stuff in a nanosecond if we look at the past's timeline.

I'd say 200+ years realistically to do it in a way where we can go outside our solar system then return within a reasonable amount of time (under 2 years).  If we're talking just going outside of the solar system not caring about a speedy return (any trip outside and back taking longer than 2 years) 60 years.
 
Ungh that sounds confusing.
 
@ArcLyte:   Ungh oil shale?  Dude that's a fucking pipe dream.  Not to mention that it'll turn the entire region into a carcinogenic spewing open wound.

Traveling at the speed of light still doesn't prevent you from crashing into shit that might be in your path. I love how every film, book, and TV show of all time ignores this. I'd love footage of a speed of light crash with a ship and a meteoroid. I imagine there'd just be one blip of light and that would be it.

Space travel will be something that happens rapidly in my view, The time in which it will occur is more complicated but as it stands our technology needs to advance significantly. Our ability to travel through space likely hinges on an entirely new type of tech. I am currently doing a Physics degree and as i understand it space travel outside of our solar system is very complex, essentially we need a way to get close to the speed of light and our current method of creating large explosions to propel ourselves is simply not effeicient and frankly slow.
 
Within the next 100 years we will be able to go all around our solar system just by refining what we have of that i have no doubt, but to go outside the solar system will require new tech and once that is invented the process will be rapid in my opinion.

when you say the solar system do you mean outside the oort cloud? i'm gunna assume it'll be near 3000ish because its not only the great distance your moving.... which is HUGE but your dealing with lack of gravity for long periods of time, solar flares, solar radiation, uncatalogued asteroids or comets, there has to be a way to warp first probably. considering the only human landing site was the moon which is the closest planetary body... also extrasolar planets... we know hardly anything about them... the only way we can find them is thru radial velocity, gravitational lensing, if the planet crosses the front of the star or direct imaging. 
 
it'll take the pluto express... 9 years to get to pluto... pluto is like 39 AU away from the sun?? i think... the oort cloud is up to 5000 AU... out of our solar system... i have no clue how far that is... but just getting out will take along time... 
 
reason why i have this all in my head is.......... i'm taking a class on the the creation of the solar system at my university and finals... are in less then a week ahaha

I wont care about any space travel until we get FTL drives.
 
It's basically pointless without it.

" Traveling at the speed of light still doesn't prevent you from crashing into shit that might be in your path. I love how every film, book, and TV show of all time ignores this. I'd love footage of a speed of light crash with a ship and a meteoroid. I imagine there'd just be one blip of light and that would be it. "

Why hasn't anyone mentioned New Horizons? It's the probe that's on its way to Pluto right now. Once it reaches Pluto it will continue forward and leave the Solar System in 2029.. I wrote about it on the Pluto page.

" Yep Titan, Europa and Mars are the most likely candidates for terraforming for Human Colonization. Now if we can just introduce an Ice asteroid to the Martian Atmosphere, some say Jupiter has some we can hijack.   Now we have to build a ship that can transport a fucking asteroid large enough to create an atmosphere of an entire planet!   Very scary thinking about all the things that would need to be done in order to sustain Human life. Doubly so considering that none of it is proven. "

Possibly never, since like previous posters said it's still faraway, and it's far more likely that we will reach a human cataclysm in the years before the possible discovery of those technologies. There are far more important realities, than space faring, and those, as life is going, are probably going to weight down and make traversing beyond the solar system impossible.  
 
No Mass Effect or Star Wars beyond fiction possibly.

" As long as we, as a race, fight and compete among ourselves for the supremacy of making the most money, we won't go anywhere. "

" @TomWhitbrook said:

" @SinGulaR said:

" As long as we, as a race, fight and compete among ourselves for the supremacy of making the most money, we won't go anywhere. "

I understand the ideological basis behind this comment, but I don't feel it really displays an accurate grasp of human history. Competition drives man and has always done so. It's what got the space race going in the first place. "

 Sadly, your right. History has shown us the most productive spurts of technological innovation have been in times of war or turmoil. However, there needs to be a better way, because SinGular is right also. Until we as a species work collectively with common goals, this system we have at present, will only lead to us to the brink as a species. Our environment wont be able to capacitate all that we may need to do one day. That's the sad reality. The biggest irony of all is that population growth is destined to be our closest downfall as a species, creation itself going to be our downfall as things stand now. You only have to look at the figures and consider the ramifications to know that a whole lot of shit is heading our way. Wide spread ramifications that make for painful thought, maybe not for you, but certainly for your children and their children. There are far too many people that think that harnessing the clean energy will give us all that we need, that it will propel us into a new age of mankind. I can see that happening, but not without further turmoil in an age when the stakes are even higher.  "

I firmly believe that the only way we are ever going to make any real progress in the conquest of space is through the private sector.  Government funded agencies are just too vulnerable to the whims of politics and the yearly federal budgets (not only in the US).  We were supposed to be back on the moon by 2025 and now we're supposed to be on Mars by 2035?  Neither will happen as administrations change and new department heads are positioned every few years.  The private sector, big business, is going to have to find a way to profit from space and that's how progress with be achieved.  We won't get out of the solar system in my lifetime and probably none of yours, but maybe in the lifetime of your children.  I'm going to guess and say somewhere around the turn of the next century, 2100 AD.   That being said, I don't think we'll go far until we come up with a way around the speed of light.  Kind of like walking to where the beach meets the ocean, we'll skirt along the edge of the solar system, wade into the water if you will, but be unable to swim out because we don't have a boat able to make the journey to other stars.  I can't even begin to figure out when humanity will circumvent the laws of physics as we currently understand them.

As long as there is religion and delusion in the world, we'll just keep killing eachother until there's no one left.

we need to make/find a perpetual fuel, and utilise it. also, the ability to travel faster than light or to manipulate wormholes would be useful.. because with what we have, we aint leaving here anytime soon... it takes 248 years for light to reach Pluto alone!

Heh, I read a National Geographic a few years ago (2002-2003 maybe) that said we would be making a  manned voyage to Mars in 2009-2010. Oh Bush, you did so much for your country. 
 
I don't think we'll be making manned voyages outside of our Solar System anytime soon, certainly not within our lifetimes or even within the next few lifetimes of humans. There's just nothing there. First we need to find a planet that is almost completely identical to earth in atmosphere, gravity, proximity to radiation, containment of life sustaining resources etc. which is a feat by itself almost impossible. Then we would need the technology to get there, which at the moment an inkling of how to transfer humans at close to light speed is beyond the grasp of even the smartest minds using the most powerful technologies. Then if you're talking about aliens as well (on a level in which they are not too superior or too inferior to us), the odds are simply pushed infinitely high against this scenario's favor.