Is it possible for space craft to cover the enormous distances of outer space?

For technically superior civilizations it certainly would.
The Extraterrestrials might even be here already - only - they do not make themselves known.

The Italian Nuclear Physicist Enrico Ferni had asked himself the same question, although with a slightly different slant. In Chicago in 1942 he actuated the first controlled nuclear chain reaction and later joined the “Manhattan Project”. Under this assumed name American scientists were developing the Atom bomb in a research laboratory in Los Alamos. Ferni pondered about one of the most basic questions of mankind: Are we the only technologically developed civilization in this Universe?

Where are the Extraterrestrials?
During the search for an answer to this question he came to the following assumption: If there were but only one race in the Milky Way who was able to do interstellar travels, then they would be able to cover the whole Galaxy within 20 - 40 Million years. Doing this, they could go to all inhabited planets and colonize them (this would happen with below speed of light). Therefore it is obvious that large numbers of civilizations are present in our galactic neighbourhoods. However, unto this day there is no sign of their existence.

So, where are they?
We have several answers to this: Either there are civilizations with technical knowledge who are not more advanced than us and are not able to space travel. Or, they could have colonized neighbouring worlds (having skipped the earth), or, there are none and we are the only civilization with an advanced technology in the Milky Way. The “Fermi-Paradox”, which made scientific history: The idea that there are many technologically advanced civilizations in our Universe is a paradox since our observations seem to confirm the opposite and this implies that either our understanding or our observations are faulty and incomplete.

Interstellar space travel is indeed possible.
Lately other researchers tied up with the Fermi Paradox but came to totally different conclusions: they believe that the Extraterrestrials are definitely here, except that we do not realize this. In a study published in 2005 the US physicists James Deardorff, Bernard Haisch, Bruce Maccabee and Harald Puthoff give their reasons for this theory. The starting point is their conviction that inter-stellar space travel (even faster than the speed of light) is possible, contrary to former belief. Fact is that until now most physicists and astronomers believed it impossible for space craft to conquer the immense distances between the stars. The research team argues however, that for a technologically advanced civilization, which is hundreds of thousands of years ahead of us a space journey even over a period of many hundred light years would be as easily accomplished as a journey from Frankfurt to New York would be for us.

The strangers are using short cuts through the universe.
They could for instance use wormholes as tunnels through space and time and would thereby shorten space travel considerably. They could have developed the “Alcubierre propulsion”, which manipulates space in such a way that a space craft could travel by distorting spacetime. (see article of the 30. 3. 2007 “faster-than-light space travel”) In both cases the “cosmic speed limit” which the speed of light dictates could be overcome. According to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity space crafts can not do this.

Furthermore, according to Deardoff and Co. a journey through higher dimensions would be conceivable. As the string theory suggests, our cosmos is but one of many, which are embedded in a space of a higher dimension. Inhabitable Universes could lie only a stone’s throw away from ours. Perhaps the others found a way to break through the dimensional barrier. This however would only compound the paradox, as many more civilizations would have had the ability to colonize the Milky Way and thereby find our earth. Finally the great number of recently discovered planets in remote solar systems suggests that life and therewith intelligence develops more frequently than we had thought. We should have had extraterrestrial visitors a long time ago. But why are they not here?

Perhaps we are sitting in a zoo.
The answer, say the four US scientists, lies in the UFOs. Although they also admit that most sightings could be due to such things as optical illusions, earthly objects such as aeroplanes, balloons and flares, or that they are hoaxes. However, a small amount remains unexplainable. As an outstanding example they quote a UFO sighting over New Zealand in 1978, when a UFO flew right next to a plane with eight passengers. These witnesses filmed and photographed the brightly shining object, which was also seen from the ground - and filmed. It also appeared on radar screens. Until now this phenomenon has never been explained.

If, however, these numerous unidentified flying objects are indeed space craft that are piloted by beings of a foreign civilization, why do they not identify themselves on their visits? To answer that question the authors of the study come up with some former hypothesis, namely the ‘Zoo hypothesis’: The foreigners want to study us as we sometimes do with zoo animals, without the influence that their presence might have on us. Maybe they shy away from contact because we are not mature enough, or because an open encounter with ET might cause a worldwide panic, which could wipe out whole governments. Or the shock could result in social chaos, which could inhibit further development of our civilization. For this reason they would obviously want to wait until our knowledge and our cosmic understanding is advanced enough to cope with such a contact. If this is the case we would understand the foreigners and would also be able to deal with their technical superiority. But why do they occasionally let their flying objects whiz through our skies and even let them be photographed? This, the four scientists say, is to introduce us gradually to the existence of their presence. The slow disclosure of the mystery can therefore be seen as an educational programme. That is why they only choose small groups of people who are being shown phenomena that can not be explained by natural occurrences. When a car stops in the electromagnetic field of a UFO, as some UFO watchers report, this can not be explained away by the presence of a balloon or the landing lights of an aeroplane. In this way they let the eye-witnesses know that they are aware of our existence. The purposely small number of witnesses chosen makes sure that society at large is not alarmed. For the same reason they leave nothing behind which could be a clear indication of their existence. This cautious approach, the US physicists suppose, is an indication of the high ethical standard of the visitors. Maybe they observe a Galactic Law as far as contact with newly discovered civilizations are concerned. Possibly a whole network of different civilizations exists throughout the Milky Way, whose scouts by their halfheartedly clandestine visits wish to prepare us for the acceptance into the Galactic Club.

There is another possibility: Perhaps UFOs are unmanned ‘Von-Neumann-probes’, named after the Hungarian-born US physicist and computer pioneer John von Neumann. These are self-replicating space craft that can make exact copies of themselves. With their help mankind (or any other intelligence) could explore the Galaxy. Instead of sending a new probe to each discovered solar system, one could send a von-Neumann-probe to one system where it could make at least two copies of itself and send these on to other stars. Of course it would take a long time before the signals of these probes came back to earth, but with time the returned information would increase exponentially, increasing at the same time the knowledge about the Milky Way. As transmission of information is limited by the speed of light, a project of this kind has to be run over many generations. Possibly such probes sent out by faraway civilizations are whizzing through earth’s atmosphere right now and are forwarding their travel impressions to the dispatcher. If UFOs, however, are indeed manned space craft we are lucky that their occupants are amicable and wise and not hostile conquerers otherwise by now humans might not exist anymore and armies of intelligent locusts would be stalking across our earth, as depicted in certain films. Alternatively, ET could occupy the earth and could put mankind (or their sad remains) into reserves, as we did, and still do, with the inhabitants of conquered continents. The latter is not the only reason why it is still a long way before we can become worthy members of the Galactic Club.
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Translation from a text by M. Odenwald
Focus Online,
Germany: http://www.focus.de/wissen/wi​ssenschaft/odenwalds_universum/​odenwalds-universum_aid_67965.h​tml
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