The Real Reason NASA Hasn't Left the Solar System Yet | Unveiled

The Real Reason NASA Hasn’t Left The Solar System Yet

When cars were invented in the 1870s and ‘80s, there wasn’t a limit to how far they could take you. If you had enough gas, you could drive anywhere you liked. But, while rockets and space shuttles arrived just a few decades later, promising truly boundless travel beyond even the confines of Earth… why has that never really come to pass?

This is Unveiled, and today we’re taking a closer look at the real reason why NASA hasn’t left the solar system yet.

Technically, today’s title is perhaps a little unfair because NASA has made equipment (at least) that has gone to the edge of the solar system, and beyond - at least according to one interpretation of where the edge of the solar system is. According to NASA, the Voyager One spacecraft officially left the solar system in 2012 and now flies in interstellar space. Voyager Two followed suit six years later, in 2018. Both were launched back in 1977, designed to study radiation and the planets, but also famously carrying a Golden Record filled with key information about humanity - for any potential alien species that they might cross paths with. By some measures though, it should be said that even the Voyagers haven’t truly left the solar system… as they haven’t passed beyond the Oort Cloud and couldn’t possibly do so for thousands of years yet. The distances at play here are just too vast for even NASA’s flagship long-distance probe mission to conquer.

But, away from the Voyagers, and from all similarly robotic quests, and one thing’s very clear; no person has ever been even close to leaving the solar system. No crewed mission from NASA (or anywhere else) has yet to travel beyond the moon. And, in fact, no human has even left low Earth orbit since the last Apollo mission - Apollo 17 - all the way back in 1972. There are a number of reasons for this… although those reasons aren’t necessarily the same ones that apply to our hesitation (or inability) to reach interstellar space, proper.

For example, NASA has had plans to send humans to Mars for a long time now, and there are various ways in which it could technically be done. But state-sponsored Mars missions keep getting pushed back and shuffled around in order of importance due in large part to the shifting nature of US politics. Critics claim that there’s a lack of stability in terms of vision and funding, which in turn impacts the degree of incentive that NASA has for going in the first place. Until relatively recently, it might be argued that there’s been a lack of competition, too. While in the original space race it was the US versus the Soviet Union, propelling America to reach the moon in double-quick time… there hasn’t been a similar focus with Mars or anywhere else. When it comes to interstellar space, though - to anywhere beyond the solar system - those traditional laments of funding and rivalry don’t cover even a fraction of what’s really holding us back.

Interstellar space comes with an entirely new set of concerns about space travel, and no one has seriously planned for it. Escaping the solar system takes a lot of energy and a lot of time. The Voyagers are still around 40,000 years away from getting even close to any other star system in space, based on the top speeds that they’re capable of. But, regardless, they can’t just go on and on forever and ever. One day - perhaps one day soon - we’ll either lose contact with them permanently, or they’ll grind to a halt and die.

The huge speeds and distances involved mean that, really, we need a new breed of space vehicle - even at probe level - to make it work. And we need a new version of rocket fuel for power. The current fuels for shuttles are mostly chemical based fossil fuels, and are simply too heavy and inefficient for interstellar travel. The traditional problem is that by adding more fuel - which is currently a necessity - you also add more weight to the craft as a whole, which in turn demands more fuel to achieve liftoff. It’s an impossible situation. In order to reach distant star systems, we need fuel that packs more power per its weight. Proposed ideas for this include Ion Engines, Nuclear Pulse engines, Nuclear Fusion rockets, and other innovations. But, while some vehicles have utilized forms of this technology before, none are ready for leaving the solar system… and definitely not with humans onboard. Consider how much living space a long-distance crewed flight would need (even in a hypothetical world where we can shorten commute times to just a few years or more) and the issues are obvious. Just how do you maneuver something as big as that ship for as long as would be needed through something as vast and dangerous as space?

Beyond the issues with technology, certain human elements of elongated space flight present real problems, too. How will the human body react to 24/7 space? How will the human mind cope? NASA has been looking into questions like these for decades as part of its Human Research Program - with long-term missions on board the International Space Station providing most of the astronaut test subjects. The general goal is to find out what kinds of problems we’ll need to anticipate if we ever do spend long stretches traveling in space. Concerns include exposure to radiation, the risks of isolation, equipment failure, the effects of zero gravity on muscle tissue, the psychological strain of facing the endless black void of space everyday, and more. For example, research has shown that low gravity alone seems to cause blood clotting and blood flow issues in astronauts. More broadly, a 2015 report on the risks of space flight by NASA found that there were at least thirty different factors that required serious consideration and solutions. Right now, leaving Earth in any capacity is difficult to ally with astronaut welfare… let alone sending people on probable lifelong journeys into the abyss, never to return.

It’s little wonder, then, that uncrewed probe missions are almost always launched instead. But even they face all the same issues, minus the human challenge. Is it even possible to make a probe move fast enough to leave the solar system and reach another star? Even at its shortest, might this be a journey that humankind as a whole will not live to see the end of? Are there any workarounds for this seemingly unworkable situation?

Again, critics argue that the apparent impossibility of it all is really just the result of a lack of adequate research. That, if it were deemed important enough, NASA and other agencies would by now be much further along in the quest to reach other star systems. Every year since 2012, NASA has received just half of one percent of the federal budget, or less. Compare that to the year 1966, when the first space race was at its height, and NASA claimed a whopping 4.41% - around eight times the proportion that it receives today. Back then, space travel was much higher on the agenda. Today, it’s lower down, but the challenges are massively more difficult than even the moon landing was.

There are perhaps plenty of reasons for that lack of backing, too, however… because what’s the end goal for interstellar travel, anyway? Beyond general interest, why does humanity want (or need) to travel that far, at the present time? For the likes of NASA to really focus on leaving the solar system, they probably need a more compelling and urgent reason - like certain proof of life in Alpha Centauri, or the revelation of an imminent cosmic disaster that could wipe out our star system. Right now, we don’t have either of those… and so we’re in a bit of a bind.

What’s your verdict on the situation? Should NASA be doing more? Should we (as a species) place more emphasis on long-distance space missions? Or is it all immaterial because it’s probably impossible to begin with?

For now, we know that actually we haven’t even begun to get a grip on our own solar system yet, so there’s plenty of work to do, regardless. We also know that if a probe - or even a person - were ever able to find a way to break beyond our particular planetary neighborhood, then it would be a one-way trip. They wouldn’t be coming back. And, even if they could survive, we’d likely never hear from them again. Ultimately, there are many reasons why it isn’t quite working out… but that’s why NASA hasn’t left the solar system yet.